Success!

"If we did all the things we are capable of doing we would truly astound ourselves."--Thomas Edison

This quote is from a wonderful little book, The Complete Pocket Positives, my cousin and his wife gave me for Christmas.  I thought it appropriate for celebrating the completion of my bakers rack project today.  First, it fits!  And I can still access the wood box and pull out the wood stove ash box.  And, and this is the real miracle, the microwave fit in under the wine rack on the first shelf, but within a hair's breadth!  And that was just luck.  I could have put it on the bottom shelf, but it would have really been too low.  I can deal with it at this height since I usually am just heating water for my coffee of a morning, maybe making oatmeal or reheating leftovers or making cocoa at night.  I haven't had time to load it up, but will look forward to doing that tomorrow. 

This was kind of a crazy day.  Somehow, the powers that be arranged for everyone in Nederland and Eldora to get free RTD bus passes.  With the price of gasoline, which I expect will only go higher from what I read, I decided this was free money, so went to the library today, along with every able-bodied person within a 30-mile radius from what I could determine, with proof of property ownership and signed up and had my photo taken for my pass.  While I was there, I turned in one of the books I had checked out yesterday when I realized I had already read it and picked up two more.  I almost finished the second book I had checked out yesterday last night and I get almost panicky when I think I might run out of something to read, especially when the weather is bad.  No TV.

We had four or five inches of really light powder snow overnight, but it was calm until just about the time I was ready to leave for Nederland.  Then the winds started picking up and they've increased all afternoon.  I had to sweep out, but this was the first time in two winters that my front wheel drive and studless snow tires could not pull me out onto the road even after I cleared the snow.  We had had just enough sun and wind that the snow that was on the ground before this last snowfall had been turned into solid ice.  I tried twice, didn't want to start spinning the tires and making it worse, so walked back to the house, got a bucket and scooped some ashes into it from my ash pile and sprinkled those in front of my front tires.  Pulled right out.  Sometimes I think when you grow up on a farm in snow country you've learned everything you really ever need to know by the time you're five.  OK, eight.  After I left the library, I drove over to the spring up Caribou Canyon and filled my jugs with water.

When I got back from Nederland I sanded down the Spackled areas of the wall where the shelving had been removed yesterday.  Wore a glove because I had run a pretty good sized piece of very old rotten wood into one of my fingertips yesterday (how long are tetanus shots good?).  It bled freely and I encouraged it, washed with very hot water and antibacterial soap, and it isn't even sore, so I hope I'm OK.

Very smooth.  

Oh, boy!  Now's when you wish you had a vacuum.  It looks like the snow that comes in around my front door, but it's Spackle.

A whisk broom and some tack cloth I found the other day, had to serve the purpose.

Then I painted.  I can't believe this paint brush is still OK.  It's been in this plastic bag for weeks!

I also painted the wood box while I was at it and was taking a real chance because I didn't want to change clothes, and this paint with the primer in it, albeit acrylic, does not come out of fabric, even with Goof Off.  I think my clothes came through unscathed this time.

While the paint was drying, I drafted a letter in response to one, forwarded to me yesterday from an incorrect address, from Mr. Paul Bernardy of Sedgwick CMS on behalf of Sears in which he suggests he just learned about my claim regarding the failed auto repairs made at the Sears auto center in Longmont last October and suggests we've never talked!  Do they train these people in obstructionism?  Well, I've got some fine tuning to do on the letter, but it's almost ready. 

Right now, it's just about 11F degrees, the winds are cranking, but so are the blues.  I've got KUVO radio, Denver, streaming.  They have fantastic jazz most of the time, but Friday night at 6 p.m. it's blues.  If you like jazz or the blues, tune them in.  I just type in kuvo denver jazz and then find I get best reception on Listen Online.  Someone's substituting for the regular dj tonight and he's really got some toe tappers going.  I've fed the fox, got the rug, quilt and roll of foam up against the front door, have a good fire going and I'm a happy woman.  What makes you happy:?  Teddee

Doing Battle

A friend reminded me that I had planned to post yesterday about the ongoing jousting match with Sears regarding the botched repairs my car endured at the Sears Auto Center in Longmont, Colorado, store last October.  My intention got lost in preparing for this cold snap and it has been truly cold.  I've spent the day in bed under the electric blanket and a down comforter reading, getting up only to add more wood to the fire and reassure Pandora Radio that, "Yes, I'm Still Listening."

My wood box is getting low, but the winds are still bashing around out there, and despite the bright sun, the temperature at mid-day is about 15 degrees F.  I'm waiting for a lull, before even higher winds predicted by NOAA commence, to race out and carry in more wood.  Tonight we are supposed to have wind gusts of 29 mph or higher with a low around 7 degrees F and wind chill of -6.  Then Friday, gusts as high as 45 mph, although temps are expected to rise to 27 degrees F, bringing the wind chill to -3.  NOAA calls these days "Breezy."  I guess, compared to 75-100 mph, which we do experience, these could be considered breezes. 

So, in addition to battling the elements, I continue to battle with Sears.  We may be making some headway.  I have now engaged Anthony, my Blue Ribbon Service Customer Service Team representative at Sears, in my encounters with Mr. Paul Bernardy, Claims Examiner II Libility, Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc.  I have to hand it to Anthony.  He has unfailingly continued to follow up on this case.  The last time he did so, I asked if would please request Mr. Bernardy to communicate with me via e-mail since the phone service here is fitful at best.  My request for this consideration directly to Mr. Bernardy had fallen on deaf ears and I had received no responses to my e-mails sent to the address Mr. Bernardy had provided in our one phone conversation on December 15, 2011.  Low and behold, on January 10, 2012, I not only received a voice mail from Mr. Bernardy, but a follow-up e-mail asking me to submit all documentation that might support my claim.  Mr. Bernardy had told me in that December 15, 2011, phone call that he had access to all of this correspondence electronically somewhere else on the system, but made it clear it was too much trouble for him to access.  He was insisting that I fax everything to him, but I told him I had no fax.  Once I had wrested his e-mail address out of him under duress, I e-mailed him all such documentation the same day.   After receiving his January 10 request, I responded, indicating the documentation had been e-mailed to him December 15 after he indicated he couldn't be bothered to locate it electronically....and I copied Anthony.  Then I forwarded that December 15 e-mail to Mr. Bernardy again...and copied Anthony.  Now it seems Mr. Bernardy is out of the office for an extended weekend...again...so there's a lull in the battle. 

And speaking of battling, I just finished Margaret Coel's Blood Memory, which provided information about the name Niwot.  Until reading this book, I knew Niwot only as the name of a cute little village between Boulder and Longmont where I bought a pair of earrings at a thrift boutique last year and where there is an old storefront that I would love for my brick-and-mortar store if I could only afford it.  I knew Niwot had a Left-Handed Festival and that "niwot" meant "left-handed" in one of the Native American languages.  The book explains that Niwot was the name of an Arapaho chieftan, one of the so-called "peace chiefs," who was slain, along with 159 others at the Sand Creek Massacre in southeastern Colorado in 1864, where Arapaho and Cheyenne had been lured under false pretenses by the U.S. military and government officials so they could be killed.  I don't think this can rightfully be called a battle as the Indians, mostly women, children and old men who had stayed behind while the younger men went hunting, were only armed with white and American flags.  However, I really enjoyed the book, the history lesson, the plot and Ms. Coel's writing style and will now launch myself  into the Drowning Man.

What good battles have you fought and books have you read lately?  Teddee

Dealing with Companies in Decline

I took yesterday off.  Maybe I will make it a practice to take Sunday off.  Since this is a new blog, I'm making my rules up as I go along.  I didn't post because I was trying to make space in this one-room cabin, already over-stuffed, for my "new" table that I bought Saturday at Salvation Army.  It should be making its way up the canyon this morning thanks to total stranger Tenille, who volunteered her visiting father Bill and his truck to pick the table up from the Salvation Army store and deliver it to my door.  There are still really nice people in this world.

Still can't post any new photos since Kodak is now insisting that I talk to them in an attempt to get my computer communicating with my printer and camera and I get really poor cellular reception in this cabin, especially here at the kitchen table where I have my computer, so, I'm not sure a phone conversation with Praneeth Krovi is the answer under the circumstances, but I'm putting the entire issue aside until I get the table safely ensconced in the cabin.  I did note last week that the price of Kodak stock had fallen so low, the NYSE was threatening their removal.  I think Kodak was considered a Blue Chip stock at one time.

In the meantime, while I'm waiting for my boots to warm up so I can go out and shovel snow so someone doesn't slip and break a leg getting the table from the truck to the cabin, I thought I'd tell you about another ongoing issue getting customer satisfaction from another company in decline, Sears.  This is related to some faulty automotive repairs their Longmont, Colorado, repair center "provided" last fall.  That store, by the way, is one of the Sears stores that's being closed.  I don't know whether the quality of their automotive services was a factor.  Here's the letter I sent to the CEO of the Sears Holding Company last fall:

October 27, 2011

 

Mr. Lou D'Ambrosio, CEO

Sears Holding Corporation

3333 Beverly Road

Hoffman Estates, IL  60179

Dear Mr. D'Ambrosio:

Just in time for Halloween I am writing to relay a Sears horror story and to ask you to make things right.

This past Monday, October 24, 2011, was an unusually beautiful and warm day even at 9,000 feet in the Rockies.  However, the forecast was for a major blizzard on Tuesday night, so I decided to drive down out of the mountains the 60 miles or so to the Sears in Longmont, Colorado, where I had purchased four snow tires late last November, and have those tires put back on my car.  I would also get an oil change and a new air filter and I had noted I had a headlight out and wanted that addressed and asked that the technician try to determine what might be causing my car to start overheating when I idled for any length at stoplights in Boulder.  There are no stoplights in Nederland or the old mining town of Eldora where I am living in my retirement in a one-room un-insulated cabin with no running water that my father built in 1939.

The first thing that happened in this saga was that I was told two of the four snow tires I had purchased last November and on which I had driven for six months before having my "summer" tires put back on at the same Sears store, were so badly worn they could not "legally" be put back on, and, strangely, two of the "summer" tires still on my car were worn in the same way, and the wear indicated it was caused by over-inflation.  Both sets of tires had been installed and inflated by a technician at this Sears automotive center and I had never added air.  Could I leave the two good "summer" tires on and have the two good snow tires put on the front?  No.  That also would be "illegal."  I would have to buy two new snow tires.  With a storm brewing and a very treacherous mountain road to navigate back to my cabin, I couldn't argue if I wanted snow tires, so I agreed to the purchase and to pay the recycling fee on the two snow tires and the two "summer" tires on which I was told the tread was deficient.  They would order the necessary bulbs for the headlight and call me when they determined what was causing the overheating.  I went to breakfast and got a call indicating the technician had determined my power steering pump was leaking and needed to be replaced and that would be another $352.  Obviously can't have power steering going out on mountain road.  I agree to the repair.  What about the overheating?  Oh.  You need a new thermostat.  OK.  I agree to that, which seemed reasonable.

I do some shopping, return to Sears.  Technician, one of two on duty with the first major storm of the season on its way, says he's about half finished.  Then 8 p.m. perhaps?  Oh, shouldn't be that long.  Prowl the mall, which is basically empty of stores.  Find something to eat for supper.  Return, eat, read, watch T.V.  Finally, about 8:30 p.m., the technician comes in with the print-out of my existing alignment.  Not bad.  No way it could have been responsible for the wear on the tires.  Do I want the alignment corrections made?  Yes.  Shortly he returns.  Do I really need the print-out showing that he's done the alignment at a cost of $79.99?  Because the computer has crashed...again...and he'll have to start over if I want proof.  This had happened three times to one customer the day before and she was really angry.  I'm exhausted.  He's exhausted.  I'll forego the proof. 

So, around 9 p.m. I'm told the car is ready.  I put the $1,014.15 repair bill on my Sears card and depart, appalled at the cost but reassured my car is set for winter.  Drive south past Niwot, through Boulder, get about halfway up Boulder Canyon and note that the heat gauge is climbing.  Pull over.  Gauge tops out and car explodes in a cloud of steam and smoke.  Open the hood.  Too dark to really see what's going on, but smoke and steam keep boiling out.  Get cell phone.  Try to call AAA.  No service, with canyons rearing up on both sides.  Pitch black.  The few cars heading up the canyon at that hour just want to get home.  Flag down a car.  Luck out.  It's the chef from one of the restaurants in Nederland coming back from a job interview in Denver.  He not only drives me back to Nederland, where he lives, but on to my cabin in Eldora before returning to Nederland to celebrate with his wife what he's pretty sure is a new job at a new up-scale restaurant in Denver.

I sleep fitfully, worried about my little car left beside the road.  Get up at 5 a.m.  Get wood stove going.  Heat water to clean up and make coffee.  Call AAA.  Yes, they will allow the tow truck driver to pick me up at my cabin and take me back to my car where we will hook it up and tow it back to Sears in Longmont.  Tow truck driver goes to bat for me and tells young man on duty at the maintenance center that Sears should pick up the cost of the tow.  Call in store manager who agrees.  Technician orders new radiator cap and all agree Sears will pay for the radiator cap (an approximate $15 part) as well.  A few minutes later, technician returns and says radiator has burst and must be replaced.  He is the only technician on duty.

Go to McDonald's for breakfast.  Return.  Read, watch T.V.  About 4 p.m. am told car has been repaired and I leave.  Get about six miles down the road and car starts over-heating.  I can hear it boiling.  I limp back to Sears, stopping about every quarter of a mile to allow boiling to cease.  Technician is at supper.  I go to supper.  Get a call.  Technician has called several other Sears automotive centers and Toyota and no one knows what the problem is.  Must take it to a specialty shop to have diagnostics run.  Call one such center recommended.  They think the car has blown a head gasket, but they can't run diagnostics until the next day.  Find a nearby Holiday Inn Express and get a senior "discount" rate of $80.00.  Decide in the night, with the snowing falling at a rapid rate, to have car towed back to Nederland where the tow truck driver said the garage that works on imports is good and honest. 

Wait until morning.  Call AAA. Me again. Need a tow back to Nederland.  Storm had left 11 inches of snow in Longmont and possibly more in the mountains.  Tow truck came.   

 Had to stop enroute up the canyon and put on chains.  Made it to Peak to Peak Imports whose owner gave me a ride back to my cabin.  An hour later, get a call.  Car is fixed.  Sears tech had installed the wrong radiator cap.  However, the second lot of antifreeze that Sears had installed had boiled away so that had to be replaced.  Another $128.83. 

Woke up this morning and realized that in all of the kaffuffle, my two remaining good "summer" tires had never made it back into my car as requested.  I called and was told tires had not yet been recycled and tech would go through the tires and find my two good tires.  After four hours of waiting, call again and manager says he never relayed the task to the tech, but he will find the tires.  Calls back shortly and says they have been located and are in the office ready for pick-up.  Hopefully, this part of the saga actually comes to pass when I make the 120-mile round trip to pick them up.

In order to be even close to being a satisfied customer, I want to be reimbursed for the cost of the tow back to Nederland from Longmont yesterday, which came off my AAA quota and will not be available to me this winter should I need it (you can use the cost of the tow the previous day for which the driver provided a receipt $193.00, which is actually less mileage than the subsequent tow); the cost of my room at the Holiday Inn Express ($88.14 with tax) and evening meal ($9.39) Tuesday night; and the cost of the radiator cap and antifreeze replacement undertaken by Peak to Peak Imports in Nederland which fixed the problem caused by the installation of the incorrect radiator cap ($128.83).  That's a total of $419.62. 

I won't even go into why, all of a sudden, after the initial work was done by Sears, my car radiator exploded or whether I was being given a song and dance about the four tires being inadequate for installation (both tow truck drivers and Peak to Peak say I was) or whether the power steering actually needed repairing.

I await my check.

Sincerely,

Teddee Grace

Subsequently, the car over-heated again coming up the canyon and my local mechanic replaced the thermostat installed at Sears with an authentic Toyota thermostat and gave me the the one installed by Sears.  The gasket was so loose that it seemed apparent to me this could have caused it to be inefficient, if not defective.  I then asked to be further reimbursed for the cost of replacing the thermostat.  I think we're over $500 at this point.

Now, Sears Customer Service has turned the matter over to Sedgwick, its claims office, and Paul Bernardy at Sedgwick is giving me the runaround.  I think his last admonishment was that I should have kept all of the defective parts Sears installed and he refuses to communicate via e-mail even though I've explained about the poor phone reception here in the mountains.  If this goes on much longer, I'm contacting the T.V. stations in both Chicago and Denver.  I don't go down easy.

Have you ever battled a company over a customer service issue? Did you prevail? Teddee