Frustration Everywhere

I know it's been a crazy week when I wake up at 3:30am on Friday morning and I realize I forgot to write my Friday movie review (which is usually posted by this time!!)  To say the least, this week hasn't been all that great for me. So I hope you will forgive me.

In addition to some repairs around the house I had fixed, the pool pump decided to stop working - the second time in less than a week. The repair that took place last week was apparently temporary at best. Now I get to sit back and watch my pool turn green until my regular pool repairman can get here in a day or so. 

On top of that, my son pointed out the refrigerator is periodically making a weird noise - a fact that I am going to ignore at this point - and I've noticed the microwave isn't working "right."  But all this crap comes from being a homeowner I suppose. Doesn't make it less aggravating. 

I could probably have handled all of the hassles above if I also didn't have to deal with incompetent customer service, which seems to be a growing epidemic.  One of the nation's largest telephone companies recently did work in my neighborhood. Unfortunately, updating fiber optic underground wires means tearing up people's lawns. We were given a number to call if there was any substantial damage. I called and requested they come sod the area they left looking like this.

I noticed a few days later this was their "fix."  

I knew immediately what they were going to say. They patched the dirt on my property but since my neighbor didn't call, they did NOT feel the need to replace the grass on that side of the property line. This is unacceptable and petty, I told the representative over the phone and asked that a supervisor contact me. He was out the next day and even he was shaking his head at the lack of foresight his workers displayed. 

However, despite all of these "daily headaches" as I like to call them, I should have at least gotten some pleasure out of the purchase of my new computer. Some of you may recall my old, but trusted HP, was damaged last spring when my house was struck by lightening. I have been using an even older computer in the interim, and despite the fact it works most of the time, the problem is it is just too old to be updated properly and to support certain plug-ins required to run some programs. When my son couldn't watch his math lessons online, I knew I had to bite the bullet and go buy a new one. 

While some of you may get excited about the purchase of new technology, I, for one, can not stand it. I would rather deal with car salesmen any day instead of tech specs and people. But, I went prepared, speaking to more than two personal friends who are experts in the field. That, combined with my online research, I was able to create a list of exactly what I wanted. WEEKS into my search, I thought I found it and for just a tad over what my designated budget was. 

Unfortunately, the salesperson made an error and it was missing one feature she repeatedly confirmed it had. So back to the store I went. The store exchanged it for another model. I took that one home and it was NOT working properly.  Yep, back to the store I went. They replaced the computer yet again and this time is having "their people" set it up to make sure it is working properly. Unfortunately, this will take a couple of days. So I returned home, empty-handed. 

For those that follow me on Twitter, you may have read the back and worth tweets between me and the company I purchased the computer from. Here, you are getting the "not-so-bad" version of the story. You are not hearing about the original debacle with my order pick-up or the terribly rude and condescending manager I had to deal with last which put an even more bitter taste in my mouth about this particular national chain (which is a shame because the other members of the management team were nothing but helpful and professional.) 

I have gotten to the point where I am beyond fed up with bad customer service. Every where I turn it seems that companies don't care. And, if the management doesn't care, you can rest assured that the salespeople aren't going to either. I am seriously considering writing blog posts outing places with terrible customer service and praising those that still practice this fine art. In the meantime, here I am at 5 o'clock in the morning (typing on my OLD computer) venting my weekly frustrations and asking you to forgive me for not getting a movie review posted. 

If you need a fix, check out my previous reviews for MATURE AUDIENCES and for FAMILIES.