Two Barking Dogs

This entry is a little out of order and really doesn’t have anything to do with my dogs. Sometimes, a person just needs to vent!

It all started before I moved into the new house. I spent a small fortune at Sears for new appliances. A new range, microwave with vent hood, refrigerator, washer/dryer combo. I measured all of the spaces for the new appliances and went to Sears where I spent hours running back and forth from each department to choose, check availability, pay individually, and then back again to line up deliveries. It seems that the washer/dryer people, the range people, and the refrigerator people are all separate sales “floors” and I wanted everything delivered the same day so I wouldn’t have to pay multiple delivery charges. I ran back and back and back and forth to make sure that I could get the same delivery date for all of the appliances. Why the hell you couldn’t just walk around with one sales clerk and say, “I want that one, and that one, and that one, and I want them all delivered on Thursday before 2 p.m” is way beyond me.

When the delivery came a couple of weeks later, the delivery guys took out the old decrepit washer/dryer and hauled it to the truck and then proceeded to unload my brand new washer/dryer combo. When they took it off the back of the truck it was obvious there was a problem. The box was squashed on the top! Now, you can’t tell me that that was done en route because something had obviously fallen on top of the dryer to squash it that way. Why the hell did they load it for delivery in that condition? It had to go back. They also didn’t want to take the old one off the premise but they didn’t want to put it back either. They finally loaded the old appliance on the truck and told me they would call with a delivery date/time for a new (unsquashed) washer/dryer.

About a week later, they deliver the new washer/dryer and it doesn’t fit. Even though I had given them the space dimensions to the salesman, when he measured the new washer/dryer he didn’t take into consideration the space needed at the back to run the dryer hose so it wouldn’t kink up. So with that added couple of inches, the 2nd w/d didn’t fit. So, back it goes to Sears.

Up to this point, I had not moved into the house yet and every time I had a delivery scheduled I had to get my ass out of bed and spend 45 minutes or more in traffic to get to the empty house and wait for the delivery people.

They brought me the 3rd washer/dryer a week later (now almost three weeks later. I am now moved into the house and its Christmas and I have a house full of family and we’re washing our clothing in the bath tub and its too cold to hang anything to dry unless you want frozen clothes.

The refrigerator? I paid for them to install the ice maker, but never could get them to schedule a plumber. $100 down the drain.

The stove? They installed it incorrectly with the plug/power cord bent over itself when the stove was pushed into place. It caused an arc in the power cord which promptly melted and eventually burned. The stove was only 4 months old when it went kaput! I asked SEARS to replace it, but they said no it was covered under the warranty and they would send out a repairman. The first visit of the repair man took 2 weeks to schedule. Guy came out and said, “don’t got the part, got to order it.” So he did, it took another 2 weeks to get the part, and another two weeks to re-schedule the repairman to come out and fix it. So, NO STOVE for over 6 weeks.

The microwave hood? It was back-ordered (even though I had been told it was in stock) and took about 6 weeks before it was installed.

And not once did the appliance department(s) manager(s) return any of my calls. I didn’t make a pest of myself, but I called each department’s manager and left a couple of calls over the course of more than 6 weeks. I even went down to the store twice to try and get someone to sort out the washer/dryer & stove problems. No one was ever available to talk to me …. “sorry, they’re all busy.” A totally miserable experience.

I got a call about six months ago from Sears wanting to sell me a maintenance plan for my appliances .. I laughed so hard I couldn’t even form a sentence. I hung up.

If you don’t believe me on how badly Sears Sucks … Google it. You will be amazed! And for some strange reason, I feel an odd kinship with all of those people who have blogged about their Sears experiences. I get great enjoyment in the fact that I have talked three five different people from buying new appliances at Sears. They shopped at Best Buy and were extremely happy.

I had been thinking about getting another dog for quite some time. Initially, I thought it would be a good idea to help Clover with her anxiety issues. But really? It was for me, too. I went to adoption events sponsored by local rescue groups, including the local Lab Rescue. I came “this close” to adopting a “really cute lab mix pup” from a group in West Virginia. This little guy had been found in a ditch near the golf course and the lady trying to place him said he was absolutely the cutest thing in the world. (Aren’t they all?) Kind of glad I was not able to get up to West Virginia that weekend, because that cute “little” lab mix turned out to be a full-blooded Newfoundland Dog. I heard later that at 6 months he weighed almost 80 lbs! Don’t get me wrong, I think Newfies are wonderful dogs, but I just don’t have the space for a dog that big.

I found Cosmo on Craigslist over the Christmas/New Year Holiday. It appeared to me right off that the woman who placed the ad was totally clueless about dogs/puppies. She told me that she had purchased the puppy for $300 as a gift for her little girl for Christmas (Hello! Big Mistake!) and that over the holidays she had to move into a new apartment that didn’t take pets. The second time I talked with her she told me her little boy was allergic to the dog. Third time I talked to her she told me she wanted to recoup the price she paid for him and would “give” him to me for $300. It was obvious to me that there was a whole lot of lies being told, but each time I talked with the woman, she sounded more frantic. The thing is, I kept thinking that this woman was scamming me somehow. Did she have a basement full of puppies that she was trying to unload? or did she steal it? Or, was she as totally clueless as she appeared?  

I told the woman on the phone that I had no intention of giving her any money for the puppy, and I was very surprised when she said I could just have him. “Well, you don’t take him, I’ll just dump him at the Pound.” I agreed. My first thought was to get a good look at it and see if it was healthy and help find it another home (yeah, right). We agreed to meet and within minutes Clover and I were off to look at the little guy. The woman pulled into the parking lot in a very beat up Ford station wagon that looked like it was held together by some spit and a whole lot of prayers. She practically jumped out of the car, reached into the back seat, took out a small animal carrier, opened it, and grabbed this cute little black puppy and thrust him at me. The pup was only 6 weeks old and he weighed about 7 pounds. He felt like a little bony thing, and his coat was very lackluster. But the cutest face! I was hooked.

She was very surprised when I reached into my pocketbook and handed her $80. She jumped back in the car, hit the gas and took off for places unknown. I took the puppy straight to the veterinarian.

The rest is history.