-My wife and I bought a new washing machine this week. As appliances go it is about as sexy as a vacuum cleaner, which sucks. It sits , as it does in most houses, hulking in some utility room or closet. It serves a useful function (as I have over the years worked with plenty of guys who clearly don't know what one does. Then again, they also clearly don't know what shampoo or soap does either). It serves as the wet portion of the eraser of the day's highs and lows.
- As such, I'd like to introduce my oldest son to the washing machine. He knows where it is, but seems to think it is magic not a machine that the dirty clothes he drops in the dirty laundry divider (not often successfully, as he, and his 3 siblings seem inexorably to have difficulty understanding the separation of whites and darks) which ensures his clothes come back to him clean, folded and fresh (again, I am not fully convinced he notices that the clothes are folded or fresh and not sure he cares). On some days, I'd like to make sure my son even knows that changing his clothes is something civil human beings do. He has been frequently known to wear his pajamas underneath the clothes he wears to school, as it saves him time in the morning - not having to shed a layer before adding a layer. He even, a couple of nights ago, was proud to announce that the pajamas he was wearing under his sport coat and shirt were the same ones he had worn for 3 days (I cringe to think of this when considering the time and effort my wife goes to get his laundry done). Eldest son, washing machine. Washing machine, eldest son. Good to meet you both.
-Civility in changing one's clothes, though, is not possible when one does not have a working washing machine, which leads me to "dis-service". My wife and I use local merchants where we can. We do not feel the need to go to some big box, no brain chain. Stores where the "salesman" are really no more than dogs wired to a bell. Ring the bell and they "scratch". Where they know nothing about the product they are selling and will tell you anything you want to hear to make "a sale". Where you get exactly what you pay for: nothing but the tin box you are buying and a hope that there is no mechanical issue which c ould cause you to need "service".
-We go to the local merchants because they, in theory not always in application, take a measure of pride in their service of the community and customers to which they are selling. They understand their inability to offer the absolute lowest dollar (on the basis of uncompetitive volume purchases relative to the big box) will garner customers on the basis of their ability to be an asset to those customers. My dry cleaner is one such local business as is the book store and the stationer ' s. One which is not is the appliance store: County TV and Appliances in Stamford, CT for those of you wanting to avoid an open sore on the face of consumer friendly retailing.
-My wife and I have been back from London for a little over 5 years now (London the land of no customer service). In that time, we have had 2 washing machines. We have had those 2 washing machines serviced 10 times due to mechanical failure (yes, count them, 10 times). The first machine was replace under warranty on the 7th fault. County and Whirlpool admitted: "it was a lemon". We took the credit, paid up, and bought yet a "better" Whirlpool from County (that is County TV and appliance in Stamford. CT for those of you might have missed it the first time) . This week, after just over a year, we called for service on the second machine for the 3rd time. The problem was that the machine turned on, made a "whirrrr" sound and nothing else. No washed clothes. No nothing, but a strange noise.
-We called County (TV and Appliance at 2770 Summer Street, Stamford, southeastern Connecticut) . They offered to send out a service man in a week or so. [ If you have 4 kids and live in suburbia, a week or so is approximately 23 trips to the laundromat - which I believe my town of Camelot actually has, though I have no idea where it is ] . We fortunately remembered their o-so-speedy service and had our own "certified" service company in hand who rushed out only to tell us that a "large part" needed to be ordered. We enquired on how long this would take. The rocket scientist ("I'll get back to you after I check with my manager" or file my nails or learn to read) at County (TV and Appliance "A Family Run Store") told us 3 and one-half weeks. Good luck. What part of 10 times on 2 washers in 5 years did they not understand? The part had "already been ordered" and was clearly coming by lama, as it was going to take 2 weeks and could not be rushed. Then, Schneider, the handy man resurrected from "One day at a Time" could not get to us (clearly due to the fact that his syndicated show had been cancelled 30 years ago) for another week-and-a-half.
-Business is good at County as they did not need to "hustle" at all to help a family of 6 who might be in the market at different points in time for an unknowable amount of tv's, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, etc. Business must be good or they must be lazy, or both.
-No washing machine for 3-and-a-half weeks. My son would be excited, if he even noticed. The laundry room would become a weigh station for my wardrobe. The car would log a couple hundred thousand miles jaunting between whatever dark ally the local Camelot laundromat is located down. What won't happen is me, my family or any of my friends ever buying as much as a mint at County TV and Appliances.
-Nice job, guys, and thanks for the local, "family run service". As those of you who read this know: "karma is a boomerang".
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