It crossed my mind yesterday that I still hadn't heard from the Good Guys about the dishwasher. I wasn't expecting them necessarily to have someone available to come out during the past week, but I thought they might have rung to arrange a time.
At around 9:50 yesterday morning, I called the Ballarat branch to see what was going on. They had no idea that I was waiting for a phone call and didn't know that my dishwasher wasn't working. They asked me to call the company that organises repairs and replacements for them.
So I did.
They had no idea that I was waiting for a call, or that my dishwasher wasn't working. But I have both a text message and an email saying that my dishwasher wasn't working, that I had been approved for a replacement and that the Ballarat branch would call me to arrange an assessment of my dishwasher before organising the replacement. I also have a reference number.
No record of the reference number. Call the Good Guys' Warranty people.
So I did.
They also had no idea, despite the fact that I had spoken to them last Monday and they had generated the text message and the email. Off they went to investigate.
By now it was coming up to 10:50 and I had been on hold with various people for most of that hour. Also, I had a Japanese lesson booked for 11. I was getting quite anxious about making it to the lesson.
Eventually, the woman came back on the line, said she had spoken with the Ballarat branch and I should go in in person to select my replacement dishwasher. It all seemed a bit odd, but I didn't have time to argue.
It was just as well I managed to get to the Japanese lesson. I was the only student and we spent most of the 50 minutes discussing my forthcoming trip to Japan. We didn't cover much of the lesson content but it was a really good conversation class.
I had lunch (a chicken and leek tangle pie, since you ask), tidied up a few things and then went into town, to the Good Guys.
Who had no idea what was going on or why I had been told to go into the store - although one of the staff members was the person I had spoken to on the first of my phone calls in the morning and remembered me.
They made long and complicated efforts to try and work out what was happening, why I had been told to go in, why no one had generated a refund voucher or an assessment visit and, most importantly, why my case had been effectively closed on the previous Monday. Eventually they called the manager, who also made long and complicated efforts to try and sort it all out. Eventually he said: "I tell you what; let's just organise a replacement. Your dishwasher shouldn't be behaving like that after less than 11 months. Even if we do fix it, it sounds as though it will just do it again in a couple of months. Do you want an exact replacement, or do you want to upgrade?" I decided to upgrade to a different brand. I, of course, paid the difference in price, except that he reduced it by $100.
I was in the store for just over an hour and had three people trying to sort it all out. I think I got the discount because at no point did I get cross and even remained cheerful and friendly. After all, it wasn't their fault.
I went and had afternoon tea with Hugo before going home.
The new dishwasher is due on Thursday of next week. In the meantime, the existing dishwasher had been gurgling and beeping and not washing dishes for two weeks, right up until yesterday morning when I tested it before making the first phone call. I decided yesterday evening to stack dishes in it, out of the way while I prepared food for the next few days and then later to hand wash them in batches, I absentmindedly pressed the on button, caught myself and went to turn it off again before it started gurgling and beeping - and off it merrily went, wash, wash washing away.
Too late though. The replacement machine has been arranged and this was the third or maybe even fourth time that the existing machine had done this. (I haven't told it yet that I have effectively sacked it - don't want it to go on strike again before the new one arrives!)
I did not get the front grass cut!
