I told myself I wasn’t going to blog about this tonight, seeing as how I drank an entire bottle of premixed Hurricane made with Bacardi 151 last night to forget about what a horrendous week I’ve had (stopping in between the first and last batch of drinks to nap), but anyway, here goes.

I bought this window unit air conditioner at a very large national department store chain last year for $339 + tax + installation charges in June of 2006.

The manual states that it has a one year warranty from date of purchase and that “(company) will repair this air conditioner, free of charge, if defective in material or workmanship”.

On Monday, it started cycling through its temperature/fan/etc. modes on its own and I knew that couldn’t be good.  After resetting it, it continued to do that AND didn’t blow any air.  So I called warranty service and discussed it with them, and the technician came out yesterday.

The control board, i.e. computer chip, has gone bad and needs replacing.  The part’s been ordered and should be here next week and they will come back out and install it when it’s here.

I’m not being charged for the part.  Yet they are charging me nearly as much as the damn thing cost to begin with for labor?

WTF?  Am I missing something about how they will repair it, free of charge, if it’s defective?  Why should I be paying them as much as it would cost to just go get a brand new non-defective one and have it put in when it’s their product that is defective less than a year after purchase?

Yep, they tell you there may be other costs but relative to what it says in the warranty statement in the manual, if their POS AC craps out due to a defective part, seems to me like THEY should be bearing part AND labor costs.

Certainly I am planning on complaining about this (and probably filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau if that doesn’t turn out satisfactory) but I just wanted to make sure I’m not retarded.  In any case, they have certainly assured I will never purchase another of their brand appliance of any type ever again in my lifetime.  Which is pretty sad, seeing as how every appliance in this house just about and almost all of its replacements the last 20 years have been that brand.  And yup, it’s a big one and there may be yet another Kirking on the horizon.

Dear Santa,

Please bring me a set of Bob Krumm and Bill Hobbs action figures this year for Christmas.

I know it’s a little early to be asking, but I believe you can also get the Roger Abramson, Sean Braisted, and Rob Huddleston ones as an added bonus if you act now. I would very much like those too.

I understand the Kleinheider and Brittney Gilbert ones are always included when you have the whole set, so that’d be great.

(Please wrap them separately, though, since I hear the Kleinheider action figure is now only available in the version with the yanking chain attachment and the included bumper sticker that says “Pungent is a GOOD adjective!”.)

Thanks and Happy Late Easter,

Lynnster

P.S. If the Newscoma and Hutchmo Mondo Awesome Organizers with matching action figures are available also, those would be nice too. Especially if the Newscoma one comes with the Mabel attachment. Thanks.

P.P.S. Please leave a set of all of those action figures in Aunt B.’s stocking this year too.

P.P.P.S. It might be a good idea to hide her video camera and change her YouTube password while you’re there. I’m just sayin’.

;)

OK, well, I just screwed up and made a comment over at the marvelous, marvelous Home Ec 101 about the whole JL Kirk situation that I probably should have just posted here since I got to rambling on too much, but jeez, I am tired (and also apparently forgot to eat lunch or dinner today). Anyway, it’s here, if you’re so inclined. And then go poke around Home Ec 101 some more and browse, ‘cos it’s really really cool. Anything or anyone that makes me even THINK about housework at all is kind of a miracle in itself. Just doesn’t happen, but Ivy and Heather actually kind of make it sound fun. (I’m just saying I think about it more often. No, I haven’t been replaced by a neat freak pod Lynnster.)

I still think this whole rotten thing is sort of akin to me having an awful experience with a salesperson at some large national chain store - which I would almost certainly post about if it happened (well, heck yeah, I would), and then them retaliating in response by posting the credit card number I used to buy merchandise on that occasion on the very public Internet. I mean, really, this whole mess is kind of just that bad to me, even if JL Kirk didn’t actually do anything to legally breach the Cobles’ confidentiality. It was morally and ethically questionable at best.

Or hey, you know, should American Idol go threatening to sue every blogger in America that’s dissatisfied and unhappy with the way things are going this season and has posted about it? Puh-leeze.

But certainly, yeah - if I am your customer and spending my money on your service or goods, and you don’t treat me well or, worse, bully me? Twenty years ago, I’d have told every single person I knew. Who wouldn’t?

Nowadays, I’d do that AND post about it. And if you want an opportunity to make things right, coming at folks the way these yahoos went after the Cobles is just about the dumbest way to do it ever.

It’s not even been twelve hours yet since it all broke and already KC’s initial posts on her blog are about to get pushed off Google search’s first page by others, and it’s just going to get to be more and more, and plenty who don’t even have any local/Tennessee/Nashville ties and are just interested parties around the country, probably eventually around the globe. I’m thinking this probably should be a lesson for every single business owner that exists.

I’m not sure when “word of mouth” stopped being a concern for some companies, but I think that AND “word of Internet” is probably something that would be well revisited for those who forgot or who never bothered to think about such issues in the first place.

I’ll hush now ‘cos there are much more savvy folks discussing it all elsewhere and I’m wiped out anyway, but besides the ones I cited earlier and several other discussions going on NOW ALL OVER THE COUNTRY (big key words there!) - here’s two more takes that I found just spot-on perfect while browsing this evening, here and here.

I think that old saying “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” is worthless in regards to this situation. I mean, come on - nobody wants to be the person(s) responsible for ticking off the entire danged Internet.

And I do mean the ENTIRE danged Internet, indeed. I’ve now read several hundred (thousands, maybe?) words at this point on the matter and other than a couple of cautious souls, I’ve yet to see ANYONE who didn’t agree that this whole thing was bad mojo on JL Kirk’s part (and their legal representatives for representing them on it). Not one single, solitary soul.

Some days, after all these years, the online world annoys me. But today I am truly struck by the awesomeness of the Internet and am glad to see it being well used in a manner it SHOULD be - to inform, educate, and call it when right is right and wrong is wrong. And this was all just SO wrong - NOT on KC’s part, but on the Kirk company and their representatives who, again, just really should have known better.

And it has been just totally awesome to see dozens - HUNDREDS - of folks, and many of whom are often on opposite ends of the spectrum over many issues on any given day - all coming together to basically say uh uh - no way - this is WRONG, and the wrongdoers shouldn’t get away with it, and the entire freakin’ general online public is going to call you on it.

Sometimes I forget how awesome people are, but not today/tonight. Ciao for now.

Just a big hearty welcome to any overreacting business people or legal eagles who should have known better, should they drop by and visit The Lynnster Zone.

I hope you like reading about Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs, Skittles, Australian garage rock & surf music, aging Minneapolis indie rockers, and my ex-boyfriend. Enjoy!

(Hmm, matter of fact, if you’re in the legal profession, I might like to talk to you about the couple or three four or five thousand or thereabouts bucks the Freeloader Ex never paid me back, come to think of it… nah, never mind. But anyway, happy reading!)

(UPDATE: I don’t like to leave stuff hanging “vague” and there are probably two dozen links I could post at this point, including some wonderfully eloquent stuff at Newscoma’s, but Aunt B. sort of managed to very succinctly wrap up stuff I’ve been inefficiently blabbering in my usual too-rambling way for hours with a few excellent, clear and concise points, so I’ll just link that here over to Tiny Cat Pants and you’ll get the basic gist of what this is all about.)

(Sometimes when I think I’ve seen the dumbest things ever… eh, people just slay me.)