Thursday, December 19, 2013

Saga Part III

We got a call on Monday from a driver for New England Motor Freight (NEMF) telling us that they put our replacement stove on his truck but that particular truck did not have a lift gate.  Manually downloading a 375 pound item was not feasible.  While he was on the phone I checked about whether or not he had received instructions to deliver the stove down to our basement level.  Nope.  Just curbside delivery and he would be back probably the next morning to drop the stove.

So my next move was to call Colina at Home Depot Resolution and tell her that NEMF had not gotten the delivery memo.  I also checked with NEMF dispatch in Binghamton and she said she had to get those instructions from the manufacturer.  Just in case, the next morning we had our wonderful roofing guys out anyway to remove the beautiful but nonfunctional #^$#^%^$ so called pellet stove. Alas no call came so we called dispatch around 11.  Sherry said the driver was having snow problems and would be here about 1:30.
1:30 came and went and we knew our guys were busy later in the afternoon so resigned ourselves to spending big bucks on propane for another day.  About 3pm the driver called saying he could not get up our hill.  He had tried 3 times to no avail and would try again on Friday.  arghhhhhhh  Friday it's supposed to rain.  Our road will be an icy bobsled run.   So I called Jim to let him know and Jim called dispatch and the driver.  Seems they sent him out in a 53 foot semi that has problems with steep hills but only upwards.  Jim told him how to go around through Spencer and then Langford Creek Road to the top of Tupper and down.
About 4 he arrived in his huge semi, but again by himself.  Jim helped him lug the stove onto a dolly and down our driveway to park overnight behind my car.
Alas, another day on propane.  This is getting mighty expensive.  I called Colina to let her know the guy refused to bring the stove down and that we had hired a couple of guys for the next day to do that for us.  She said she had given delivery instructions but for whatever reason they were not forwarded.  She immediately said she would give us a very nice credit on my Home Depot card to offset this latest expense.  All told we have received quite a bit in Home Depot credit.  So even though this has been a major pain and Jim has spent an enormous amount of his time trying to fix the old stove instead of doing shop work we are coming out OK.

Morning Report:  The new pellet stove worked all night with no problems.

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