The Saga of the Washer and Dryer
OMG - if I never have to buy a washer and dryer again, I will die a happy woman. Almost the entire process was a nightmare.
We found a washer and dryer that we wanted, and that would fit into our hall closet, stacked, without any problems. OR SO WE THOUGHT.
After talking it through with the extremely helpful Home Depot staff, who we even talked into giving us a discount (since they had raised the prices on us!), we decided to go for it. We got all the requisite paperwork, including rebate forms, and went over everything that we would need to send in, and where to call if we had any delivery issues. We also confirmed that it would be no problem to convert our dryer from a rear-vent to a side-vent, something we had to do, since our closet isn't deep enough to accommodate a rear-vent.
Keep in mind that we had confirmed this process with Home Depot before deciding to buy the dryer.
So then we scheduled a date to have the washer and dryer delivered. We went with Thursday, March 22nd, because it would give us plenty of time to prepare the closet, and also give us a day (Friday) before we left to do laundry before our trip.
So fine. Everything is settled and we're happy.
Fast forward a week, to March 22nd.
I work at home, which allows me to greet all deliveries and generally take care of home renovation stuff during the day. That day, in the morning, I get a call from the delivery people that they had a guy quit that morning, so they would be running late -- but not to worry, everything would get delivered by the late afternoon. Ok, no problem.
Fast forward to the afternoon, around 4pm. I get a call from the guy in the truck, saying he's on his way over, and will be there within half an hour. Ok, great.
So, I'm in my office, the window for which faces the street. Everytime I hear a vehicle go by, I look out the window to see if it's a delivery truck. But I don't. I see a Lowe's delivery truck, several cars and trucks, and a Penske moving truck. But no delivery guy. 5pm? No delivery guy. 7pm? No delivery guy. Evan gets home around 7:30, and still no delivery guy.
By this time, the call center for the delivery service has closed, so we can't call them. So Evan calls the cell phone number on my caller ID that belongs to the delivery guy. He picks up, Evan asks what happened to him -- and he replies, "uh, we don't have your name on today's delivery schedule." What?! But he promises to call back if he finds anything out. Which he never does (and he also doesn't pick up the phone when we try to call him back).
So, we're a little pissed, and confused as to why we were called about the delivery, but it never happened.
The next day, we call the call center. And they tell us, "oh, a delivery was attempted." And sure enough, they have a description of our house. So, we're livid, because nobody ever pulled up in front of our house, walked through our gate (which would've caused Copper to start barking), and knocked on our door. We keep telling the call center, that's not possible, we were home, and absolutely nobody attempted a delivery of anything to our house.
Finally, finally, they agree to give us the local number for the delivery service. So we call them, and they tell us the same thing, and we tell them the same things right back. And then the guy drops some key information about the delivery vehicle being a Penske truck. Which, if you remember from earlier, I saw drive by our house. And drive past our house. And never once stop in front of our house. And leave our road altogether, without stopping. So I gasp, and tell the guy exactly what I saw. And he responds that I clearly saw the truck, so I knew a delivery was attempted -- to which I replied, um, NO, a random Penske truck, with no other markings identifying it as a delivery company, does not tell me that that was my delivery guy. What was I supposed to do, run outside and throw myself in front of every truck that passed by, in hopes that they were carrying my washer and dryer? C'mon now.
So, finally, finally, they come around and see our point. The delivery guy drove past our house without attempting a delivery, and told his bosses that he did. But I had eyewitness testimony to back up my side of the story. So they agreed to figure out a way to get it to us that afternoon.
(They had wanted to reschedule the delivery for the following week -- we told them, um, NO, we'll be in Africa. That's why we scheduled it for this week.)
So, that settled, I waited all day for the call that they were on their way, which finally came around 5:30pm. The day before we had to leave for vacation. The delivery guys show up -- and actually STOP in front of our house this time. They unwrap the washer, and bring it in. No problem. They unwrap the dryer. Ummmm - BIG DENT ON THE DOOR.
I just start laughing. At that point, what else could I do?
So I signed a form for them to take the dryer back, and scheduled for them to come back the next week, on a day that Evan's mom would be at our house, Copper-sitting.
They hook the washer up, and it works great. But we have no dryer, so it's useless to try to wash any laundry.
The washer, all hooked up.
After Evan comes home from work (late, thanks to our pro bono case... grrr...), we go through all of our laundry to determine what we need to take with us to Morocco. We throw it in a bag, jump in the car, and drive to Evan's co-worker's house in the University District well across town. Having heard our saga, she volunteered her washer and dryer to us. We got there late -- around 10pm -- ate some delicious pizza and had a few stiff drinks, did our laundry, and then drove home at midnight to pack for our 8am flight.
So we fly off to Morocco thinking everything will be settled on the following Wednesday, when they redeliver the dryer.
Does it? Of course not. When the dryer delivery guy shows up, guess what? They don't change rear-vent dryers to side-vent dryers. Were we not told by Home Depot that it wouldn't be a problem? UGGGGGGHHHHH. So anyway, they can't install our dryer, because there's no way to vent it now. And to boot, they forgot the stacking kit, so even if they had been able to change the vent, they wouldn't even have been able to stack it.
We find out all of this when we get back from Morocco, and find this:
One uninstalled dryer, sitting in our furnace room.
Our first day back from vacation, I'm on the phone with Home Depot to find out what the hell is the matter when them telling us that a side-vent would be no problem. I end up talking to some higher up who tells me, no, the delivery guys don't do side-vents -- you were given false information when you bought the dryer. And that we would have to order the part to do the conversion, and do it ourselves. But of course, they don't carry the part.
So I call GE (the manufacturer) to find the part. They've never heard of it -- can't find it in their system. So I get transferred to another department, who tells me that, yes, the part exists, but only retailers such as Home Depot, etc. carry it. So I call another Home Depot -- no, they don't have the part. I call Lowe's -- no, sorry. I call a bunch of smaller appliance stores -- nope. Finally, I call one last appliance store, and get the parts department voice mail. Which I leave, describing exactly what I'm looking for. And then I give up. Because seriously, this part DOES NOT EXIST.
About an hour later, I look at my phone and notice that I have a voicemail. And it the parts department head from the last store I called. And he has a lot of information for me. Apparently, the part doesn't exist anymore, and hasn't existed for years (they last sold one in 2002). BUT -- our dryer wasn't actually made by GE -- it's a joint venture by Frigidaire and Westinghouse, which just happens to be sold under the GE brand part of the time. And the part for the Frigidaire/Westinghouse dryer DOES exist, under a different part number. BUT, he tells me, it's really not worth buying, because it's just a piece of venting and an elbow vent -- something we could totally make ourselves.
Which we decide to do.
So, Evan works hard getting the new side vent just right, in order for the delivery guys to come back out and install the dryer. But when they show up (with the stacking kit this time)? The dryer doesn't fit through the closet door.
The side vent makes it about an inch too wide.
OMG
I talk it over with the delivery guy, and he explains to me what we need to do to install the dryer -- pretty straightforward now that the stacking kit is in place. We can handle things ourselves from this point on, as far as installation goes.
But have we done that yet? Nope. The dryer is still sitting in our furnace room, waiting to be installed.
Maybe we'll tackle it next weekend.
Fin.
We found a washer and dryer that we wanted, and that would fit into our hall closet, stacked, without any problems. OR SO WE THOUGHT.
After talking it through with the extremely helpful Home Depot staff, who we even talked into giving us a discount (since they had raised the prices on us!), we decided to go for it. We got all the requisite paperwork, including rebate forms, and went over everything that we would need to send in, and where to call if we had any delivery issues. We also confirmed that it would be no problem to convert our dryer from a rear-vent to a side-vent, something we had to do, since our closet isn't deep enough to accommodate a rear-vent.
Keep in mind that we had confirmed this process with Home Depot before deciding to buy the dryer.
So then we scheduled a date to have the washer and dryer delivered. We went with Thursday, March 22nd, because it would give us plenty of time to prepare the closet, and also give us a day (Friday) before we left to do laundry before our trip.
So fine. Everything is settled and we're happy.
Fast forward a week, to March 22nd.
I work at home, which allows me to greet all deliveries and generally take care of home renovation stuff during the day. That day, in the morning, I get a call from the delivery people that they had a guy quit that morning, so they would be running late -- but not to worry, everything would get delivered by the late afternoon. Ok, no problem.
Fast forward to the afternoon, around 4pm. I get a call from the guy in the truck, saying he's on his way over, and will be there within half an hour. Ok, great.
So, I'm in my office, the window for which faces the street. Everytime I hear a vehicle go by, I look out the window to see if it's a delivery truck. But I don't. I see a Lowe's delivery truck, several cars and trucks, and a Penske moving truck. But no delivery guy. 5pm? No delivery guy. 7pm? No delivery guy. Evan gets home around 7:30, and still no delivery guy.
By this time, the call center for the delivery service has closed, so we can't call them. So Evan calls the cell phone number on my caller ID that belongs to the delivery guy. He picks up, Evan asks what happened to him -- and he replies, "uh, we don't have your name on today's delivery schedule." What?! But he promises to call back if he finds anything out. Which he never does (and he also doesn't pick up the phone when we try to call him back).
So, we're a little pissed, and confused as to why we were called about the delivery, but it never happened.
The next day, we call the call center. And they tell us, "oh, a delivery was attempted." And sure enough, they have a description of our house. So, we're livid, because nobody ever pulled up in front of our house, walked through our gate (which would've caused Copper to start barking), and knocked on our door. We keep telling the call center, that's not possible, we were home, and absolutely nobody attempted a delivery of anything to our house.
Finally, finally, they agree to give us the local number for the delivery service. So we call them, and they tell us the same thing, and we tell them the same things right back. And then the guy drops some key information about the delivery vehicle being a Penske truck. Which, if you remember from earlier, I saw drive by our house. And drive past our house. And never once stop in front of our house. And leave our road altogether, without stopping. So I gasp, and tell the guy exactly what I saw. And he responds that I clearly saw the truck, so I knew a delivery was attempted -- to which I replied, um, NO, a random Penske truck, with no other markings identifying it as a delivery company, does not tell me that that was my delivery guy. What was I supposed to do, run outside and throw myself in front of every truck that passed by, in hopes that they were carrying my washer and dryer? C'mon now.
So, finally, finally, they come around and see our point. The delivery guy drove past our house without attempting a delivery, and told his bosses that he did. But I had eyewitness testimony to back up my side of the story. So they agreed to figure out a way to get it to us that afternoon.
(They had wanted to reschedule the delivery for the following week -- we told them, um, NO, we'll be in Africa. That's why we scheduled it for this week.)
So, that settled, I waited all day for the call that they were on their way, which finally came around 5:30pm. The day before we had to leave for vacation. The delivery guys show up -- and actually STOP in front of our house this time. They unwrap the washer, and bring it in. No problem. They unwrap the dryer. Ummmm - BIG DENT ON THE DOOR.
I just start laughing. At that point, what else could I do?
So I signed a form for them to take the dryer back, and scheduled for them to come back the next week, on a day that Evan's mom would be at our house, Copper-sitting.
They hook the washer up, and it works great. But we have no dryer, so it's useless to try to wash any laundry.
The washer, all hooked up.
After Evan comes home from work (late, thanks to our pro bono case... grrr...), we go through all of our laundry to determine what we need to take with us to Morocco. We throw it in a bag, jump in the car, and drive to Evan's co-worker's house in the University District well across town. Having heard our saga, she volunteered her washer and dryer to us. We got there late -- around 10pm -- ate some delicious pizza and had a few stiff drinks, did our laundry, and then drove home at midnight to pack for our 8am flight.
So we fly off to Morocco thinking everything will be settled on the following Wednesday, when they redeliver the dryer.
Does it? Of course not. When the dryer delivery guy shows up, guess what? They don't change rear-vent dryers to side-vent dryers. Were we not told by Home Depot that it wouldn't be a problem? UGGGGGGHHHHH. So anyway, they can't install our dryer, because there's no way to vent it now. And to boot, they forgot the stacking kit, so even if they had been able to change the vent, they wouldn't even have been able to stack it.
We find out all of this when we get back from Morocco, and find this:
One uninstalled dryer, sitting in our furnace room.
Our first day back from vacation, I'm on the phone with Home Depot to find out what the hell is the matter when them telling us that a side-vent would be no problem. I end up talking to some higher up who tells me, no, the delivery guys don't do side-vents -- you were given false information when you bought the dryer. And that we would have to order the part to do the conversion, and do it ourselves. But of course, they don't carry the part.
So I call GE (the manufacturer) to find the part. They've never heard of it -- can't find it in their system. So I get transferred to another department, who tells me that, yes, the part exists, but only retailers such as Home Depot, etc. carry it. So I call another Home Depot -- no, they don't have the part. I call Lowe's -- no, sorry. I call a bunch of smaller appliance stores -- nope. Finally, I call one last appliance store, and get the parts department voice mail. Which I leave, describing exactly what I'm looking for. And then I give up. Because seriously, this part DOES NOT EXIST.
About an hour later, I look at my phone and notice that I have a voicemail. And it the parts department head from the last store I called. And he has a lot of information for me. Apparently, the part doesn't exist anymore, and hasn't existed for years (they last sold one in 2002). BUT -- our dryer wasn't actually made by GE -- it's a joint venture by Frigidaire and Westinghouse, which just happens to be sold under the GE brand part of the time. And the part for the Frigidaire/Westinghouse dryer DOES exist, under a different part number. BUT, he tells me, it's really not worth buying, because it's just a piece of venting and an elbow vent -- something we could totally make ourselves.
Which we decide to do.
So, Evan works hard getting the new side vent just right, in order for the delivery guys to come back out and install the dryer. But when they show up (with the stacking kit this time)? The dryer doesn't fit through the closet door.
The side vent makes it about an inch too wide.
OMG
I talk it over with the delivery guy, and he explains to me what we need to do to install the dryer -- pretty straightforward now that the stacking kit is in place. We can handle things ourselves from this point on, as far as installation goes.
But have we done that yet? Nope. The dryer is still sitting in our furnace room, waiting to be installed.
Maybe we'll tackle it next weekend.
Fin.
posted by Kristen & Evan | 7:55 PM
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