Furniture

So, the time has come for little O to become big O, and get a "big boy" bed. Last weekend, we went as a family to the furniture store and picked out a new bed. The bed was scheduled to be delivered between 11-3 on Thursday. I HATE four hour windows...I really do. I have things to do, and a four hour window in the middle of my day is a true annoyance. However, in the interest of receiving the bed in a timely manner, I agreed to their demands.

Thursday morning arrived. I showered early, got the really big kids off to school, and at 9:21 am, loaded O, complete with new crocs, into the van for a road trip to the grocery store. I walked in the store, plopped two bunches of grapes in my cart, and then my cell phone rang. Normally I would ignore it, but I didn't recognize the number, so I decided to answer. Who was it, you ask? The furniture delivery people, of course. They were going to be at my house in 30 minutes. Looking at the time, they should arrive by 10:02 am, 58 minutes early. I groaned, then agreed to the time.

The next 17 minutes looked like scenes from one of those mad dash grocery shows. I ran through the store, throwing random items in my cart, and made it to the cashier. She rang us up, and sent us on our way. $80 later, we were out the door, and did not have all that we needed, of course! I raced home (not speeding) and made it there at 9:59am, three minutes before their estimated arrival.

I quickly unloaded the cold groceries, grabbed the car keys to move the spare car out of their way, then plopped down to wait. And wait. And wait. After about twenty minutes, I was pretty irritated. Forty-five minutes in REALLY had me steaming, and by the one hour, fifteen minute mark, I was spitting nails.

93 minutes AFTER their proposed arrival time, my furniture arrived. I took the high road, and decided not to scream at the delivery people. They were in and out in under fifteen minutes, thankfully. Not ten minutes later, I received an automated call from the furniture store, wanting me to rate my experience. I hung up on the recording. Trust me, random furniture store people, you did NOT want me to rate this experience! The icing on the cake? They are coming back in a month to deliver the rest of the back-ordered furniture-can't wait!

WHAT is an accessory?

Today's rant is all about the word "accessory". Allow me to share the back story.

A few weeks ago, my cell phone started randomly turning off. It finally aggravated me to the point where I walked into my local cell phone store to complain. Surprise: my not so high quality cell phone was actually still under warranty, so they could order me a new one. I waited a few days, and sure enough, a new (read: refurbished) phone arrived. When I opened the package, I was surprised to see that the phone did not arrive with a new battery, OR a new back plate. I used my old battery and back plate, moved the SIM card, and life continued.

Last Monday, my phone randomly turned off again. Using my awesome powers of deductive reasoning, I decided the battery MUST be at fault, and went back to the store to discuss this. My genius customer service representative disagreed with my battery diagnosis, and advised me to call customer service myself to get a new phone. He mentioned that they don't have those batteries in stock at the store anyway. Nice.

So, I called customer service, yelled at the talking automated system, and was finally transferred to a phone rep. (As a side note-they could make an entire TV show re-enacting all of the crazy things that are yelled at a talking automated system) Gabrielle was happy to help, and sympathetic to my phone issue. She also agreed that it was a battery problem, since that was the common denominator betwixt the two phones. (whether betwixt is a word or not is a non-issue; don't bother Googling it because I like it, and will not edit it out!) She kindly offered to transfer me to the accessory department to order a new battery.

WHAT?!?!? A new battery is an ACCESSORY? AND I have to pay for it, because it falls under an "accessory warranty" of 90 days as opposed to the phone warranty of one year? Let's pause to define accessory. Accessory (noun) "a supplementary component that improves capability, being additional, being connected as an incident or subordinate" Last time I checked, a battery does not IMPROVE capability, it PROVIDES capability. It's NOT incidental-it's necessary for the phone to function!

However, my years in customer service have taught me never to abuse the poor, innocent phone rep, so I allowed Gabrielle to transfer me to the parts department. My sarcasm was lost on the gentleman who answered, as he did not "get" my snide accessory comments. The ultimate kicker? They don't have my battery in stock either, so happy hunting! Now for my unpaid advertising-I ordered my battery from elitextreme.com. Their prices were much more reasonable than my local third party battery vendor. (I saved $13, even with shipping)

The ultimate irony? My phone has not randomly turned off ONE time since I ordered the new battery!