Speaking of Dryers....

For those that don't know, I have two sets of washers and dryers. One set came with our house when we bought it and the other set came with us from our old house. With a family of eight, it is wonderful having two sets. The one dryer that came with this house was old and finally died about a year ago. We bought a new one and Rich paid for a five year warranty on the dryer. Last week, as I was washing clothes, I noticed that the "newer" dryer was making a squeaking sound and the clothes weren't getting dried after an hour plus time elapsed. The other dryer made the same sound before so it was disconnected. Then, one washer was spinning and made this burnt rubber smell and the other one I unplugged before because the hose was leaking. When I turned it on (the hose was still leaking), it wouldn't agitate or spin the clothes.

Now, I didn't have any washers or dryers that worked properly. The clothes were so backed up that Rich and I both made separate trips to the laundromat. Rich went to Lowes and bought a new washing machine and paid to have it delivered the next day....when the guys came to set it up, they couldn't get the leaky hose off, so they lied and told me it wasn't the hose - it was the pipe. Without thinking, I just let them leave and I told Rich about it later and asked if I should call the plumber to fix it. Rich got mad and said the guys lied to me and treated me like a dumb woman...which pretty much was the case.

He went to Lowes and complained to the manager about what the guys did. Rich told him it wasn't so much that they lied about it at all, it was the fact that they treated me (his wife) like I was stupid. He complained so much that the manager gave him 25 dollars in cash to make up for the cost of having to run to the laundromat (which doesn't even begin to cover the money we spent there). The other washing machine Rich is going to see if he can fix for me.

So then, he calls about the warranty on the dryer. The warranty clearly states that ALL parts and ALL labor is FREE. The company comes out to look at it and the man tells me that I need to pay him $28 for the parts to fix it. I didn't see the warranty paper that said everything was free, so I wrote the guy a check. He then tells me that the parts will be delivered to me and when I receive them, he will come back and fix it.

In the meantime, Rich gets so mad that he is paying for parts that he didn't have to pay for that he goes back to Lowes and tells the manager that he wants a new dryer for free and he doesn't want the same piece of crap dryer that broke, he wants the one that matches the new Maytag washer he bought me. The manager makes the deal that Rich can have the dryer and pay the difference of cost. He also transferred the five year warranty to the new dryer.

So, for Valentine's Day Rich's gift to me was a brand new washer and dryer set. But the story doesn't end here......

Yesterday, I get a call from the company about fixing my dryer (that I no longer have, because I have a new one now). I tell them that I don't need them to fix it anymore because I got a new one. The woman tells me that they want the parts back - the parts that I had to pay for, that I shouldn't have had to pay for. I told the woman that they're my parts now, because in the first place my warranty said ALL parts were FREE and I got gyped into paying for them. I'm not sending them back (because in truth, those parts are what we need to fix the other broken dryer and Hell, I paid for them right, they're mine now). The woman tells me that they are not mine (how she figures this, I will never know) and when the man comes to "fix" the dryer I will have to hand over the parts and he will give me an invoice, AN INVOICE, not the cash that I gave him, but an invoice to refund my money - which would take 10-15 days for me to get. How screwed up is that?!? What a freakin rip off!!