My Date with the Sears Repairman

Posted On March 16, 2011

I can hardly WAIT for the day that the serviceman is coming to my house!  NOT!

This time the visit was particularly bittersweet.  My kitchen was recently remodeled less than two years ago, and very sadly, already, my microwave blew up.  Who knows exactly what happened to it.  I was cooking something in there one day and turned away, only to find a weird message something to the effect of “FAIL”.  Weird.  I hit clear, and tried again.  The microwave went on again, and this time, promptly stopped after a second or two and the display lit up with every possible character at the same time.  I wondered if it may have been a power surge, so I tripped the breaker in the basement, and still I got nothing.  I’m also noticing this really funky, smoky, burnt plasticish smell as well.  That pretty much determined, yea, definitely seems kaput.

My microwave is a double unit combined with my oven, and the display for the oven seemed to be fine.  Crap.  As I’ve mentioned before, I consider myself a pretty good cook.  I can handle a fairly complex recipe, and try to cook most of our food from scratch as best as time and schedules will allow.  But.  I use the microwave all of the time.  Really.  All the time. Several times all day long.  I defrost stuff (even my ice cream so it’s easier to scoop), reheat leftovers for the kids, cook frozen veggies, warm up my tea…I love having one and it’s a tremendous convenience.  That is, until you don’t have one.

Luckily, my husband and I planned ahead and purchased a five year extended warranty during our remodel.  And thank god, as this is the second service call on the microwave alone.  The first year, the button which opens the door broke (imagine it being made of plastic) and the turntable split in two.  Not a real great service record for the first two years–GE for anyone who is wondering.  So, I’m good.  I can call in for a service call, and we’ll get this squared away.  I call and find, frustratingly that the first scheduled repair visit is not for another two weeks!  Holy Cow.  How will I survive this long without my faithful companion in the kitchen?

I didn’t think it worth it to purchase a new one, and dealt with warming and boiling things on the stove top (and the extra pots and pans to clean too, arrggghh) for a day or two, and thought I’d post a wanted request on Freecycle.  God I love freecycle.  This site also came in handy for us when we remodeled the kitchen as I was able to off load a ton of stuff that was no longer needed, but still in good repair.  Much to my chagrin, someone promptly answered my request.  Amen, there is a God!  I called to arrange for pick up of the microwave. Our donor was very pleasant and said she was happy to offer as they had recently upgraded, and it was just sitting unused on the counter.

Just because you can never be too careful, I dragged my hubby along to pick up my “new” microwave.   We pull up to the house to pick it up, and he says, hey, we know these people, we were at a party here before.  I couldn’t remember without some major prompting.  But what are the odds?  What a small world we live in. So happy that a generous person was able to help with my microwave withdrawal symptoms.

Yay!  The day has finally arrived.  My date with the repairman finally comes to pass.  You really have to love the half day range that comes along with any service oriented call these days.  8 to 12 was the designated window for me that day. This was already the second scheduled visit, as the first one they called on the day he was due to let me know there wouldn’t be anyone there today, and I’d need to wait another week for someone to come by.  Aggravating, but not nearly as aggravating as when I was working and had to arrange to work from home or take the day off.  I thought that this time frame would impose the littlest impact on my day.  I drove my kids to school at 9 am, and was praying that I would not be unlucky enough for the guy to come in the 5 odd minutes it would take for me to return.  I figured I’d leave my front door open so that it would at least appear as though I was home.  No way did I want to have to wait for another scheduled visit if I could help it.  I return from dropping off my charges, and there is no sign of the repairman.  About 20 minutes pass by and the call comes in to let me know that the guy was on the way.  Awesome, I didn’t miss him.

Service guys can be so hit or miss, and this guy was maybe somewhere in the middle.  It really makes me crazy when they talk down to me and assume that there are no synapses  at all firing up there.  I guess it’s from their experiences, as I am sure that they have truly heard near everything, but personally, it ticks me off.  He asked, are you sure that you flipped the circuit in the fuse box?  I’m sorry but I had to say, I really do have a brain, yes I did check the circuit right after it happened. Does the oven work?   Really works, temperature and all? I’m like buddy, I called over three weeks ago, I’m pretty sure I’d be able to figure out if it was not working during that time frame.  Sorry, just get a little testy.  I had already explained what had happened, so he opened the door, wrote a couple things down, and ambled his way outside without a peep.  Hmm.  What does that mean?  5 minutes.  10 minutes.  15 minutes–I had to go out there and see if he was actually still here.  The truck was still here, did he get sucked up by who knows what?  Make a potty run? Finally 20 minutes later he returned to the house to give me the low down.

Sadly, the news was not good.  I had an inkling that my visit might go in this direction, but now had confirmation.  He needed to order several parts: a fuse, a new front panel and a magnetron (sounds so back to the future, doesn’t it?).  Which also meant I had to wait until the parts came in, and then schedule yet another service visit.  Who knows how long it will be now, but the wait continues. Thank God I at least have a temporary solution taking up space on my counter next to my non working piece of crap microwave, but hopefully the next service man will be here soon to make me a happy camper again…