The Streetcar Chronicles

When I last wrote about Dell, I was wondering whether my computer would be shipped out on time. After all of the runaround I went through with Alexis the sales rep, I was willing to bet good money that the machine would not be shipping out on the promised date of October 14th. During my last telephone conversation with Alexis, she assured me that I would be getting an automated e-mail from Dell and one from her letting me know that the machine was shipped.

Imagine my surprise when I received an automated phone call from Purolator letting me know the tracking number for my Dell package on the 13th. Curious, I went online and entered the tracking number to find out where the package was at. I immediately noticed that Purolator picked up the package from Dell on the 12th, two days before it was supposed to go out. This was good news. The problem? Where were the two e-mails I was supposed to have gotten from Dell and Alexis? Considering that the tracking information showed the package was due in Toronto in the next few days, I let it slide. As long as it was delivered to my office, as I was promised, everything else would be gravy.

Guess where the computer was delivered to? If you answered my office, you’d be wrong.

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I was going to wait I had the new computer before posting about the shitty experience I had ordering it. But it’s a quiet day around here as we’re off work for the holiday.

Since my current computer is a Dell and it lasted me over four years without giving me any problems, I figured I’d go with them again. It turns out that my employer has a corporate discount of five percent which was just another reason to go with Dell again.

I got the name of the company’s contact at Dell- Mark-and e-mailed him explaining what I was looking for. Since my last purchase, Dell has obviously made changes to their line-up of models so I had some questions about which model I should get.

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I had something else I was ready to post about when I got home, but upon arriving home, I saw a notice on my mailbox which I just knew was going to cause me a headache. The notice was from UPS letting me know that they had been at the house but unable to obtain a signature from me. I had ordered some dock inserts from Bose on Friday and they shipped out the same day. Since S and I work 9-5, neither one of us was home to sign for the package. While the gal pal is smart, we’ve not yet got her trained to open the door and sign for things.

I came inside from the stifling heat and glanced over the delivery notice. The check boxes indicated that UPS would be returning tomorrow, between 2 and 5pm. Somehow, I don’t think that’s enough time to train the dog to take care of the package delivery. I called the 1-800 number on the back of the slip to arrange for either a different delivery time or to change the address to my office so that I could be sure I’d be around to sign for it.

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I mentioned in a previous post that we had someone come and give us a quote on replacing the air conditioning unit. Yes, that’s yet another thing this old house has asked us to repair and/or update. I am hopeful that this is the last of the repairs for awhile. Maybe we’ll even be able to focus on doing stuff to the inside of the house. Imagine!

I digress; being the responsible home owners that we’re trying to be, we called a few places to provide us with quotes as to what the replacement would cost. One of those places was Sears. I know what you’re thinking, why bother with them again when they messed up so badly with the furnace cleaning? S’s cousin Roberta swore by them and told us that having Sears replace their furnace and air conditioning went really well.

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I have been engaged in an epic battle the last three weeks; one I hope is resolved tomorrow. As previously mentioned, my furnace was cleaned by a Sears Home Central technician last month. A few weeks later, while my ducts were being cleaned by some fellows from another Sears department, I was shown how ‘clean’ my furnace was. The motor was dustier than Lindsay Lohan’s underwear drawer.

After calling the Home Central line, I was told that someone from customer service would call me back. I let three business days go by without any response from Sears. I called in and explained the situation again to the hapless idiot on the other line. “Well ma’am, these requests take some time to reach customer service. I see here that a note has been made on your account, so someone will definitely call you back.”

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