Of Freezers, Hunks Of Meat, DNA & The 3 Stooges

The last 2 days have been almost as much fun as last Friday was.
More time spent on the phone, which is one of my most favorite things. HA!

Update on the freezer.......
It's gone....as of 10 am Tuesday morning.
Hurray!!!

The asst. manager guy from Home Despot....er, Home Depot arrived with an assistant(assistant to the assistant manager?)in a sort of truck thingy vehicle and took her away.
The asst. manager even called me when they got back to the store and took my c/c number to issue me a refund.
I didn't even have to go to the store to get my money back.
Cool beans.

My local HD store gets two thumbs Way Up from me for the way they handled this situation.

Now I just have to decide what to do about a freezer as the old fridge's freezer compartment is not a long term solution for us.

On Monday, after running various store errands with my sons, we stopped in at Lone Star for lunch.
Oldest and I got a lunch steak and baked potato.
When I cut into my steak it was as far from Medium Rare inside, as I could have possibly ordered it.
I ate one piece and then decided, WTF?, I am NOT going to be ok with this steak being done incorrectly after all.
So I got the waiter's attention and sent it back for the kitchen to try again.
The replacement was done a tad Rare but borderline rare was better than the first one which was approaching well, so I pronounced it sufficiently cooked and munched away.  They also brought me a second potato which I couldn't possibly have eaten, so I boxed it and took it home.

Before we finished the meal, the manager du jour came over to "table touch"(technical restaurant biz term) and inquired about our visit.  The waiter had briefed her on the steak trouble so she said she was comping my lunch as, "It should have been done correctly the first time."
I did not argue the point and thanked her for the gesture.
And $11.29 stayed in my wallet on Monday. ;-)
Of course, the waiter got a real nice tip too.....

Then Monday afternoon, the Whirlpool authorized repair person finally called me.
I told him, thanks but no thanks as that POS appliance is going back to the store, so he need not bother making a trip out to visit it at my house.  But thanks for finally calling me for an appointment, 3 days after Whirlpool sent you the request for service!
Asshole......see if I EVER call you if another appliance of mine goes on the fritz.....

 

Monday evening I get an email back from FamilyTreeDNA.  These are the folks I bought a DNA testing kit from last month for $199.  Then they sent me a mass email as a user about a great DNA testing kit sale, not 3 weeks after paying them $199 for a kit.  Now that same kit is on sale for....$99.

Of course they got an angry email from me the evening I received that notice that they were charging HALF of what I was made to pay.
As a way to placate me, they are refunding $50 of what I paid(though I still don't see a credit for this on a c/c bill).
It's not total satisfaction but it's better than nothing.

So I won't totally tell all my readers to avoid FamilyTreeDNA for all your genealogical DNA testing needs like I was going to.
I will say that if you buy their product, wait for the inevitable sale price.

Oh, and be prepared to wait TWO MONTHS at least for your test results once it's received in their lab.
My problem is, if they take TWO MONTHS to provide test results when they charge $199, imagine how long test results will take once they drop the price by HALF and get inundated with orders!
Just don't be holding your breath....

Then let's move on to my youngest son's flute camp registration.
He's attending a flute camp at a university a couple of hours away from here next week.
I registered him online, on the school's website with a credit card over a month ago.

They sent a zip file with release forms that need to be signed and brought with us, as well as a file with other information(what to bring, daily itinerary, how to pay the balance of the tuition, etc.).
Of course when I went late last week to pay the balance due with my credit card, on their linked web page where you can make c/c payments, I get the "this page is missing" page.  Some numbnut at the school in charge of the website has either moved or taken down the payment page.

Numerous tries later for 2 days and I still get the error page.  Obviously, the link is broken.
So I call them and leave a voice mail.
Then I email both the woman teaching the flute camp and the dept. secretary at the school on Friday.
The teacher emails me back Friday evening that she'll forward my situation on to the woman in charge of the camps and they will be back to me.

Of course, with all we were doing on Monday, I totally forget to follow up on this until 5:20pm on Monday.....as no one had called or emailed me by then on Monday.  So I called and the phone rang and rang and no voice mail kicked in, so I could leave a message.

Then I found the email with the zip file attachments, which was from yet another person at the school and emailed her Monday around 5:30pm and asked if somebody ANYBODY! connected to this camp could please call or email me.

On Tuesday morning, I come downstairs to an email from her.  Evidently it seems like everyone in charge of camp stuff at this school decided to go on vacation the same week! so that is why no one has gotten back to me until now.
This dept. secretary gives me the option of her finding someone else who can find a way for me to pay via online(?!?!....just fix the freaking link to the webpage!)or I can mail a check.
Figuring that trying to pay online will just lead to more emails and frustration as these folks don't seem very technologically savvy, I decide to write a check to snail mail there.


So I have to ask her for the mailing address, as that also was NOT in the literature they supplied me upon registering.  You would think when she suggested that method of payment that she would have volunteered an address?
She replies with the snail mail addy for a check payment.
Then I have to email her again for how to make the check out to, as neither she nor the literature gives an inkling about this point either.
***exasperated sigh***

Like pulling teeth on a shark, folks......

So I got the check mailed out and with the Holiday weekend, it will be a race to see who/which arrives at flute camp first.....our minivan carting #2 Son there or this check payment.  I'll have to print out emails to bring to prove that we made payment and to show the reason that this payment is NOT there yet is due to the chucklehead's running this shebang.
Leave it to people in academia to not be able to efficiently run a flute camp.
After dealing with 2 children attending colleges, I have run into this lackadaisical type of attitude with higher education institutions and employees all the time.  They are like government bureaucracies, in that, they have no motivation to be efficient, organized and on the ball.  After all, if a "customer" is not happy, they aren't in danger of losing their job, like a private sector business employee.
This type of crap out in the business world doesn't fly for very long, because the people who run things badly are soon out of business.
This is one of the reasons I really detest dealing with educational institutions.

But enough of this for now.

Finally score for this post.....

Freezers   0
Steak Restaurants   0
DNA Labs    1/2 pt.
University run programs  3 Stooges-none of which knows what the others are doing

ME  broken freezer-free, free steak in the belly, $50 back in wallet and ready for a straight jacket having to deal with Moe, Larry and Curly

Sluggy