The Frustration Thread

The BBQ Pit
1

My husband bought me a 12-cup coffee maker. It’s a really nice one that you can program to make your coffee for you in the morning.

I was messing with the coffee maker today, trying to set the clock. (I’ve lost the instructions.) Well, I screwed it up somehow, and when I tried to use it to make myself a pot of tea, it wouldn’t work. It just kept flashing 12:00 when I pressed the “on” button.

“Ah,” I thought. “I’ll just call Black & Decker customer service!” I had just ordered a replacement carafe (I dropped the old one) and I knew I had the number somewhere. Of course, I couldn’t find it.

So I called 1-800-555-1212 to get the company’s number. The operator came on the line. “Black and Decker isn’t listed.”

“I know they have a 1-800 number,” I insisted.

“No, they don’t.”

“Uh, yes they do. I just had it a few days ago, but I threw it out.”

“Well, ma’am, they DO have a number, but it’s unlisted.”

Unlisted? WTF? I found the box, and of course, the number’s not on there. But it says “Home Products, Inc,” so I call directory again to get THAT number. They hang up on me. Now I’m getting irritated. I call agian, and finally, the robot-woman gives me the number. I call it, and it turns out to be Sattelite USA. I repeated the number to the woman, and asked if that was the number of her company. “Um . . . .” she said, and just sat there. Finally I thanked her with all the patience I could muster and hung up. “This is bullshit!” I screamed, making my dog jump and knock over a potted plant. “I can’t even get a goddam phone number to call for help!”

I march upstairs, get online, and find the number. Finally! Now we’re getting somewhere, I think, but oh no.

I press four for “help with my kitchen appliance.” I explain to the woman what I did to the coffee maker, and she interrupts me to ask for my name and address. I’m thinking that she’s asking to look up warranty information or some crap like that. But then she says, “Your new coffee maker should be there in seven to ten days.”

“What?” I say. “I don’t WANT a new coffee maker. I just want you to tell me how to fix this one so I can make a cup of tea! All I did was push the wrong buttons and–”

“Well, ma’am,” she cuts in with the logic of the mentally challenged, “If it’s not working, it must be malfunctioning. Thank you, have-a-nice-day.”

I hung up the phone, unplugged the coffee maker went and sat down to fume. About a half an hour later it struck me that I was being beaten by an inanimate object, and I was going to work with the goddam thing until it made me that cup of tea or die in the process.

I plugged it in, and kept hitting “on” over and over, and suddenly, with a little “beep” the light came on, and out spewed my tea. I was so happy.

I’m keeping the new coffee maker, too. I figure I deserve it.

2

Lissa,
That was hilarious, and since this IS the pit, what a bunch of fucking idiots you had to deal with.

::Off to order my new FREE coffeemaker::

A point in every direction is like no point at all

3

Lisa,

If you don’t get your new coffee maker soon, e-mail me. I think I have the same programable model and likely have the instructions for it :slight_smile:
Zette

“If I had to live your life, I’d be begging to have someone pop out both my eyes. Just in case I came across a mirror.” - android209 (in the Pit)
Zettecity
Voted “Most Empathetic”- can you believe that?

4

You think you’re frustrated, just pause for a moment and think about what you just put the poor appliance through.

I mean, it isn’t like it says TeaMaker on the side of the bleedin’ thing, now does it?
Dr. Watson
“Regional Vice-President, SPCA, (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Appliances).”

5

I’m not a Luddite; I’m practical. The more bells and whistles=the more of your time and effort expended for “convenience”.

Forget programmable coffee makers. Set up the cheapy, no-frills maker the night before. (So the water is “dead”; we’re talking caffeine transfusions for morning zombies. Be a coffee snot sometime after 10 a.m.) Punch off the alarm clock, punch on the coffee maker and reel into the shower.

It’ll be ready when you are, and you don’t have to time your sleep patterns to an idiot appliance.

For tea: set up the pot, put on the kettle and stagger into the shower. When the whistling wakes you up, you’re waterlogged already. By the time you let it steep your eyes are open and you can appreciate the kick.

Sorry, guys, maybe I AM a Luddite. Tools are for use; when tools start dictating life, there’s something wrong.

Shit, buy a good whistling kettle and a reverse-pump coffee gizmo.

Actually, probably a Luddite,
Veb

6

Me, I like those coffemakers with a resivoir off to the side that doesn’t start making the caffiene-free herbal coffee substitute until you press the “on” button. Then, you can fill it the night before, so you don’t have to fool around with it in the morning when you’re trying to get ready for work. No timer, no muss, no fuss, just hit the button.
Of course, if you enjoy fooling around with your coffeemaker in the morning, you’re a pervert and I don’t want to know about your unnatural activities with household appliances, so please leave me alone. Stop flaunting your perversions in my face. I mean it, I’m going to call the authorities.

“Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.” — Han Solo

7

TVeblen:

I hate the bells and whistles as well, but 12-cup coffee makers ALL seem to come with the bells and whistles. I need a twelve cup model because I’m lazy, and bitterly resent having to get up to make another pot of tea. This lasts me all day.

I despise teabags, and I don’t like loose tea floating around in the pot, either, so a coffee maker seemed the logical alternative.
Guess I learned my lesson!

8

What an opportunity for my AT&T story:

Some years ago, when 900 MHz cordless phones were still around $350, I bought an AT&T model. Reason: my friends had just purchased scanners, and they’d showed me how easy it was to listen in on regular cordless phone conversations.

Well, one day, while hanging it up, a static spark jumped from my finger to the antenna and fried the phone. The warranty had already expired. Grrr. I called them up, and they told me how to mail it back to them, plus I had to pay something like $20 just to have the repair folks look at it. The procedure involved going to the local AT&T shop, which was in the mall, and having them ship it to the repair center. About two weeks later, I received a new phone from them, plus repair bill.

About two days after hooking up the repaired phone, it again stopped working. I hadn’t paid the bill yet. I called them again, really irate, and read 'em the riot act. They promised to fix things. I went back to the AT&T shop to ship it back. As fortune would have it, the shop was closing for good in a couple of days, and the lady behind the counter didn’t give a rat’s ass about AT&T anymore, since her job was going bye-bye. So, she zeroed my account. In the eyes of AT&T, we were even-steven.

About a day later, I got a phone in the mail. Huh. That was quick. Worked fine, so I figured they were just amazingly fast. Then, a couple of weeks later, I got another. The paperwork indicated that this second phone was the repair; the first was evidently new. Somehow they’d got their ‘return’ wires crossed and sent me two.

Heck with AT&T. I resold the other one in the box for a princely sum and enjoyed my new phone. Gotta love customer-service confusion that works out in your favor.

9

  1. You lose the instruction manual for your new appliance.

  2. You forge ahead anyway and subsequently screw up the settings.

  3. Your first course of action, besides randomly pressing the buttons, is to call the company to help you out.

  4. Because you did not get immediate resolution to your problem, which you created, you are frustrated?

Incredible.

10

You need instructions to work a coffee machine?

11

Kent4mmy

I moved. That’s why I lost the manual. Shit happens. You ever lost anything?

Forged ahead? What was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to throw the coffee maker away since I lost the manual? Call for help? Buy a new one? I think in the same situation, most people would have “forged ahead.” Sheesh.

And what do you suggest? Prayer? I wasn’t about it carry it next door to ask Jane if she knew how to fix it, and I couldn’t make a new manual apparate. Why are you so snippy about this?

I was randomly pushing buttons for a while, but I thought “Hey-- technical support is for people like me who have lost their manuals and don’t want to spend the rest of their day wrestling with a fucking coffee maker.” Thechnical support means to me that if I can’t make my appliance work I can ask questions about how to fix the problem. In hidnsight, I was pretty stupid not to just unplug the damn thing in the first place, but it just didn’t occur to me at the time.

Again, I was laboring under the assumption that “Technical Support” meant “support for my technical problems.” Oh, silly me.

I screw up the programing on my coffee maker and you snipe like I should have hung my head morosely and wailed “I’m an idiot! I don’t * deserve *tea!” No need to get pissy there, chum.

12

Your OP makes no mention of a technical support service. You did mention customer service which is an entirely different thing.

It was never broken.

I beg to differ. This “I deserve it” remark is what prompted me to respond. I could understand your frustration if, when you attempted to make your tea, the machine malfunctioned due to defects, poor quality etc. But to call B&D just to have someone give you operating instructions, and actually expect to get said services, is all too common of todays “I deserve it” attitude. It’s not B&D’s fault you lost the operating guide. They built a quality product at a reasonable price, provided warranties and operating guidlines, but that’s not enough anymore.

It’s this attitude, not you personally, that says “spoiled brat” and it’s everywhere you go anymore.

I know HTML is off but I’m in a hurry.

13

As I said in my OP, the one of the recorded options you get when you call is something to the effect of “Technical help with your kitchen appliance,” or “assistance with your kitchen appliance.” I don’t remember the exact wording, but it’s something close to that. And if they’re offering “help” or “assitance,” shouldn’t it stand to reason that they’d provide it?

When I had called for the replacement carafe, I remembered hearing that option, and decided to use it. If nothing else, I was going to ask them to send me a new manual when I made the call, but the woman cut me off with the name/adress demand. After the new coffee maker was somewhat uncerimoniously shoved at me, I sort of forgot about in my surprise that with nothing but my word that I even * had *one, I was given a replacemnt. (This coffee maker was about $35.) Maybe I should have gone into more detail and posted that origionally to avoid the aura of “spoiled brat.” It never occured to me that anyone would have interpreted it that way.

“I figure I deserve it” was a wry joke. Sorry you didn’t get it.