This whole scene began about 2.5 weeks ago - earlier really - as we renegotiated the terms of our lease. We asked if our landlord would consider allowing one month of our rent be used to purchase a new stove, dishwasher and new washer/dryer combo. There were some pretty intense stipulations that would have made that possible so we decided to forego the new stuff and make do with what we have. After all, despite the dishwasher being original to our building (30+ years old) and the washer/dryer being about the same age, they worked. The stove was "new to us" but came to live with us while our former landlord was trying to sell our suite. It's special...the top rack is clearly meant for another model so you have to be careful when pulling it out lest the entire standalone stove/oven come away from the wall, but again, it functions. And, we're renters - no big deal. Two and a half weeks ago, however, the dishwasher began not cleaning things (and, yes, this is totally a first world problem...). We began essentially washing the dishes before putting them into the unit only to have them come out feeling more grimy than when they went in, so we let our landlord know the time had come to replace this vintage piece.
She was lovely to work with and ordered a brand new, beautiful machine and forwarded all of the information about the delivery she had scheduled to us. I spent a couple of hours last week rescheduling the delivery as it was originally supposed to arrive while we were at "Meet the Teacher" night with our kiddos. A lovely person at Hudson's Bay worked with me to add our name and contact information to the order and even called back to confirm we were set with a delivery and installation on last Friday. Friday arrived and I called to confirm timing (as I was originally told to be home from 8AM - 9PM as my 'window' for delivery and installation). Ironically, the person on the other end of the phone was in Pennsylvania, but had moved from Mt. Pleasant, SC, where we used to live and we caught up about the friends we shared in common before she shared the machine had actually been delivered while we were at Meet the Teacher after all. Bizarre...seems our landlord's mother signed for it and it was already in our building. I sent Philip on to work and walked the kids to school and came back home to reach the bottom of this mystery. Upon calling back to the Bay, I learned that their delivery team doesn't do the installations...they subcontract that out to a third party. After about 30 minutes on the phone I was able to ascertain the subcontractor was a company by the name of Quick Contractors and got a contact phone number. Thus began the real adventures...
Fridays are funny when it comes to accomplishing good work - I called QUICK Contractors and hung out on hold for about 10 minutes before getting a voicemail box to leave a message, assuring me a QUICK callback. I left a message and called back again - hung out on hold about 8 minutes and got a person - EUREKA! They told me the installer had 'inadvertently' overlooked calling me and we weren't on their schedule. Normally, this would not be a thing, but...we had 9 kids coming over on Sunday to celebrate our daughter's 9th birthday in our suite - the notion of them playing around a boxed appliance was laughable. Surprisingly, I was able to very calmly explain my plight to the QUICK call dispatcher but their sympathy was lacking. After spending the afternoon waiting on a phone call for 4+ hours while doing party prep, I called back. I spoke with the same person who remembered my story (I appreciated that) and she assured me she would have someone call me back before 9PM, on a Friday remember, to schedule an installation time for Saturday.
You probably guessed by now that 9PM came and went with no phone call and we went on about our planned activities on Saturday and never missed a call then either. Then, late Sunday evening, as we recovered from party mode, the phone rang. It was Fast Track Appliances and they would be coming on Tuesday - a day I really couldn't make work. The woman was completely gracious (seems this wasn't her first rodeo with this sort of situation) and noted that we really needed the dishwasher installed on Monday. At this point, it's important to note the new machine was resting comfortably in a storage room of our building, but I'd been told that our building staff prefers not to store items in said storage room and I needed to get it out of there as soon as possible, so I was trying to do that. I'm a rule follower.
Monday morning - 9:30AM - the phone rings and my new BFF Brad is on the other end of the line. He said he'd have his installers there on TUESDAY. Again, I calmly explained that we had scheduled this install for Friday and I really needed to get the machine out of the storage room, yada, yada, yada. He kindly scheduled our install between 12-2PM provided I could print the paperwork he needed me to sign and have it ready for his peeps upon their arrival. Not a problem - on it. At 1:25PM, the installers arrived and I felt relieved. As they packed up after their 30 minute job, I noted that our landlord had paid the fee for 'old appliance removal' - alas - they're just the installers, not the removers. OK - so how do I handle this? Of course, just call the Bay and schedule another time for them to pick it up. Until then, they would just leave the vintage dishwasher all alone on our balcony to await its fate at the recycling center.
Lessons learned? 1 - Be careful what you ask for - it might just be more complicated than it seems and 2 - Shakespeare was on to something when he asked "What's in a name?" - I give Quick Contractors & Fast Track Appliances props for speaking their goal into the cosmos, but this whole "you gotta believe to achieve" notion isn't working for them. 3 - No one ever said life would be easy, but sometimes you end up, at least, with a good story to tell.
So here we are - after 30+ years, our apartment now has 2 dishwashers and my supervisor friend, Emily, at the Bay isn't returning my calls to come get our old friend. The good news? Our new machine is quieter than our refrigerator - a huge departure from the freight train we had up until yesterday. Carry on friends - may your dishes be clean and your patience be strong.
The beautiful, quiet new machine
The tired, sad machine
