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Aug. 26th, 2004 02:38 pm
topaz: (frowny)
[personal profile] topaz
Notes to myself for the complaint letter I'm drafting:

Thursday: [livejournal.com profile] keyne discovers that we have no hot water. Calls Keyspan and makes an appointment for a service rep to come by on Friday, after 9:30 (when she returns from dropping off the kids).

Friday, 9:15 a.m.: Service rep comes, leaves note on door.

Friday, 9:45 a.m.: Ellen calls Keyspan, screams at them a bit, reschedules for later that day.

Friday, 4:00 p.m.: Ellen calls Keyspan, asks when a service rep is going to show up. Is told that the service rep came by at 1:00 p.m. and no one was home. Tells Keyspan that is not possible, as she has been waiting by the front door all day and no one has visited.

Friday, 4:30 p.m.: I call Keyspan to schedule another service visit. Lose my temper somewhat when the phone droid tells me that no one can come by tonight and it will have to be on Saturday. Ask to speak to a supervisor. She says a supervisor will have to call me back, so takes my work phone number.

Friday, 6:00 p.m. No return call from Keyspan, but a service technician shows up unexpectedly at the house to go bang on the heater. Emerges to report that he can't fix it with the equipment he has on hand, and the tech tomorrow will have to take care of it.

Saturday, 9:30 a.m. Having grown older and wiser, I call Keyspan just to confirm our appointment for today. Am told that we need a part. (We were not previously told this.) The parts department is closed for the weekend and a parts manager will call us on Monday. We have no hot water, I point out to the phone rep. Isn't there some way to escalate the situation to get an emergency repair performed? The rep makes vaguely sympathetic noises but repeats that the parts department is not open over the weekend.

Saturday, 10:00 a.m. Ellen calls P&H companies referred by the elbow-joints crowd, arranges for a technician to visit around 1:30 p.m.

Saturday, 12:00 p.m. Leaving a note on the door in case the tech comes by early ("PLEASE CALL US!! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE!!") we take the family to Mom & Dad's house for some badly needed showers.

Saturday, 1:30 p.m. Heating engineer shows up promptly, sets to work on the furnace.

Saturday, 4:00 p.m. Having repaired the broken gas valve, engineer presents bill and leaves.

[flash forward five days...]

Thursday, 2:00 p.m. The Keyspan parts manager -- the one who was supposed to call us on Monday -- calls to schedule an installation of the igniter.

"Igniter?" says Ellen. "It was a broken gas valve."

"Says here an igniter," parts guy says.

Just for grins, Ellen asks, "When would someone be available to install this part?"

"Next week sometime, ma'am."

Pause.

"Can you tell me," asks Ellen, "how long Keyspan thinks it's reasonable to go without hot water?"

"You don't have hot water?" parts guy asks in surprise. "They didn't tell me that."

timeline

Date: 2004-08-30 08:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] actjack.livejournal.com
Usually I reccomend repairing one's own appliances,but, about 20 years ago, as I was installing a gas furnace in my garage workshop my hunting buddy dropped by. He owns a Heating & AC Company. He watched awhile, then said, 'Let me tell you a story"
Once there was a paratrooper, went up to 20,000' & jumped (HAHO), pulled his ripcord & NOTHING HAPPENED! He calmly checked all his equipment & pulled the ripcord again. STILL NOTHING! He's now at 8000' @ 200mph & pulls the release on his Emergency chute. NOTHING HAPPENS! Starting to panic he notices a man with a tool bag passing him, only this guy is going up insread of down.
"Hey", he hollered. "Do you know anything about parachutes?
"No", the guy replied. "Do you know anything about GAS VALVES?"

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