"Gwen, you're overloading the washing machine. You're gonna break the thing."
"It's just one more shirt. ONE MORE PIECE OF CLOTHING. What harm can it do?" I tossed in the aforementioned shirt, poured a healthy capful of detergent, and hit "on."
And that, dear reader, is how I broke our washer. The motor died, leaving our clothes floating in a basket full of cold water.
The powers-that-be at Lowes apparently have some sixth sense, as they seem to have sensed my growing frustration at having a busted machine. Just a few weeks after our washer sputtered its last spin cycle, I received an offer in the mail for a Lowes card, offering zero interest on any purchase over $200 (and paid in full in 12 months).
Cool. Off to Lowes we went.
Having done our research, we had a few models of washing machines in mind, and had some very specific questions about them. Unfortunately though, we couldn't find anyone to help us. After loitering in the appliances section for roughly fifteen minutes, we finally attracted the attention of a guy in his early 20's who talked to us around his chewing gum (which, from what we could smell, was grape flavored). Appliances wasn't *his* section, he informed us, but he could find someone else who could help us.
He brought over a guy (I think his name was German), who was actually very nice, patient, and happy to go over the various aspects of each machine. He helped us settle on a GE model, and we were pretty happy with our purchase.
Still, things got messed up. I asked that the machine be delivered Tuesday. A few hours later I received a phone call, confirming a Monday delivery. I said nope, I asked for Tuesday, and was told again that Tuesday would be fine.
Tuesday rolled around, and I had a suspicious feeling that something was wrong. We called, and they screwed up the delivery day again, penciling us in for Wednesday. We repeated for the third time that we had asked for a Tuesday delivery. Lowes said that they'd find a way to make it work.
And they did, which was nice. However, the guys who delivered the machine hooked it up wrong, and left without leveling it. We're still trying to get the damn thing leveled.
What really sucks is that when I filled out my Lowes card application (you know, to buy the machine), I added Brandon V. as an authorized user (since we both share the machine and other household expenses). As the clerk processed the application, we stressed that Brandon was to be an authorized user and NOT a joint account holder. Still, they did the opposite of what we asked, which complicates my finances and does all sorts of funky, not cool things to Brandon V's credit rating. It's a pretty big mistake to make, especially when we were so adamant about how we wanted it done.
So yeah, I was pretty unhappy with the outcome, and it's something I'll be dealing with for a while. read more