Saturday, January 14, 2006


various tales of customer service

this is a kitchen version of calvino's if on a winter's night a traveler. . .

  • after much woe in which mr. right stayed home from work a couple of times before the promised g.e. dishwasher repair guy actually arrived, the guy actually arrived. and once here, he determined the problem was in how the thing had been hooked up to the plumbing, making it more likely to cause a clog.
    after hearing our stories of suffering, he called g.e. to ensure that we weren't charged for the visit. now all we need is to get a plumber to give us a wider pipe, move the connector, and snake the puppy free.
    all may be well, if it ends well.
  • as the 30-year-old g.e. fridge slowly died, leaking water, refusing to cool, we panicked and rushed to check out another one. due to the built-ins in our bklyn apartment, we had to go with another g.e.
    we purchased this at the low-end bargain store p.c. richard. they promised to deliver in 3 days, take away our poor dead fridge, and install the new one.
    p.c. richards has a cool phone system whereby they track the delivery guys in near real time. thus you can call up and see within 2 hours when they will be arriving.
    our time said they would arrive before 12:15pm. at 10:30am, the guys themselves called and said they would arrive in about an hour.
    75 mins. later, they arrived, measured everything, took off our doors, installed said fridge.
    new fridge turns out, due to a metal part at the bottom, to be 29 in. deep, not the stated 28. this means it doesn't fit.
    mr. right calls p.c. richard, who accepts the error, reduces the price and apologizes. mr. right then demolishes the wall(!) behind the fridge-space to remove a bit of the ornate floor molding.
    voila: flying plaster and an hour later, fridge fits. hooray, p.c. richard!
  • jessica's batdorf dancing goat arrived yesterday by mail, just as it has without fail for more than 2 years now.
  • sassafrass enterprises is best known for the must-have baking item, the ceramic bread cloche. after many years, the bottom pan of my cloche cracks in half.
    i call sassafrass, who cheerfully sells me a new one for just US$18. the sweet customer service rep says that if u.p.s. breaks it in shipping, they will replace it for free.

and now, a readers' poll: my boss is irish and loves soda bread. i wanted to make him a gift -- we've worked together for years and are quite friendly -- to celebrate the end of a project.

the problem is that soda bread rarely lasts a day; it's famous for almost instant staling. if i could make it one day, freeze it well, and then give it to him frozen -- that would be great.

yeast bread freezes quite well, as we all know. but i have little soda bread experience.

please, dear readers, those of you who treasure your grandma's soda bread recipe like your own heart, do tell me your own history with freezing soa bread.

posted by fortune | 2:44 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments