Yesterday, the Dish Network folks showed up early within their delivery window, installed better components than what their online ordering system forced me into, installed two dishes and all of the inside wiring (including running a new cable and phone line), and were gone within three hours leaving me with crystal-clear high-definition TV in four rooms.
The delivery of our new washer and dryer from Home Depot took a terrible turn this morning when I received a call from a woman saying essentially, “Your washer fell off the truck and we won’t be delivering anything to you today.”
She said that someone would call back in a few days to schedule a new delivery. While I would expect this if my washer was as damaged as what she implied by “fell off the truck”, I was still not happy about having reserved from 9am to 1pm for this delivery in the middle of my move schedule. Being that this was their fault, and not some simple issue of the item arriving and being rejected by me for some reason of defect, I felt entitled to some compensation for my time. Of course, it would take much more effort to get it.
I asked her about compensation, and as I expected, she couldn’t do anything for me. So I asked to speak to her supervisor, hoping to get some resolution.
Chris was nice the first time we talked, and was amused that the washer had “fallen off the truck”. He said he would try to find out what was going on. We were mysteriously disconnected while I was on hold.
I had a few other calls to make, and then I called Chris back to get an update. He was apparently still trying to figure out what truck had my appliances. What an organized operation he’s got goinng on there! He said he would call back.
Later, I received a call from another of the delivery company’s operators. She said that our unit had a scrape along the side. She couldn’t explain how that happened, in spite of the earlier call saying that it fell off the truck.
I told her that it was my guess that the washer had, as the first person who called me this morning had told me, fallen off the truck. Ok, let me talk to your supervisor…
Chris, who was supposed to call me back, eventually came on the line. I explained that I was told that the unit was described as “dropped”, and that the orignal operator implied that the appliance would not be acceptable, and would not be delivered. Now I was being told that it wasn’t so bad, and that they would refund some of my money if I took the damaged washer. Still, I paid for a new washer, not one that had fallen off a truck and had a gash on the side.
Chris started into a rant about truck sized and delivery schedules. He said things about how he doesn’t know if a truck loads a unit from the ramp. He attempted to play off the word “dropped” as loading bay jargon for “never picked up for delivery”. For a supervisor, he sure wasn’t doing any supervising, and now he was trying to befuddle me with irrelevant nonsense.
I explained again that I wanted to know why a washer that was completely unacceptable this morning because it was dropped would now be ok with a only a visible scratch down the side. Even if “dropped” did mean what he said, that doesn’t explain why he laughed when I first told him, the operator implied that there was damage (by scheduling delivery of a new washer), or why this brand new washer had a scratch. I asked how I was going to be compensated for my wasted time due to his company’s negligence (as opposed to the apparently frequent but trivial - in his mind - “accidental” damage).
He hung up on me.
And so, we’re moving into a house with no washer or dryer, no plan to have a washer or dryer, and no real convenient way to wash or dry clothing. I called Home Depot to ask if there was any other company who could deliver the appliances, but they only use this one delivery place. I would lodge a complaint with Home Depot, but the clothes I’m wearing are already sweaty from moving things all day.
I don’t want a gift card “sorry” anyway. I needed a washer today.
