Smashing put up a new theme this morning and I kinda liked it. There’s still some tweaks to be made (like why the damn XBL picture is lining up funny), but I think it could work. More on the house in the coming days, including photos. Very busy, be back in a jiff.
Working on it. Gonna need some tweaking.
Since he stormed off in a huff after our last encounter, we haven’t heard anything from the guy who ruined our fridge. So, giving him the benefit of the doubt, I had given him until the end of this week to “make things right” as he said he would. Since it’s Friday and I hadn’t heard from him, I decided to give him a ring.
I was pleasent, I didn’t yell. Actually our phone conversation was very brief.
“Hello, Keith?” I said. “uhhh huh” was the reply.
“Hey Keith, it’s Matt, I was calling to talk to you about the fridge…”
“uhhh huh, yeah, well, I’m pursuing different avenues for that…” he says.
“huh? different avenues? did you get the message about what the Kenmore guy said?”
“yeah, and that’s like only getting an opinion from one doctor. I’m pursuing different avenues, I’ll get back to you next week”, and he hangs up the phone.
It’s abudently clear that he had no intention of paying for what he did. What’s even more aggrivating is that he still doesn’t seem to understand what he did.
I’m not really angry about it any more. I just want it fixed. I want a new fridge, one that’s capable of holding food without fear of contamination or poisoning us.
I don’t really think that’s too much to ask.
The Kenmore repair technitian came out on Tuesday. He thinks the fridge is totaled. He was concerned about the fumes getting up inside the frame of the fridge itself and not just the doors. He gave us a damage estimate of $1700. That’s nearly $500 more than the cost of fridge new.
We’ve called and left a couple of messages this week saying basically “you caused $1700 worth of damage, but give us enough for a new fridge and we’ll call it even, and you can even have the old fridge if you want”. We never got a call back. I’m actually surprised I got him on the phone. He must not have recognized the number.
That’s ok, *67 did what it was supposed to do, lol.
To round out the complete catastrophy of this fridge, while doing my research I found out that here in Texas you actually can’t sue unlicensed workers. Apparently the local contractors union or some bullshit got that added to the law books a while back. If you use an unlicensed worker, you’re on your own. A nice little penalty for not using union workers.
Isn’t that awesome! So, now I’ve got nothing left as far as options. I’ve got to get something out of him. And that’ll be like getting blood from a stone.
So, I’ve got a Sears bill for $1200 that I haven’t even started paying on yet, no fridge, and a douchebag who owes me a new fridge, money or both.
I think I’m getting an ulser. I can’t deal with this shit any more.
My grandfather always said that all a man really has in life is his handshake and his word. It would be nice if we still lived in an age when that meant something. It bothers me that it doesn’t.
So the douchebag calls me. “Hey buddy” he says, “We’re all finished up here, I cleaned up the floor and I think that fridge will be ok, I wiped most of it up, I think it just needs a good cleaning. Maybe I’ll go get you guys some stainless steel polish.”
I didn’t think I could be floored twice in 24 hours. I was. His level of retardation is so high, there’s really little doubt that he’s done this before because obviously the fumes have eaten HIS BRAIN.
I asked him “so you guys are completely done, you’re leaving right?”. I want him as far away from me as possible when I go over there, or else I wouldn’t be responsible for my actions.
“Yeah Buddy, where would you like me to leave the key?”
“On the counter, next to the lock box (which holds the key for the contractors). You can lock the handle of the back door from the inside and go out that way.”
“Ok, will do” and he hangs up.
An hour later I go over to check on it. The house is completely wide open. Front door, open to the world. Not just unlocked, but OPEN. Back door, same thing. Windows, open too. Key? Nowhere to be found.
So, they’re either not done and he’s coming back, which might be the case because there are still tools EVERYWHERE. Or, he’s the biggest fucking idiot alive. I’m figuring it’s a 50/50 split between the two.
This time I brought both the professional video camera from work as well as my little Powershot so I could document it even more. You can see the latest photos here. They include such gems as “the rust he tried to wipe off and obviously couldn’t” and more damage to my freezer as well, which I’m becoming increasingly concerned with.
We’ve contacted the Kenmore rep and they’re sending someone out on Tuesday to inspect the damage and tell us if the door can be replaced or if the entire unit needs to go. I’ll get them to look at the freezer as well.
I’ll also see if I can’t encode that video and put it up as well. It’s, umm, “educational” as to the level of stupidity I’m dealing with.
Thanks for the links and the concerns. He says he wants to “make things right”, so I’m going to give him that chance, but I’m also not stupid. I’ve got the PDFs to file in small claims court already printed out.
He has until the weekend.
So, last night, the demo guy assures us that he’s almost done and that he’ll come back and finish up in the morning. Not a big deal, that sounds ok to me, but I go over to check on the job anyways, mostly because I’m the curious sort. Turns out that instead of using a scraper like any normal person would, he decided to pour an acid on the floor to remove the old glue that was underneath the linoleum. Hydrochloric Acid!
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When I arrived I knew something was wrong. All the kitchen windows were open and I could smell the fumes from the street. This was also a big problem because it rained at 3:00 that afternoon and apparently the windows had been open long before that. Everything was soaked. That wasn’t the bad part. When I walked in it was pretty apparent what they had tried to do. They got lazy and didn’t want to scrape up glue anymore and decided to go get something to eat away at it. In theory this might not have been a bad idea. Too bad we don’t live in Theory, although I hear it’s nice there. No, they went out and found Muriatic Acid, a 30% solution of Hydrochloric Acid and something else.
All over the bottle it says “Do not use indoors”, “For exterior use only”, “Will react with woods, metals and other natural materials”, “Caution, fumes are corrosive”.
Apparently they can’t read.
When I walked into the kitchen I was floored. Actually, the floor was “floored”, I was in shock. There was super corrosive acid everywhere. The counters, the cabinets, and especially on the appliances.
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The brand new, $1200 refrigerator that I just had installed on Sunday was covered in acid. I could hear it sizzling and eating through the metal. It was creating huge pits in the doors to the fridge, in the washer and dryer, in the back of our also brand new freezer, everywhere.
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I freaked out. I took pictures, screamed a lot, and rushed home so that we could call him and have him explain himself (I would have called him directly, but didn’t have a phone with me).
He gave us some line of bullshit about how he had done it before and it would be fine and that it wasn’t a big deal. Then we told him how it had completely ruined the fridge and all he did was offer to replace the door.
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Not good enough.
I wanted to be there when he got there this morning, so my wife and I got up early and hurried down there to meet him. He was supposed to be there at 6:00am. We got there just before 8:00 and he’s nowhere to be seen. I went inside again and not only had the acid completely ruined the fridge, it’s started ruining everything else. Anything metal in the kitchen is now covered in pits and rust. The fridge, the microwave, the other appliances, the KitchenAid mixer and it’s bowl, the toaster, everything.
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This is a complete and total fucking tragedy. It’s completely ruined our entire kitchen, all the appliances and probably stuff further into the house that I haven’t even discovered yet.
When we called him this morning he said he was “on his way”, which is complete BS to begin with, but he said he called a “Kenmore Parts place” and would “make it right”. He’s got one shot to make this right, and by right I mean a complete new fridge, otherwise I’m taking his ass to court.
I’ve never been so angry in my entire life. We saved and worked and saved for these things and then, 3 days after they’re in the house, they’re completely ruined by some asshole who doesn’t know what he’s doing.
I don’t have proper words for my anger. I’m literally blinded by rage. The only words I want out of his mouth are “I’m sorry, I’m going to make it right, here’s a check”. Anything short of that and he’s going to hear from my attorney. There’s not really much else I can do. He’s ruined my house. I wish there was some form of punishment allowed by the courts that could result in him getting a beating, but there’s not. All I can do is try and recoup the cost of the damages.
I lost sleep last night because I was so mad. So did Lauren. We’re both so upset that we don’t want to talk about it.
I don’t know what else to say.
It’s like I bought a brand new car, parked it in my driveway and someone slammed into it with a garbage truck.
I. Am. Pissed.
So, the improvements to the house continue on, hopefully towards completion in early September. As I told you the last time I mentioned it, we needed to get a new fridge and freezer since the old one was infested with the undead. We picked out a nice one and bit the bullet and got a Sear’s card. It was delivered on Saturday. It’s a nice Kenmore Elite, stainless steel with an ice maker and water thingy inside the fridge itself instead of on the door.
We’ve also been working hard on the house itself. All the carpet has been pulled up, along with the pads and the tack strips. Then I scrubbed, disinfected, bleached and finally sealed the concrete slabs with a moisture barrier sealant. We also got some painting done in the front entry way, the long hallway to the bedrooms and in certain areas where there appeared to be more mildew than others. We painted over those areas with Kilz, which apparently is so leet is has a “Z”. More importantly, it kills and seals water damage, stains, smells and anything else that could possibly be in the walls. The tile in the entry is gone, as well as the linoleum in the kitchen and laundry room. Our tile guy is coming on Wednesday to start installing the new tile in both areas. The carpet is scheduled to get replaced next week and before that, probably this weekend, we’ll tackle the painting of the bedrooms.
In addition to all the repair work, there’s also a lot of cleaning to be done. We’ve only managed to clean a room or two so far, but we’ve been able to really get rid of a lot of stuff. I don’t see any reason to keep 30 year old Tupperware without a matching lid, do you? So, stuff like that is being cleaned out. Obviously, we’re keeping anything of value, sentimental or monetary, but there will be quite a lot left when we move in and we’ll have to go through it over the next few months. But that’s ok, that’s just part of the whole process.
Anyway, just wanted to say that the improvements are really coming along and that I’m getting more and more excited as we get closer to being done and being able to move in.
Matt out.
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