The Dryer (Part 1)
My dryer has been giving me trouble for a few years. It made a rumbling sound every time I used it. But it worked fine. It was just noisy.
Recently, it started eating my clothes. Every bra got stuck, and the clasps are all damaged. Then it started eating the strings from my hoodie. The dryer stopped several times because something was stuck. Once, it was the string from my Ravens hoodie. It ripped the grommet right out of the fabric, and the string was wound up into a crinkled, twisted knot. I had to cut the string to get it out. And there was a large hole where the grommet had been.
The next week, something else got stuck, another hoodie string! This time, my Outer Banks hoodie was the victim. Then came the swan song, my ratty old purple hoodie got stuck. The string was hanging out of the back, and I couldn’t get it out. The part of the dyer that rotates seemed off-kilter. It didn’t look right inside. I was never able to get the string out, and the dryer wouldn’t work anymore.
I had a shiny new Lowe’s credit card that I got to buy a refrigerator. By the time I got the card (over two weeks later), I found another way to pay for it. Living without a refrigerator is tough. The Lowe’s card has been sitting in a drawer for over a year, unused.
My Nemesis
Several years earlier, Lowe’s became my nemesis over my attempts to get a new wall oven. My oven stopped working over 20 years earlier, and I made do with a crock pot and a countertop convection oven.
First, Lowe’s delivered an oven that was damaged. The delivery guy absolutely knew it was damaged. They always take the cardboard off in the truck so they don’t have to carry it back when they leave. It came into the house with the cardboard on it with tape all over it.
The installer came days later. I had the new oven sitting in the middle of my kitchen floor. The installer dumped out everything in my cabinet over the oven and under the oven onto the floor. First, a new T-fal pot was dented, and a slice was ripped into the very old vinyl floor. And second, my mom’s 9 X 13 Pyrex dish was chipped, so I had to throw it out. She died in 1988, and the pan cannot be replaced. I loved that glass pan. There were a lot of memories tied to it.
The damaged oven sat in the middle of my kitchen for a week and finally was removed. A new oven was delivered a month later to the center of the kitchen floor again. This time, I cleared out the cabinets ahead of the installation.
The next installer
Eventually, a different installer came and pulled out my old oven. He took a look inside. “I can’t install this.”
Furiously, I replied, “What!?”
“I can’t get to where the gas is.”
“How is that possible?” I asked, a little too loudly.
“Can’t do it.”
He and his helper shoved my non-working old oven back into the wall and left. Luckily, I was able to return it.
It took me another year before I had a working oven.
Back to the present…
I found the dryer I wanted to buy. It is the exact same Amana model I have, but a newer version. It looks identical. Fine, I put it on the Lowe’s card. It would be delivered in just two days. Perfect.
The next day, I got a text asking if I wanted to have my old dryer removed. I thought I had already paid $50 to have it removed. I said yes. Apparently, I wasn’t charged for that, but they added it on.
My brother said that the great thing about Lowe’s is free installation. Wrong. It’s a gas dryer, so it needs a plumber.
They told me to call Roto-Rooter (another mistake). I made arrangements to have the new dryer installed after it was delivered.
The delivery
The delivery guys came with the new dryer. They looked at the old one, “This is a gas dryer,” one of them said.
“Yep.”
“This is a problem.”
Shit.
There’s always a problem
He went outside and talked to the other guy. He came back in, and as usual, they always want to show you something. And it’s never good.
“Look,” said the delivery guy. “We can install this for you. My partner knows how to do it. How much is Roto-Rooter charging? We’ll charge you half.”
“Is he a licensed plumber?” I asked, already knowing the answer. “I once had someone who wasn’t a plumber install a dryer here, and I ended up with a gas leak that could have exploded my house.”
“That won’t happen. He knows what he’s doing,” the delivery guy replied.
“Just bring in the new dryer,” I repeated multiple times.
“I can’t take the old dryer,” was his retort.
“But I paid to have it removed,” I whined.
“We’re not licensed plumbers,” he snapped.
“Just bring in the new dryer,” I begged.
“Where do you want it?” He wanted to leave it in the upstairs foyer.
“I want it downstairs where it belongs.” At this point, I was losing my temper. The guy was big. We were in my small basement. I started to feel intimidated. The delivery guy was about 6′ 4″, and we were both getting angry.
Customer service?
I don’t let people push me around. I’m used to it. Every service person either thinks I don’t know what I’m talking about, or they try to bully me into buying more than I need. This is what happens to single women all of the time.
They put the new dryer in a place blocking the old dryer. I had to climb around the new dryer like a monkey, move it and then the old dryer could be removed.
Contacting Lowe’s
Immediately, I tried to contact Lowe’s because I was furious. This guy bullied me, and I didn’t like it or his attitude. I’m not paying some delivery guy to do a job with my gas line. That’s unsafe. I learned from that old experience. Get a pro.
I didn’t realize I could just call the local Lowe’s store. Instead, I had to use the online chatbot. I told them my problem and needed to speak to a human. Next, I was put in a queue and was 54th in line! The queue moved faster than I thought it would, but it still took over half an hour before someone was available. Then it took forever to get an answer. He was obviously talking to multiple people.
I told him that I felt intimidated by the deliveryman. Here’s the response I got:
“Thank you for providing those details, and I sincerely apologize for the experience you had during your delivery today. I completely understand why you’re upset. Based on what you’ve described, not only was the haul-away service you paid for not completed, but the interaction with the delivery team left you feeling pressured and uncomfortable. That is not the level of service we expect our customers to receive, and I am very sorry for the frustration this has caused.”
At this point, I felt like he didn’t take me seriously and was just patronizing me. They are always sorry, but they never do anything about it.
We rescheduled the removal for after the plumber installed the new dryer. He couldn’t give me a specific day, but they would come after I had the new dryer installed.
New delivery men
Nope, they came first thing in the morning and again could not remove the old dryer. This delivery guy told me he could disconnect the gas if I didn’t tell anyone. At this point, I knew the plumber was coming soon (it was 8 a.m., and the plumber was due between 8-10 a.m.). I said, “Go ahead.” No asking for money this time. Just offering to help.
But the switch was too hard to move. He couldn’t do it. “Fine. Thanks for trying,” I said.
“You can call me on my cellphone if you get the installation today, and we’ll come back.” That’s the kind of person who should be doing deliveries! Not a surly film-flam artist trying to bilk me out of money.
I figured the plumber would be there any minute because it was already after 8 a.m. Boy, was I wrong.
The plumber
Right about 9:45 a.m., I got a text from Roto-Rooter saying my plumber was delayed. Understandable. Sometimes things don’t go as planned. You don’t have to tell me that! Nothing has gone to plan so far.
At 11:37 a.m., I got another text. My plumber will be arriving in 30-45 minutes. Okay. At 1:20 p.m., well after 45 minutes, I called Roto-Rooter. I was put on hold while I assumed they called the plumber. After 10 minutes on hold, the woman came back and said, “He’s four minutes away.” Sure…
At 1:31 p.m., I got a call from the plumber. “I’m here, but I’m not sure I’m at the correct address. Look outside. Do you see my van?”
“Nope. My street is only one block long. You are not on my street,” I told him.
His English wasn’t great, but it was pretty decent, so I thought I understood what he was saying. He was at a McDonald’s. I live in a neighborhood of houses. No businesses around. Also, no McDonald’s. “How about… (he said some other business name I didn’t catch)?” He seemed confused.
I said he was not on my street, and there was no McDonald’s anywhere nearby. Maybe three to four miles away.
He asked me to text him my address. I did. Then, he texted back that he was 30 minutes away. Basically, his Roto-Rooter GPS took him all the way across town from me.
The plumber finally arrived
He finally pulled up at my house and then told me the installation would be $468, almost as much as the dryer itself! And that’s just labor. Of course, they didn’t send the parts needed for the installation (that were included in the price).
My hands were shaking, and I was so angry. If I had another credit card to use, I would have gone to Costco, where I’ve heard buying appliances is a breeze. All costs are included in the price, and there are no surprises like the one that almost made me faint today.
The plumber is down in the basement right now. He’s quietly working. I told him I’d help him move the dryers around if he needed me to do that. He laughed. He’s not such a big guy. I was serious. I’ll see how it goes. Then I will have to call to have the old dryer removed.
Just another day in the asylum.
To be continued…
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Read more by Holli Friedland.