March 26, 2005
Grumble
Oh, the joys of home ownership. 
The latest fiasco: My sister and I went shopping this morning, then to lunch. When we got back to my house I decided to open up the doors to take advantage of the beautiful weather (high of 75° today). When I looked out I noticed the sprinklers were on. "How odd", thought I, since I haven't had them on in over a year. When I went to turn them off, I noticed water pouring out the side (at eye level) of the enclosure that houses the controls...and my water heater. I open the access panel to find water spraying out the top of the heater tank, where it had soaked the sprinkler timer and caused it to fire off.
Thankfully, my sister was there. I am kinda the quintessential helpless girly-girl in many instances - my reaction was a timid "help, help, help" to her. She quickly leapt into action and crawled through the access panel to shut off the water, cutting her hand and getting bonked on the head by the door in the process.
We then managed to pull off the whole side panel so we could turn off the power to it. (which involved unscrewing several screws, which invloved pain since I am severely right-handed)
Fortunately, it is under warranty. Unfortunately, Sears says they can't send anyone out until Wednesday to look at it and determine what parts they need to order. I told them: "there is a hole in the top it needs to be replaced".
"Well, we need to look at it to determine the extent of the problem"
Which means, "we will look at it, charge you for the visit, then make you wait for the replacement, when if we just trusted your ability to see a hole in the metal we could have it out to you by Wednesday"
The customer service I received from Sears when my washer broke is the reason I bought the replacement at Lowe's. This is another example of why Sears sucks. I'll be without hot water for at least 5 days, they will charge me to come and verify that it is, in fact, broken - and then replace it (if I'm lucky).
Of course, I hadn't yet showered today 
and I keep trying to turn on the hot water to wash my hands.
I'm trying to imagine what it will be like now that the acquisition of Sears by Kmart has been approved by the shareholders of both companies...
Posted by: Mike at March 27, 2005 09:07 PMDefintely a scary thought - but their level of customer service shows why they have been in trouble the last few years.
I'm old enough, though, to remember when they were a service leader - wonder how they got so off track...
Posted by: Vox at March 28, 2005 10:12 AMOh, you poor thing! Hope it gets fixed sooner rather than later. I guess you could always heat up some water on the stovetop.
Posted by: yayaempress at March 28, 2005 11:06 AM