Ironic Day - My Home Depot Day

I call my day today ironic. At least I think this day qualifies as "ironic", you tell me. I bought a fridge in 2005 on sale at an amazing price from Home Depot. (Basically I got a $2K Maytag French Door Fridge with a 4 year warranty for $1K. About a month ago the inside fridge water spout quit working, the ice maker kept working just fine. I just assumed it needed a new filter and only this week did I make it to Home Depot to buy a the new water filter. I installed it and still no water. Time to call the famous "Maytag Repairman". I made the call to the Home Depot ESP (Extended Service Plan) number and was told it would be covered under warranty. I then remember when the fridge was delivered in Feb of 2006 the dreadful delivery guys, I swear they were the 2 stooges, damaged the back wheels. (Now I only discovered the back wheels were damaged when I went to pull it out from the wall to vacum under it the first time and it would not budge, this was about a year ago.) I just prayed the wheels would be covered under warranty but was told by the ESP rep that they would not be, that was fine I would pay for them to be repaired when the reairman came out to fix the water feature.

I was given one of those wonderful 8 am to noon appointments and of course the repair man knocked on my door at noon. Always my luck! He looks at the fridge and tells me it is not covered under warranty. Say What!?! Uh... yes it is.. I bought one of those multi year warranty's, a 4 year one to be exact and I could produce my receipt in a second. I did and sure enough my receipt clearly shows a 4 year warranty was purchased in 2005 when I bought the fridge. he says he can see that but GE says it is not under warranty ad for him to fix it I woul dpay for everything. Now I start get very upset. I took off from work and now fridge will not be fixed, so I will have to take off another half day at some point. The "Maytag Repairman" calls his dispatcher who tells me they called GE, who owns all Home Depot major appliance ESP plans, and GE told them my ESP plan does not start until 2010 and goes through 2014! LOL! What the Heck! Now why would I buy an ESP plan and not have it start until the fridge is 5 years old!?!! I am told I have to call GE to get the date chaned befoer they will fix my fridge. After 2 calls, I am told to go back to the Home Depot where I bought the fridge to have the contract date fixed. Now let me tell you GE can see that I bought the fridge in 2005 so why they thought the service plan didn't start until 2010 is beyond me. The ESP plan paperwork I have clearly states the ESP plan goes into affect as soon as the MFG's warranty expires and runs for 4 years. So I call Home Depot, ask for the store manager and warn him I am coming as I briefly explain the situation.

Now I tell the "Maytag Repairman" before he leaves that the damaged wheels will now be fixed for free and he tells me he has never seen Home Depot give away anything especialy in cases like this. You see his company seen this hapen once befoer. i know it i sjust a typoe but I also know it will take time to fix the error. I tell the 'Maytag Repairman" Home Depot has never met me!
I work on getting price breaks and discounts for a living!

I tell the Assistant store manager everything and that GE told me only he could fix the warranty contract start date. I also explain how I now want the damaged wheels fixed for free for my frustration and time off work. This manager then spends the next 2 hours on the phone trying to fix Home Depot's typo. Now I did go in upset,but I was more sarcastic than mad, and once the Mgr understood there was an error, I calmed down and patiently wait for the situation to be fixed. It was quite funny for me to see someone else for once go through a customer service call like what I normally go through with AT&T. He was given no less than 8 numbers to call and was transferred about just as many times if not more. I left to shop a bit in Home depot while he was still on the phone, at some point he tells me he will fix the wheels for free because of the hassle. When I get back to the counter he is very frustrated. He could not find a way to place and order for the 2 wheels parts and have them charged to his store, so he tells me not only will he fix the wheels, but now he is going to give me $110 store credit! $10 for the wheel parts. I am to order the parts and then give him a call once they arrive and he will get someone out to fix them.

Where is the ironic part you ask? While running a few errands I recall the "Maytag Repairman" asking me if I had heard a rush of water into the filter when I had replaced it. So when I get home, I twist the filter out and then back in when I clearly hear a rush of water and the water spout starts working! The reason for the call in the first place!
I could only laugh! But now the wheels will be fixed and for free!

And if my Easter Basket Swap Partner is reading, this my basket will be in the mail Saturday or Monday!

Laptop Whoos

I have not known what it was like when people say they loose everything on their PC until today. I have a work issued laptop I use for most everything. It is great because it allows me to work from home when needed. I used to travel for work with it but lately not so much. (Wish I had a job where I could travel more) So get in to work this morning, dock my laptop and my flat panel monitor and keyboard do not work. I test everything, even got on my hands and needs to test all the cords underneath my desk, no use so I call our IS support team. ( I have to admit everyone on the IS team knows me, if there was any other team I could be a part of this would be it. Most people don't like them but I think my companies IS team is awesome!) They ask are you calling about the network, no ( oh crap what is wrong with the network I think to myself) about my monitor not working after I docked my laptop I say. She asks for me to do all this stuff, already tried that I say, she knows me as well so she knows I really did tried it, so she goes un-dock your laptop, turn off your monitor, unplug your docking station from the power cord, hit dock station on/off button a few times, then the fatal words, turn off your laptop. I do all the steps re-dock laptop, turn everything back on even computer, success! I have a connection a again from my laptop to my separate monitor and keyboard! whoohoo. Not sure how doing all that helped but it did. We hang up and I try to login.... well in between the time I shut down my laptop while on the phone with IS our network crashed. Not a little crash but a big one, at least for a few of us it was. It crashed so hard it wiped my existence off the main set up server ( I was cached out off or off of the domain name server for all you techno types), my login name and password no longer exist on my companies server so I could not even login to my laptop! I was locked out, AM locked out of my laptop! I can't get to anything saved on my pc! I feel like everything and I mean everything is lost- web favorites, pictures, documents, everything just gone in one little poof! So I cleaned out my desk and files for a few hours as I waited for the server to come up. It came up but I was still locked out. Luckily I have a 11am meeting that goes to 1pm, so I have something to do for a while at work. 2pm and I am still unable to login so I go home, now mind you most everyone around me is working but everything I do is on my laptop and for anyone that was on the network when it crashed, they maintained their user id on the domain name server. I wasn't so I am locked out and I can't get back on under my usual domain name to get to all my files until I go into work and get on our network again.

I have a blackberry so I am still getting emails, I just can't reply to some since I can't get to the documents or websites needed to respond to the emails. I finally get the email that the network is back up and running so I try to login to my laptop at home, still no go. Oh crap now what! Weather is bad and if it ices overnight I need to be able to work from home tomorrow. So my oh so awesome IS team hooks me up so I can at least get online and get to the Internet and our VPN client so I can login to my works intranet. He hooks me up while he is driving home on icy rainy roads. He walks me through step by step over the cell phone on how to create a new user id on my laptop so I can at least log on! whoohoo. That is how I am able to post this evening. Still no access to my pictures, personal files, work documents or Internet favorite links, but I can at least get on my laptop!

I'm also still waiting for the inches of snow we were supposed to get this evening. I watch the news and see snow but I guess my little home town is too far east to get snow. It's still just cold and wet outside. Probably lots of ice tomorrow morning, but forecast tomorrow is also for more snow, we shall see. I would love to see what my little Nordic dog would do in the snow.

I am feeling better, finally. Wore two of the same shoes today so foot is improving as well. Just can't keep them on all day at work since my hurt foot still swells and causes me pain. I may just bring a pair of slippers to work next week to change into while at work! Sinus infection is tons better. I think because I also started using a Nettie pot this week. Kim Kwan told me about it years ago but I never tried it. I actually went to the drugstore looking for some salt packets for a bottle my ent gave me to wash my sinus out with after I had nose surgery a couple of years ago. Thought a salt water wash my help the infection. I hate the bottle, it hurts to force the salt water up my nasal passages, but figured it couldn't hurt to use it again for this atypical infection, well right next to the Dr prescribed salt packet refills was a plastic Nettie pot, so I compare the salt packets used in the nettie pot against what my Dr prescribed and they are the same! I think to myself, Kim Kwan uses the Nettie pot, it uses gravity to flush your nostrils so maybe it won't hurt like the bottle. Why oh why didn't I listen to Miss Kwan all those years ago. Love, love my little plastic Nettie pot. My nasal passages feel so much better and I can flush twice a day now! If you are having sinus or allergy issues, try it. You'll like it! If you have ever gone swimming in the ocean and went underwater without a nose plug, that is what it will feel like. Oh what memories my little nettie pot brings me back to! LOL.

OK long post I know, but as soon as I can get to my pictures, I will have some crafts I have worked on to post. wohooo! I feel like crafting again, now to feel like cleaning my house again! LOL. Time for New Amsterdam. Great new show on FOX! TTFN!

Sick

On top of a sore foot and still having to walk around in an ortho shoe, I have a sinus infection. Not your typical, coughing, sore throat, drainage kind, but as my doctor said an "atypical" kind. My eyes hurt, face hurt, face was swollen and lynph glad was swollen, and I just wanted someone to chop off the left side of my face, or stick a pin in it to left the pressure out. I stayed home from work 2 days and left early today. I just want to be well and feel like doing something again. I have now spent 4 plus weeks in bed or work and then bed. I am so ready to be well and feel like crafting again.

A FEW OF MY FAVORTIE THINGS

I'm home in bed another weekend per Doctor's orders to stay off my left foot another weekend. This is the 4rth weekend home alone and I'm bored. So with that I wanted to share some things I found online or in a store that I think are cool, had ot have and want to share.

A FEW THINGS I LOVE

1. White Chocolate Wonderful Peanut Butter - I sooo love this. Not too sweet; just the right amount of white chocolate in this all natural peanut butter. So delish! It is made by a small company based in New York City. I found it at Wal-Mart of all places. Check out their other great flavors listed on their website as well as some great recipes.



2. Capri Blue Volcano Candle in red jar only at Anthroplogie - Smells like Spring in a jar. Beautiful fresh scent to fill your home. Description online says "sugared oranges, lemons and limes" and will burn up to 140 hours.

3. Free Ali Edwards Handwriting Font here - Free downloadable font from Creating Keepsakes march magazine

4. JJill Ladies clothing store. I just love their comfy natural clothes and their sales are awesome. Luckily there are 2 stores in the DFW area. They have awesome catalogs. You can order from the catalog at the store and get free shipping if you ship to the store, of course you have to pick it up from there to get the free shipping.

5. King and Queen Bunnifred from Papyrus. Cute little bunny ornaments with a matching decorative box. They are $12.95 each. Also at Papyrus is the most beautiful pink and shiny sparkly metallic silver wrapping paper. I can't find it online, but will see if I can scan a piece after I go buy a few sheets this week.

6. New Wizard of Oz Ornaments. These are the first 3 in a new Wizard of Oz ornament Collection series by Ashton-Drake galleries, and I think I need them for my tree. I know I told my mom no more unless they were like the movie ( like the ones from Hallmark each year), but these are right up my alley. They have rhinestones on them, they look handmade, and they are just too darn cute! I'll let you know if they are as cute in person as they are online.

Work Situation Update

Thanks to everyone for the uplifting comments about the work situation. The morning after the email came out, I emailed a Director in another dept that I know pretty well asking if what I did for the company last year in regards to mirgating the two companies together (I listed out everything I did above and beyond my normal that should have included me on the list in this email) and saving the company 200K wasn't enough to get me on the list, then what was; what was it I needed to do to get recgonized at my company? I want to grow my career and to do that I need to get noticed, I know that will help in the man's world in which I work and the company I work for so I did all that last year. In adition to emailing this Director I know pretty well about how I felt about the situation I also spoke to my manager. I asked if he had seen the email and if he knew why we were not on the list again I explained again why I thought I deserved to be on it and I let him know I was upset. He said he really hadn't paid attention to the email but he would look into the situation.

About an hour later I got a phone call from the person that created the list for our CEO to email out. He apologized for the oversight. I could tell from his voice that he truly didn't mean to leave me off and that he made the list up without consulting anyone. He stated he was going to make it up to me somehow, but he could not resend out an email to everyone in the company with an updated list, and I was invited to the dinner with the CEO. I accepted the apology, but I will still need to decide if I shoukd go to the dinner or not. Since my name was left off the list I don't want to show up and have everyone at the dinner think I invited myself. It is good to know this EVP now knows what did and what I do for the company.

I did also find out later that this Director I emailed found out who created the list and spoke to him, and my own manager emailed our own EVP about the situation. So I feel better about the situation. I am proud of myself for speaking up. In the past I would have let it slide and just be upset for a while.

My foot is doing better. I have done nothing other than go to work and home the last 3 weeks. Tonight was my first night to venture out and shop a few hours and boy am I paying for it right now, but I really needed to buy some new shoes. I wore one of my spa sandals to work today, so on the right foot I wore my clunky shoe cast (pictured below) and on the left a Sensi spa sandal. I have 10 days left to wear the lovely show below, at least as far as I know right now. Everyone seems to shocked when I tell them I have to wear the shoe cast to bed. It is not comfortable trust me. I am getting a refill on the Ambien wed.

So thanks agan for the support. It meant alot to me.

I have been busy working on some poof pins. I have been playing around with different fabrics and embellishments for them. I will post some pics tomorrow.