We’re all surely familiar with the proverb, “good things come to those who wait,” or some version of it. I don’t really care about its origins, although some attribute it to Lamentations 3:25 in the Bible and others, a much longer & more detailed concept, to Abraham Lincoln.
A Story About a Humidifier –
I lived it this week – really for the last 32 days to be exact. Once upon a time we bought a new humidifier, to replace the ten year old trooper we had become used to, for our living room, to counter the dry air produced by our fireplace insert.
This humidifier had a one year warranty. Good thing.
Since we rarely use the humidifier in the summer (humid Pennsylvania summer), having purchased it last February, we used it a few times then it sat for months before we used it late this fall. One day I noticed the water didn’t last as long as it should have, having run it only a few hours before manually shutting it off. Upon further inspection, water covered an 18 square inch section of the hardwood below where it sat.
Uh-oh! I cleaned up the mess, re-filled the tank and tried again another day. It worked, then it repeated the leak. We put a towel – a nice one to match the living room (lol) under it just in case; and sure enough, it leaked again.
It was time to call Customer Service – duh, duh, duh – can you hear my musical interlude a la Stephen King? Oh no, the ominous Customer Service department!
Thus my 32 day trial of waiting began, accompanied by at least four calls and half a dozen emails from no less than five email addresses from personal to business to family. On call number one I was talked into purchasing a new filter since I hadn’t replaced the original since purchase, and “that should fix it.” Sucker!
Au contraire mon ami – the new filter did nothing but soak it, and the floor. I’m not totally dumb, but I don’t get the whole wet filter thing. Our old humidifier had a filter but it didn’t soak to the gills with nowhere else to release the water – but the floor!!????
At any rate, in call number two, with Colin, I thought I had a replacement humidifier coming our way – happily, a filter-free model, worth a tad more than our old one, once they received my email with our Walmart proof of purchase attached. I felt okay.
I waited a week after sending the email without any response or acknowledgement of the proof of purchase. So, I sent the email again from three different email origins. No response. You know how, at this point, you start to question yourself? I’ve been sending emails to all kinds of people, does my email work? So, I called to confirm the email address to send the receipt – it was confirmed. What???
Long story, finally short –
I called yesterday with my firm but friendly voice and said, “we need to settle this today. If you can’t make that happen, I would like to speak to someone who can. It’s been a month and I’m getting the runaround on a warranty replacement.”
Bingo. I ended up with – I say this, although technically it won’t be the end until the new unit arrives in 6-8 business days – a UV warm/cold mist humidifier that is worth four times the one I purchased last February at Walmart.
By the way, they were “out of” most of their humidifiers, posing a conundrum in the middle of which she said, “we have crock-pots, but I guess that wouldn’t work when you want a humidifier,” – LOL LOL LOL!!! So, the boss agreed to send me a humidifier from their colleagues, a higher-end brand.
A true-life example of good things come to those who wait; and timing is everything (I think originated with a Greek poet, Hesiod).