Our dishwasher broke on 12/18 - terrible timing. Especially since the last thing anyone wants for Christmas is a dishwasher. But it's one of those things that one really ought to have if one is planning on entertaining large groups of people over the next few days, so . . .
We called around and the only place that could get us a new one by 12/24 was the Dedham Lowe's - Armand told us that he could get the washer shipped to the store on 12/23 for a 12/24 delivery. He even called the distributor to make sure that that would fly. Great, right?
Unfortunately, it turns out that Armand (or his colleagues) needed more oversight than i was equipped to give. By which i mean that i needed to call them every day until the day of my delivery in order to make sure that it didn't get screwed up. As it was, i called on 12/21 and was told that since the machine hadn't yet arrived in the store, the delivery hadn't been scheduled yet. fair enough, but that should have set off alarm bells in my head. Sadly, the alarm bells were being silenced by visions of sugarplums and whatnot. So I didn't call again until 12/23.
When i called back, i was told that although the washer was in the store, our delivery would not occur until 12/27 - a day when we would be unavailable to receive delivery, which I had already told Armand. Cue atmospheric music increasing sense of tension and frustration. Cue visions of my mom berating me for being a bad son because i don't have a working dishwasher and am therefore bringing shame upon my family. Ok, so maybe i have some baggage.
Anyway, Michael, the manager, was polite but apologetic, saying that because the delivery list had already been faxed out (i called at 6pm) there was nothing he could do. He did change my delivery date from 12/27 to 12/26, and offered to comp me a "load and go" truck if i wanted to come out to Dedham to pick up the washer myself (30 minutes each way by car). Cue music to highlight the agony of indecision and the overwhelming pathos of human existence. Or maybe not.
I had finally decided to wake up at 5:30am on Christmas eve morning and drive out to Dedham, get their truck, load in the dishwasher, drive back home, unload it, drive the truck back, and then drive home in my car (total projected time: 2.5h) and was coming to terms with how sucky i was going to feel when my parents showed up at 3, but figured it was worth it because then my mom wouldn't be able to berate me for bringing broken-dishwasher shame upon the family. And then my phone rang.
It was the Lowe's home delivery service, saying that they'd be at our house, on 12/24 (which is tomorrow, for those of you who've lost track), between 8 and 10:30. i don't know how Michael did that, and until the dishwasher is actually in our house i won't be completely convinced that it's actually coming, but we were incredibly appreciative - especially because he was leaving for Florida on 12/24, and i'm sure that getting our dishwasher to us was the last thing on his mind. Even more impressive, he didn't call us back to seek accolades. Because of him, we will definitely be back to the Dedham Lowe's - at least the large appliances section.
Which is good, because i think my mom's going to have a few things to say about our washer/dryer... read more