Unbelievable

Ranting follows.

Last February we bought a dishwasher. A very expensive Bosch dishwasher. We also bought an extended warranty plan.

The dishwasher never seemed to work right. It left spots. Or streaks. Or food. But it was very expensive--and very quiet, which was the reason we bought it--so I kept trying to make it work. I read the manual. I called Customer Service (many times). I fiddled. I fussed. I finally got it to a point where I thought it was working pretty well. For a while. And then it wasn't. A couple of months ago I got sick of it all and called for repair. This meant calling the repair department of the place where I bought it.

A repair guy came out. He looked at it. He ran it. He cleaned it. He fiddled. He called the office. He called customer service. He called the appliance gods. He finally concluded that everything needed to be replaced. The pump, the motor, the seal. It had probably never worked right, he said. Defective from the factory. He'd order the parts and come back. It would take about a week. Someone would call us.

So we waited. After a couple of weeks, no one had called, so I called them. The annoyed woman on the other end clicked on her computer for a while and announced that the parts hadn't arrived. When might they arrive, I inquired politely. Because, you know, we keep eating, and keep making more dirty dishes, and it's been two weeks. She would call the distributor and get back to me in a couple of hours.

No one called back. After another week, I called again. Oh, those parts are backordered. They'll be in next week. Someone will call you to schedule the repair. When might that be? I inquired, perhaps a little less politely. Monday. Tuesday at the latest. Better make it Wednesday.

Monday came and went...and Tuesday...and Wednesday. Thursday I brought in the big guns. My husband called them. He was polite. He was firm. They assured him they would have the parts the following Monday and they would call to schedule the repair.

Do I even need to tell you where this is headed? Do I need to mention the many follow-up phone calls? The demands for a new dishwasher? The official demand letter warning of the impending law suit? The hasty call from the repair department, telling us the parts were in and the repair guy would be out in two days?

He came. He opened the parts box. There was a piece missing.

He got a little scared when he saw my face.

More phone calls ensued, and another letter, and finally the call we'd been waiting for: We have all the parts. He'll be back Thursday--six weeks after my first call. I reworked my schedule. I agreed to a four hour window. I sat and waited. Thursday morning arrived, I took the kids to school and returned home. I sat and waited. The phone rang. It was the service department. The repair guy was out for service...but there was a problem. He had checked the part, and it was damaged. They would have to reorder. We are back to step one.

I'm thinking of boxing up a load of dirty dishes and taking them to the showroom.