Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The Dryer That Got Louder

We've had some appliance issues.  They haven't been big issues, they're more the niggling, annoying type.  We have a refrigerator door that needs an extra hard swing to shut and an ice machine with buttons that don't reliably work.  There was a digit that stopped displaying on the dryer and our oven door had a stability issue, but only every now and then.  And then the dryer went wonky.

And by wonky I mean that it had this grating sound that would appear and disappear.  Then, it started appearing all the time and it sounded like the dryer was having a very bad day.  So I made a call. 

Several calls, in fact, because first I had to talk to the manufacturer and from there, I had to schedule an appointment with someone who did warranty service for that brand.  And I ran into a snag.  No one wanted to work on our dryer,  I made lots of calls and widened my distance criteria and eventually got connected with one of the nicest repair people I've ever met. 

He has now been to our hour three times and he still has to come back a fourth time, which is not his fault and is another, longer story.  But he is solving all our appliance problems.  He listened to us and he didn't think we were simply complainers because we couldn't get the ice machine into clean mode.  He agreed that the refrigerator door should close without excessive force, and he thought the oven door shouldn't be unstable, even if was only every so often. 

He got us replacement parts for several things, but most notably the dryer that was grumbly.  He had to come back to replace the dryer display when the part came in, but before he left last time he turned on the dryer and it sounded so wonderful without the grating noise.

Then, a little over a week later, I said to my husband, "I don't remember the dryer sounding that loud, do you?"  We agreed it wasn't loud like that before, even though it didn't sound like anything was wrong.  It was loud enough that we had to shut the door to the laundry room and even so, I could hear it on the other side of the house in the bedroom at night.  I could even hear the rumbly sound two floors up in the attic.  So I called back.

Timing worked out that he got another display and came out today.  I hoped that like before, he believed us that the dryer was louder and that we weren't just complaining for no reason.  As soon as he turned it on, he said, "oh, no, it's not suppose to be that loud.  It was probably something I did."  He laughed and we laughed too.  But I was so impressed.  Weather there was a faulty part or something he had or hadn't done, he was taking ownership of the problem and he was going to fix it or order a part to fix it.

He worked on it for a while, put it back together and it was still loud--or so I thought--and I was afraid he would leave and tell us that's how it was going to be with the new part.  I heard him talk to himself around the corner and say, "well, that's not right.  It looks like I'm going to have to take it completely apart again and see what's up."  And he did just that.  And I crossed my fingers and held my breath.

Twenty minutes later while I was preparing lunch for the children in the kitchen, I heard him turn it on and I immediately shouted out, "that's it!  You fixed it!"  It was so quiet I could scarcely believe it was on, but that was the sound I remembered from before that I couldn't quite describe.

I wish I knew people to recommend this company and gentleman to.  I am utterly impressed with his service as well as him personally.

The Big Boy Update:  "I am a monster truck man."  He said this this morning on the way to the bathroom.  I don't know where he found out about monster trucks, but he is apparently into them now.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Packing sheet bubble popper.  We got a package with bubble wrap inside.  My daughter spent lots of time stepping on it and popping bits with her fingers.  It was almost as good a distraction as television for a while.

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