Hockey Equipment 101-or why I really should listen to my gut.

Today, Isaac had a half day, due to grades 1-5’s parent conferences. Oh, fun. So, we miss a full day of resource and therapies…but I digress. I picked the small boy up a smidge early and took him to purchase his hockey skates, stick and other items. We ran our errands and then progressed onto attempting to purchase the skates. My first instinct was to go to Kemp’s. BUUUUUTTTT, since I had done something slightly stupid with Isaac’s adderol prescription (don’t ask. It’s a classic Laura maneuver. I’ll just leave it at that.), I decided that we should stop at Dick’s, since it was on the way.

 

Yeah. Bad idea. Superbad idea.

I walk in with Isaac, and find the way through the new store to the hockey department. There, we get a pair of skates, a roll of clear tape (for the socks) and a mouthguard. I didn’t think the skates were right-they seemed waaay too big, but I was told they would work. Heck! What do I know! I’m a first time hockey parent. They also didn’t have the hockey undies that he requires to play. The guy that was “helping” us didn’t even know that there were special protective underwear for hockey, and tried to sell us a run of the mill jock. No, no, no. How are we supposed to keep the socks up? seriously! The hockey specific ones have velcro on the bottom of them that you stick the socks to.

Then, we got some bad recommendations on the stick. They tried to sell us a STREET HOCKEY stick for an ice hockey game. Yikes! Plus, since all of the sticks were too long, I asked if they cut them to size for the player. He said we could do it ourselves. When I asked for measurement guidelines, he gave me a blank stare.

 

Not the right answer.

 

So, we were headed for Kemp’s. I purchased the wrong skates, inquired about the return policy and made sure that we could return them unworn, unsharpened if they turned out to be the wrong skate., which I was almost positive they were…but again, I didn’t know.

 

We get to Kemp’s, Doug laughing at me the whole way for the simple fact that 1) I knew where the hockey store was, and 2) he knew how this was all going to end up.

 

We meet up with a wonderful young man who we asked to help us fit Isaac properly for skates. Turns out he got his start in the youth hockey program where Isaac is starting! YIPEE!

He fitted Isaac properly for a pair of skates, thereby letting us know that the kind we bought were too flexible for Isaac and were also a full size too large!

 

Yeah. Great.

This meant we had to take the wrong skates back. Thank the good lord I asked about the return policy.

Stop laughing at me for not listening to my gut. I did enough yelling at myself the entire time we were driving back to Dick’s.

So, after purchasing the proper skates, stick (with pirate theme grip tape) and hockey undies, we made the trek back to the offending store. I walked in with the bag, and was greeted by the customer assistance person at the door. She asked me what was wrong with the purchase, and  I told her-

Wrong size and too flexible.

She looked at me funny and pointed me to the guy at the register.

 

So, the lesson here in all of this is that I should go with my first instinct and NOT with the one that comes when I’ve done something stupid and I’m trying to consolidate travel.

 

Man. Hockey is complicated!

 

The great backpack fiasco of 2009, the reprise!

Let me start this tale by saying that I hadn’t planned on this happening. Seriously. I hadn’t. But, Isaac demanded that I send applesauce in with him, in his Star Wars thermos, so I did. BUT, he didn’t close it all the way, and whammo. Applesauce all over the pack.

We did what any parent worth their salt would do. Empty the pack and toss it in the washing machine with the next load of wash, which happened to be towels. We’ve done this with all of our packs and bags, both REI, EMS and LL Bean. We have never, ever, ever had a pack come out of the wash looking like this:

Needless to say, I was NOT impressed with the LL Bean backpack that we had fought so hard to get. Knowing full well LL Bean has a satisfaction guarantee, and that we needed a backpack for the morning, I called the local store.

I had a nice chat with a kindly gentleman, who totally understood my predicament and really wanted to help me out…but they don’t carry the LL Bean Original Bookpack in the store. They only have them online.

Yes, I knew that.

So, I told him that I didn’t care if we got a deluxe bookpack or whatever, as long as we had SOMETHING that met the following criteria:
1) was red.
2) was large enough to hold snowpants, a lunch box and other assorted things in the winter.
3) was small enough for a kindergartener’s back.
4) Would last for a few years.

He told me he had two things in stock-
1) the deluxe bookpack.
2) the critter backpack, which has a shark on it.

Now, the only problem is that these two backpacks cost a bit more than the one I purchased. I was NOT willing to pay for the upgrade to the backpack. I wanted a straight out even exchange if I was going to be made to get a more expensive pack.

I explained this to the kindly gentleman on the phone who explained that he couldn’t do this without a manager’s approval.

I understand that. It’s at least at $10.00 difference!

Now, it’s here that some people would say that I’m being unreasonable. I don’t think I am after what we went through to GET the pack in the first place, and the fact that we had purchased it in July, never even took it out of the package until September and my child had only used it to and from school for not even 3 weeks. Also, to refresh memories, I was given lectures on how I was going to ruin my child’s bones by purchasing the pack that I did, even though I explained I knew how to load a backpack and would be sure to watch out for overloading…and how can you overload a kindergarten backpack? I even did my homework on ratings, age appropriateness and the like. So, I don’t feel I’m being unreasonable.

Back to the tale…

Kindly gentleman puts me on hold and comes back and lets me know that the manager had approved the even swap, due to our immediate need and extenuating circumstances. I tell the nice guy that I’ll be in to get the pack in about 30-45 minutes.

I hop in the car and head down to the mall and the LL Bean store. I walk in and take the pack to the register. Explain the whole story, tell them that there’s a critter pack waiting for me and that I just need to do the whole exchange.

Then, I see her. One of the lecture givers…and she said “Oh, is that the jr. backpack?”
I told her it wasn’t and got the eye roll…then, she accused me of putting the pack in the DRYER.

Umm..the pack was still wet from the washer! How could it have even come CLOSE to going through the dryer?

As I’m being rung out, the clerk notices that the critter pack was more expensive than the backpack I was returning. I explain what I was told on the p hone, and they bring back Ms. Lecture. She ok’s the even exchange and I go on my way…to deliver this:

To a waiting 5 year old, who was beyond happy that his new backpack was:
1) red
2) had a shark on it.

Now, can we please just get through the year without another fiasco that involves a backpack or a part of Isaac’s room?

 

The back to school roller coaster

There’s a lot going on around here. With school starting and the like, it’s been one heck of a ride the past few weeks.

When you have a special needs child that goes to kindergarten or even changes schools, it just becomes that extra bit of twitch factor that other parents don’t have. Add that to everything else, and you get a back to school roller coaster that just doesn’t slow down.

Personally, I’d like this coaster to pull into the station, but I know when it does, I’ll complain that life is boring again (especially here in E. Nowhere) and I’ll wish to be back on.

So, here’s the latest roller coaster set of moments.

Now that Broken Bed fiasco 2009 has ended with a successfully fixed bed, we can all laugh at the latest piece of delusion that came through my mailbox-
a card thanking us for our purchase.
No, not kidding.
a week of screaming, sobbing and being totally glad that the boys weren’t here so that the bed could get fixed in peace, and we get a postcard for a year old bed? What?
Whatever.
Will I patronize this store again? Most likely, at the location that gave us the most help. I, however, will not deal with the person who shares my name and her customer disservice.

Since coming back from the outlaws in Arizona, my darling shrimper has been nothing short of a pill. Massive pill. Rude, spoiled and entitled acting. That’s what happens when you hang with the outlaws too long. I spent the first week back retraining him that 1) being rude will get you nowhere but your room, with all priveleges revoked, like your television viewing, and 2) you may not have everything you see, control the agenda to your heart’s desire, or speak to me like I’m the hired help. Again, this will get you nowhere but your room, with no television.

And no, a 45 minute meltdown will STILL get you nowhere.

Charming, isn’t it?

Then, Shrimper thought it would be a good idea to explore the cabinets on the top of his wall. His room has built in cabinets, and these cabinets are almost at ceiling level. I get a call at work on my cell phone, and hear that he’s fallen off of the cabinets and hit his face. Yes, huge bruise and scrape on cheek and neck. Great way to show up to the first week of Kindergarten-bruises and scrapes. Joy.

And then, we had the biggest ride of all. The medication ride. Isaac’s ADHD meds are insanely expensive. Hardcore expensive. That’s even WITH insurance. So, we found a few coupons to cover at least one of the copays. That’s when the pharmaceutical companies began their rain on my labor day weekend. Our coupon was declined at the pharmacy, because we had used one, and it was one per person, per lifetime.

what? Really?

So, we come back, call the doctor and explain the situation. She comes back with a card that gives us 50% off of copays for 10 months.

Ok. we can get behind that.

so, I drive all the way down to the doc’s office, and then all the way back home so we can activate the card and get the meds, as we’re down to our last 2 pills and two pills and a bunch of days doesn’t add up around here, especially with kindergarten starting.

Let it be known that I disclosed what happened at the pharmacy to the doc’s office. They assured me that this would be just fine and work well.

Yeah, it didn’t work. So, I spent a better portion of two hours dealing with Shire pharmaceuticals and their idiot staff. Here’s how it all broke down…

First step-talk to customer service and explain the situation. Get an extremely rude rep, who makes sure that she lets me know that this is totally my fault, and that the doctor could NOT have told me that this card would work.
Finally, I get her to give me the number to patient assistance, and I thank her for her unhelpfulness.

Second step-Call the number that witch 1 gave me. Get understanding person who unfortunately confirms rude witch’s stuff, but hears me out and issues us a “second use” card for the price of the perscription. She informed us that the card wouldn’t get here until Friday. I also explain to her that the cost is prohibitive to us, even though we have insurance. She puts me through to patient assistance, where….

I get the most sarcastic, obnoxious rep ever. I explain the situation, explain the whole thing and he starts to get sarcastic with me. He tells me I have to fill out an application, and me, knowing that we’re almost down to our last pill for the shrimp, says “I don’t want to be filling out 80 yards of paperwork just to be denied.”

Jerk says: “well, if you mean one page equals 80 yards, than yeah, you’ll be filling out 80 yards of paperwork.” and then he laughed.

I broke into tears and told him he wasn’t funny.

THEN he had the nerve to tell me that this process could take at least 2 months, because since we had insurance, we’d be automatically denied, and we’d have to appeal.

Really? Automatic denial? What the…

So, since we can’t wait 30 days, I ask if he is the final word, because he’s refusing to do anything. He tells me that even his supervisor won’t do anything for me.

This is where I finally lost it. I told him the following:
“Too bad. Stuff gets overridden every day. You don’t say another word to me and I want your supervisor now.”

I get the supervisor and she almost gets her head taken off with the following statement:

“well, if you had called yesterday, you wouldn’t be in this situation! This is almost 7 pm on a holiday weekend…”

Everyone knows how well that line goes over with me.

Let’s review here…this medication is a SCHEDULE 2 CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE. This means you MAY NOT get it any sort of early. So, like the bed fiasco, how were we supposed to know that this was going to happen?

I very politely took her head off reminding her of this fact. I told her that because of the nature of the drug and their lack of any sort of urgency in this situation, that my child is being made to suffer. She then put me on hold.

She came back and they’re supposedly fed exing the card to me by tomorrow (tuesday). Should be interesting.

Meanwhile, we had our “booster pills” here, and we’ve been giving them to him, and we’ve kind of noticed something…

Shrimper’s disposition has changed drastically. We’d been dealing with the “whine monster” and wondering if it was just stress from changing schools, ect, or if it was the meds. With a 5 year old, it’s hard to tell.

So, Shire may have f’d up in our favor…letting us know that we had a side effect that we just chalked up to something else.

I’ll be on the phone with the neurologist’s office on Tuesday.

Then, the last piece is that of meet the teachers/aides/therapists. I’ve been trying to get answers out of the school all summer as to meeting Isaac’s aide and having him meet the teachers, ect. AND the biggest question-who is doing resource room for him. This is just what happens with a special needs kid. I’m still at the top of the hill on this wild ride with this one, so hopefully, these are only mini hills that will end on Tuesday morning.

 

The broken bed escapade-Let’s just escalate this one up the chain.

After the snippy conversation with the woman who shares my name, and her unwillingness to do anything for me…and the wonderful manager at the store branch who got Isaac off the floor, I decided to call the next day and see what I could accomplish by contacting that awful woman’s supervisor.

So, Against my better judgement and with witnesses…that’s important. I needed witnesses! I called the furniture store again. Asked for the woman who share’s my name’s supervisor.

Got her.

Told her the entire story-top to bottom. When I told her the part about the bed collapsing with my darling 5 year old ON it, I heard her jaw hit her desk. She asked the question that the evil one didn’t ask-was Isaac ok?

Yes, he’s fine. But the bed…not so much.

 

I explained the conversation with James, the one with the evil woman who she supervises and how wonderful the store manager got Isaac off of the floor with a bunky board and a metal frame. I told her I knew, knew, knew that they needed someone to look at the bed, and that would be just fine with me. I just needed to schedule it. I gave her my best days and times,and said if it had to be the following week, that was ok too. He’s got a bed. This can hold for a smidge if it needs to.

 

So, the supervisor gets her tech to call us and he’s coming on Monday. I’m all for it. He wanted to come at 7:30 am on Thursday, but umm. No. Not getting out of bed that early for a furniture tech. Nope. Nope, Nope.

 

So, another step away from the EECB that I am carefully crafting and doccumenting things for. Both the supervisor AND store manager are in safe mode right now.

 

Wonder how far I’m going to have to escalate this…

 

Customer service = Epic Fail.

Since the bed fiasco of last night,  I had to deal with the “Customer Care Coordinator” of this specific furniture company.  Which furniture company you ask? I’m not telling right now. The only thing that’s saving me from naming this company publicly is the fact that the store manager of the store I contacted last night is on my side in this disaster. This is extremely important. Remember that.

So, this morning,  I make a call to the customer service desk as soon as their machine would let me. I get attitude from the initial person who I spoke to. She said “I called both numbers you gave me. You didn’t get my message?”

Umm..I forgot my cell phone. Whoopsie. Happens.

I attempted to explain the situation and told her that we were looking for a replacement for this bed that so epically failed last night. The bed was unusable, and was currently in pieces in our hallway. Isaac is currently sleeping on the floor with his mattress. (the kid is still as odd as fish. He thinks it’s great. Wacky kid) She then said her technician would be out to the house between 2 and 4 pm. Oh, not so good. Working until 3:30. No one there to meet technician to see unsalvagable bed.

This is where the failure begins to become epic. Hardcore epic.

The Customer care manager begins to argue with me over the timing of the technician coming to see the unsalvagable bed. She gets nastier and nastier with me, each time I tell her that this is just not working for me. She even went so far as to ask if I could call someone to see if they could meet the tech at the house and let him in for her. No. sorry. Not happening.

So, since I was working for some friends of mine, I had very limited phone access. Cripes. It’s a cafe. I called her when I could. She was quite irritated by that. She really expects me to call when I’m up to my elbows in salads or sandwiches? Yeah, no. I called her back, and she said the tech wanted to be there at 2:30. I very politely told her that 3:30 was the absolute earliest we could do it, and that was even pushing it, as I had to get home from where I was working. Without traffic, that takes a good 20-30 minutes. With traffic, all bets were off.

This was when she got nasty with me. She argued that since the bed was out of warranty, there would be additional costs.

Umm, excuse me? A product that falls apart? No, I’m not paying for anything extra here.

She then informed me, very snippily, that she was going to charge me for the tech’s time, labor and any associated costs with the visit. If the bed was in irreparable shape, we would be purchasing some sort of new bed. Any sort of replacement was “Out of the question.”  Even a metal frame and something to put the mattress on was out of the question, because she said “you will be required to purchase a box spring and metal frame”, although the store manager at the one store said….wait. we’ll get there in a minute.

The biggest line here was “Look, Laura, I’m TRYING to HELP you.”

Yeah, no, you’re not. My 5 year old nearly falls through a bed that’s failing, horridly, and now he’s sleeping on the floor, and you’re trying to help me by refusing to accomodate my work schedule and then have the nerve to tell me that I’m going to have to pay for this tech visit…and you’re helping me HOW??

So, I end the conversation, because if I didn’t, I would have lost my job (Ok, no I wouldn’t have, but the things I was about to say were NSFW.) and finished my day in a slightly foul mood.

I get home and start playing back the messages.

Holy Crap. There’s one from the manager of the store I contacted last night…Mike, saying that he really didn’t want Isaac sleeping on the floor tonight, so he had the frame and board that we discussed all ready to go, and when the tech came, he could bring it out.

WELL, since we cancelled the tech, I gave him a ring at his store. Near tears, I recounted the day’s events with the Customer care coordinator, who unfortunately, shares her first name with me. I even told him how she demanded I pay for the metal frame and anything associated with it. He refused to hear any of it and was appalled by her behavior, telling me that he would go to HER boss if need be.

did I mention I like this guy? Did I also mention he’s the only one saving this company from an executive email carpet bomb?

So, Mike lets me know that the frame and the board (because we don’t have a box spring for Isaac, due to the fact this was a platform bed) are at the store closest to me, and we can pick it up before 7 tonight. Ok. cool beans. He also let me know that I would NOT have to pay for the technician to come out and look at the epic fail of a bed that is now sitting in pieces in my hallway. He also said multiple times that he is going to make it right with us for this whole disaster, and that he would reiterate to the woman who shares my name at the customer service center what the lifetime service guarantee is and that it means NOT to charge for a technician visit.

We’ll see where we go from here. I’m not too keen on talking to her again…but whatever. We’ll see. We’ll see.

 

If this happened earlier, I would have called earlier!

For a while now, we’ve been having trouble with Isaac’s bed. We’ve been noticing that things that should not be coming loose under normal wear and tear are really becoming a hazard. We were planning on calling the furniture store while the boys were in Arizona because if something needed some time to be replaced, we’d have that without Isaac being out of a bed.

You know what they say about the best laid plans….

Yesterday, we noticed that the bolts on the one side of the bed were coming loose, to the point where we could see exposed metal from the bolts. We also noticed that the other 3 sides of the bed were starting to come apart-from stripped bolt holder holes or the bolt holders themselves. About 5 minutes later, we heard a scream come from Isaac. We went in to find the side of the bed had collapsed, and it was hanging there. Doug went in, used some wood glue, and put the thing back together again, praying that the stripped bolt holders would hold out until the next day, when we could make a controlled call to the furniture store and start the process.

We go through the evening routine and get Isaac into bed with strict orders not to do anything but lay in his bed, because we’re working on fixing it. 15 minutes later, he comes out of his room, and we see that the same spot we had fixed earlier had just fallen apart again. At this point, it’s 7:45 in the evening, and I pick up the phone and call one branch of the store. Even though it is well within their hours, no one is picking up their phone at all. I’m not happy. Doug is in Isaac’s room having tizzy fits because the fixes aren’t holding, and Isaac is out in the living room with me, playing cars.

So,  call the other branch of the store and get  James on the phone. I attempt to explain the situation and the gravity of said situation-a 5 year old with a dangerous bed and the fact that this bed is just over a year old. THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING…plus, a 5 year old can’t strip bolts, or holes, especially on all 4 sides of a bed! James just doesn’t want to hear any of it. He keeps going on and on asking inane questions, after I explain to him that this was purchased by the Outlaws in Arizona, and I don’t know what they used, or even what name he put it under. I also explained to him that I figured our address would be in there, because the bed was delivered to us, so our name and phone number would probably be in there. Then, he asked me for a receipt number. Umm, didn’t I just explain to you that this was a gift?

He then tells me that I’ll have to wait two weeks for service on this bed.

How about NO.

I told him that he could just override that and we’d get something faster, as this was a safety issue and the only bed that my 5 year old had.

He then said this:

“Miss, it’s 8:00. If you had called earlier, maybe I could have done something, but since you waited too long to call…”

That’s when I lost it. Seriously lost it.

I said to him in a manner as controlled as I could be at the time-

“I need to speak to your manager. Now.”

He came out with this…

“I’m one of the managers.”

oh, holy hell.

So, I ask him for the store general manager, his supervisor, because he is not understanding the gravity of the situation here…

He refuses to get said manager and I tell him I’ll be on the phone with customer service in the morning. I hang up before I take the guy’s head off.

Then, I hear it. The scream of frustration and storming out of Isaac’s room…the bed had completely fallen apart-one of the platform slats had snapped as well. All 4 sides were collapsing, and there was no way in hades that this thing was even going to make it through the night.

So, I grab the phone again, call the store and say the following…

“I just called regarding my son’s bed that is broken, and now the situation has escalated to the point where the bed has just fallen apart and is unfixable. I need to speak to someone now regarding this matter.”

I get the general manager of the store on the phone with me and I, as calmly as I could, explain the situation, and the idiot who I spoke to earlier. I told him about the line about the timing of my call, and if this had happened earlier in the day, we’d have called earlier, but this happened NOW!

To his credit, this guy understood. He really got it. He understood how upset we were and the fact that we have this 5 year old who can’t sleep on the bed like this. He reiterated to me that the customer service department closes at 4 pm for the day and that they wouldn’t be in until the next morning. Lovely. Banker’s hours. Bah.

BUT, what he would do is fire off an email to the head of customer service as soon as we got off the phone with all of the details, as well as CC the other store general manager on this, so I could speak to either one of them and not have to explain the story another million times. He also said that if we couldn’t get anyone out tomorrow, to get Isaac off of the floor with his mattress, he’d send a frame and a board until we could get the whole thing resolved. He also had me describe, in detail my conversation with the first gentleman, and promised me that since that was in his control, he could totally take care of it. He even agreed with me that there was no way I could have called earlier, as the failure happened when I called. I couldn’t have predicted that the bed was going to fail. He even agreed with me that the bed, even under the worst of conditions, should have not failed in one year. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

So,this morning, I’ll be on the phone with the customer service person and then back on the phone with the store to get something for Isaac to sleep on besides the mattress on the floor.

But to prove my child is as odd as they come…

When we told him he would be sleeping on the mattress on the floor, just like he did when we were camping, he said to us…

“Can we put up a tent? This is FUN!”

See? Odd as anything. He had a blast sleeping on the floor.

 

Stupid Aetna.

With the ‘bux, we had Aetna insurance. When I was let go, my insurance stopped. Normal procedure here. Not complaining about that. The one item we needed to jump on Doug’s insurance was what’s called a “certificate of coverage,” proving that we were all covered under my insurance and then lost it. 

Since my insurance ended 3/31, you’d figure that we’d have that doccument in our hands, oh, by the end of the first full week in April. Yeah, right. No such luck. So, since we’ve all got appointments coming up, and we know we can get the insurance, I made a phone call on Wednesday to Aetna to see where this stupid certificate was. 

Here is where my horrid luck kicks in. 

 

I get on the phone with Aetna, and they still have me active! What? Really? So, since they still have me as active, they can’t generate what I need. Ok, I can see that. So, they have me call partner services. I get on the phone with them and explain the situation. They tell me it can take up to 3 weeks to get this letter. So, since I’m not happy with this, I buck it to a supervisor who does a manual edit and tells me that she’ll call me when it gets updated at the Aetna level, and that’s all she can do, because from there, it’s Aetna’s issue. 

Ok. Fine. I can see that. She’s at least doing something….

Well, yesterday, I get the call from Partner Services that Aetna has updated their system and she conferences me in with Aetna. I could tell this was NOT going to be pretty by the tone of the CSR’s voice. His name was Melvin. Yes, I’m calling him out here, because he’s a jerk, and refused to do his job. So there. 

 

I explain the situation to Melvin, and how I need this certificate post haste, and the first thing he does is get snotty with me! He says “Well, since you have access to the secure server, and it was done on the 31st, it should BE there.” I politely explain that it hadn’t gone through, and I had checked the server,and since it was a manual update, it wasn’t there yet. He asks me, snippily, if I can hold. I told him not too long, as I had to go get my son. (I had Isaac at day care for the morning, and had to get him before the 5 hour mark was up…or I’d get charged extra….don’t want extra charges!!) So, he comes back and says, attitude intact, that it can take 10-14 days to get up on the site, because it hasn’t been generated yet, and HOPEFULLY, they can get it sooner.

 

This is where I started to lose it. Just for the record, I kept my cool as long as I possibly could.

 

I told Melvin that this was unacceptable and that something needed to be done now, as we were attempting to get coverage under another health plan. We had done what WE needed to do, and that Aetna was holding up the works.

 

Melvin continued to stall and when I told him that something HAD to be done and I had to have this in my hand by Monday, he said this: “You best watch your tone with me.”

 

Then, I fully lost it. I told him that I wanted his supervisor now, and that he was not to talk to me any further, except to say yes, I’ll get my supervisor.

So, the jerk puts me on hold. He comes back 5 minutes later, saying that his supervisor is busy and that I could have their voicemail if I wanted.

No, I want the human. So, I told him that voicemail was unacceptable, and that I wanted a human now. This is not an option, as this matter needed some attention, and he was refusing to do anything to help me. The jerk put me on hold for 20 minutes. Yes, 20 minutes, than disconnected me.

So, I went and got Isaac.

Then, I came back and while Doug took the small fry outside, I called Aetna back. I get on the phone with another CSR, Jill, and explain the situation, and Melvin’s appaling behavior.  In the span of the 5 minutes I was on the phone with Jill, she was able to generate the paperwork I needed from her computer, EMAIL IT TO ME and wait while I checked my email and printed it to make sure it worked. She was also able to lodge a complaint about Melvin and his lack of service, and the supervisor that he didn’t get/wouldn’t come to the phone. 

Needless to say, even with the huge headache I had after dealing with Aetna, I have what I need and we can have all of the paperwork into Doug’s HR by Monday morning. 

 

This should NOT have been this big of a debacle. Seriously. But then again…

 

iPod games, or why the Mac Geniuses earn that title.

I’ve got this iPod-it’s a purple Nano. It’s all 16 gigs of wonder for me. It keeps me sane at work (in the lab when it’s just too quiet) and makes my drive to work really quite nice lately.

So, imagine my horror, when my poor iPod got a surprise bath in a cup of water…and promptly turned off. I was beside myself, as my day had just kind of been icky to that point…but this put me over the edge. I sobbed all the way to the bux, because I didn’t have my little, purple pod.

So, after I got home from a rotten shift…it was one of those days…I called Apple. I got hung up on several times, so I decided to call the store. We went through all sorts of troubleshooting and couldn’t get my ipod to boot up. It was a sad moment in Chez E. Nowhere.

I got on line and made an appointment with the Mac Geniuses for the next day, praying that my pod would boot up on its own and be JUST fine.  I also made it for one of the first appointments of the day, because who knows what that evil mall will be like anywhere later in the day.

I get there, and wander in. There are 3 people ahead of me-and some people were just being straight up stupid. You could tell that there was no troubleshooting done before they made their appointment with the Mac Geniuses. There were a lot of “oh, I didn’t realize that…” moments.

So, my turn comes up, and I get a Mac Genius with a shirt that said “If I was a reindeer, I’d be Fixin.” She introduces herself to me and then I give her my purple pod. I explain the entire story, about how it will only boot up and work while it’s connected to my computer and how I’m very sad about the entire thing.

So, she hooks it up to a mac there, reformats it (for the 2nd time in 2 days…) and gets it to turn on, work and even shows me that teh battery is full! Woohoo!

The only downswing of this fix is that I had to re-import all of my music.  Even that wasn’t a big deal, as I had everything already organized into playlists.

 

But seriously-you can’t beat Mac service-for the pod or the ‘puters.

So, of course, I can’t go anywhere without finding the hilarity of the world on full display.

Here’s what happened….

I was standing there waiting for my turn, oogling the neato docking stations and the skins for the Nan0.  This woman storms in, trailed by her 2 kids. She obviously is in a HUGELY terrible mood. The store was pretty busy, but the Mac Geniuses were moving at a good speed and were in all sorts of good moods.

Well, she asks me if I was in line for the Mac Geniuses. I asked her if she had made an appointment-and before I could point her to the girl int he orange shirt (who is the concierge), she yells: “I don’t have time for this crap. I don’t make appointments! I’m leaving!”

Ohhhhkkkaaaaayyyyy…

So, I look at the person behind me, because he’s laughing like an idiot at this woman. He looked at me and said “I guess she thinks she’s more important than the rest of us who made appointments.”

 

Amen.  Totally Amen.

 

Midas-Now, I want my money back. Seriously.

On Friday, I was driving to get Isaac in the almost white-out conditions that the first GOOD blizzard of the year provided. (Did I mention I hate snow? Did I? Oh, but I digress.) When the same thing happened to the driver’s side wiper that happened to the passenger side wiper.

Yep. NOT kidding. So, I’m driving in this horrid snow, with only the passenger side wiper working, and the driver’s side wanting to work, but not working. So, after I do all of the freaking out, I realize there’s a Midas on the way to Isaac’s school, not too far away. So, I pull my car in there and tell them the whole story. I also tell them that any charges that this repair incurs will be billed to the original Midas that completed the work. The manager looked pretty flabbergasted when I said that. I repeated myself for clarity. I wanted him to know I wasn’t kidding.

Yet again, it was another bolt that had come loose. I was again accused of cleaning my windshield improperly. Umm…the stuff was freezing on contact.  It was driving snow. OF COURSE there would be stuff under the wipers. It’s not my fault that they didn’t tighten the wipers enough to withstand a snowstorm.

So, I called the Midas that did the initial work. I told them I was NOT happy and they would be hearing from me about getting at least a portion of my money back. There were no words on the other end.

I am QUITE done with Midas. They will never, ever touch my car again. I am beyond through with the patronizing and the stuff that they’ve fixed breaking the first few times they are used.

So, this week, when I am calm enough to write this letter, it will be drafted and fired off to them.  I at least want the labor portion back. They obviously didn’t do a proper job. I’ll pay for the part, but NOT the labor. And also, I think I may also throw in that I’m sick of being treated like I’m stupid.

I hate Midas.

 

Wiper games, or Why Midas can stick it where the sun don’t shine!

Remember the rental car debacle?

Yep. It gets better…

 

So, let’s start with the backstory and how I ended up at Midas and got into this whole mess in the first place.

To review:

During worst rainstorm of the year, my wipers went. I was driving with the windsheild like I was under water. I limped my poor Adventuremobile to the nearest repair shop, which happened to be Midas. I told them what the deal was and they took a look at it. They found the wiper transmission cracked and in need of repair. Saturns don’t break cheap, people. So, this hit me to the tune of 400.00.

So, the first thing that went down was on the day I was promised my car, I called and they said it would be ready around noon. I said I’d be there around 3:30, because that was right after I got off of work. They said fine.

Well, I get a message that oh, now the wiper MOTOR that was working in perfect order when I dropped the car off has gone dead…and they want another 275.00 to fix that too. If I didn’t pay that, I only had high wipers and not low or intermittent.

 

Yeah.

 

No, stop touching my car NOW. Right stinkin now.

So, I get there and the manager tells me that I’ll be happy because he rebuilt my wiper motor, because there was a diode burnt out.

 

HRM. Let’s see. Let’s all guess who we think did this….

 

Could it be..perhaps…

MIDAS screwing with the wipers and burning that diode themselves?

Oh, and did I mention my car was RUNNING when I got there because they had killed my battery screwballing with the wipers?
Yeah. Smart folks. Seriously.

So, during the ice storm, after chipping an inch and a half of ice off of my windshield upon leaving the ‘Bux, I tried to turn on my wipers.

Lo and behold…the passenger side one bit the dust. Yep. It wanted to move and wanted to move…but didn’t. At one point it went halfway…and then puked out again. Thank goodness it was the passenger side.

 

Do you know how dorky you look with ONE wiper working? Seriously. As if I’m not dorky enough…

 

but so, when the hoohah from the storm died down enough that it was safe to deal wtih the wiper without worrying about power, ect (and we know how that went…but I digress again.) I ran my car up to Midas. My feeling-they fixed it wrong the first time, they’ll fix it right.

 

Oh, and I made a call the day prior because I wanted tehm to know I was coming in and I was NOT paying for any repairs that they needed to make for this car at all related to the wipers. Sorry-I just didn’t shell out 400.00 to them for the work to break in 30 seconds. Seriously.

 

So, I bring it in

and wait.

 

and wait

 

and wait.

and wait some more.

 

So, finally after an extended wait time, dude comes out and asks me to look…and tells me there were bolts loose.

 

Then he insults me by saying:
“You know, you have to scrape your windsheild before you turn on your wipers, or a bolt will come loose.”

 

It was all I could do not to slap this guy. I politely explained that I scraped all of the ice off my windsheild before I turned on my wipers…and this was the first time that I had used them since the fix.

 

what, am I some stupid idiot girl? Seriously.

 

First they burn out my wiper motor and try to tell me it was part of the initial problem that they so convieniently couldn’t find when they tested the system.
Second, they lie to me  about the price of the rental car. Yeah..they told me that it would be 9 .00/day for the car. NOT what I paid…but we’ve been through this. So, we won’t go there again.

 

Third, they accuse me of being a stupid girl and breaking my own wipers, when according to all mechanics worth their salt, they screwed it up.

 

So, Midas can take it and stick it. They’re not touching my car again. Ever.