Refrigerator Purgatory Days 8-14

Dear readers, I hope this note from my Refrigerator Purgatory finds you well. We are now in week two of our refrigerator-less existence, and it’s going… well, it’s going. This is our current refrigerator, a college dorm sized Sanyo from approximately 2002. Also, it’s in the foyer, because of course it is.

When I last left you, we had abandoned all hope that our refrigerator was salvageable, and chose to purchase a new one. Neither of us wanted to do this, but the assumed cost of repair was as much as the cost to buy it, so we decided a new one would be the better choice. There were great deals for black Friday, so we got busy searching for our new appliance. And we ran into a problem.

Refrigerators are huge, you guys. Huge. Every single one we liked was too tall for the cabinet above it, and almost too wide for the opening. We pondered what to do, including cutting the cabinet and making a nice built-in wine rack above it, but that was a project, in addition to the big basement remodel project, and that was simply not going to work.

Then, we found it. A diamond in the rough with french doors and a bottom freezer. Short enough to fit under our cabinet and not too wide that we wouldn’t be able to get the doors open. Perfect. All our appliances are black, and this had a new style — black stainless steel. It had a good warranty compared to the others, and after this fiasco we were actually concerned about that. We were ready to go pull the trigger.

But they were on backorder.

Closest delivery date: December 12th.

We checked every store. And like a shining beacon of light, Home Depot could deliver by the twenty-fifth. Huzzah!

Monday night, we trekked to Home Depot ready to make our purchase. We got a store credit card to be able to offset some of the cost and purchase without paying interest. The guy in appliances was named Craig, and he was terrific. He cued up our purchase, our eyes nearly glazed over with delight. It was almost over. Free from purgatory.

“Delivery date January second,” said Craig.

“I’m sorry, what?” I said.

Jason doesn’t even remember this scene because he blacked out.

I told Craig we saw it could be delivered November 25. “Well that’s what it is in our database,” he said. “Let me check the website.” He does, and like a doctor with a poor diagnosis, he delivers another blow: “The earliest I can do in black stainless steel is December 12th.”

We reluctantly agreed, smiling through our teeth the whole time, making a purchase we didn’t want to make with a delivery date that’s three weeks away.

Oh, you thought that was the end? Hahahahahahaha,

Oh no, dear readers. Since we just got the credit card, we had merely a receipt with a bar code as proof. Craig, the Home Depot wizard that he is, cued up our purchase, and then the bad news. We didn’t have a card number printed on the receipt, so he couldn’t enter it in. He called credit card customer service, got a CVV number, but without a card number, he still couldn’t do anything.

Craig the Conquering Hero called the store’s customer service desk, and they tell him to bring us up. He rang up our purchase again, and the terrific women at customer service helped him locate the card number. I held my breath as he completed the purchase. And just like that, we were owners of a brand new refrigerator. That won’t be in our kitchen for another three weeks.

All I’m saying is, I’ve never had a more pleasant customer service experience than I did at the Wadsworth, Ohio Home Depot.

Part three of the saga coming soon. Stay tuned!