"Someone Will Be There Between Noon and Five"

As if it isn’t fun enough when a major appliance breaks down, there’s also the added joy of waiting around for the repairman to show up and fix it. And since most of us actually do have lives—contrary to what companies that repair stuff think—we have to take time out of our busy lives to hang around the house anticipating their arrival, which may or may not even happen.

When you call to make the appointment, a friendly customer service representative will inform you that someone will be there three weeks from next Tuesday.  You then proceed to impress upon them the fact that you can’t wait that long. You say, in no uncertain terms, that they need to schedule it for a much sooner date and that you won’t stand for such incompetence. This will of course, get you nowhere and furthermore, the person who was nice on the other end of the phone—before you said that last thing—becomes snotty and tells you that you’re lucky to get an appointment that soon.

This is where the fun begins; they tell you that someone will call you the night before and give you a “time frame.” So in other words, whatever you have scheduled for that day, unschedule it.

Fast forward to the night before the appointment is supposed to take place. You get a call from a computer generated device telling you that the guy will show up sometime between noon and five, and that you’d better be there. Click.

So noon the next day finally arrives. You sit there and hope beyond all hope that he actually comes close to noon.  As if. One o’clock goes by, then two o’clock; three o’clock makes an appearance. Four o’clock taunts you and still no guy. Then the clock strikes five; you know he’ll be there any minute now…

At 5:20 you call the service number and they don’t answer. You call several times afterward and still no one picks up. At 6:00, someone calls to inform you that the guy got backed up and you’ll need to re-schedule. By this point you’re ready to snap and ask why they didn’t they call you sooner. They’ll ignore this question and tell you that you need to call back the next day, as the people that do the scheduling aren’t in until after 10 in the morning. 

You call them back the next morning, and interestingly enough, recognize the voice on the other end as being the person who told you that you had to call back today. That person pencils you in for next Friday, assuring you that someone will call the night before to give you another “time frame.” And so the fun begins again...