No one has built a better mouse trap.
\nI have a mouse running around my house.\u00c2\u00a0 I picked up the “Tomcat” traps at Kroger because it was all they had.\u00c2\u00a0 They tried to get fancy with the big yellow cheese-looking trigger… then tell you to bait it with peanut butter.\u00c2\u00a0 The mouse has cleaned the thing off 3 or 4 times now without it triggering.\u00c2\u00a0 Back to the old reliable ones (if I can find them anywhere!)<\/p>\n
That’s not the topic of this post though.<\/p>\n
Spammers really are relentless.\u00c2\u00a0 And stupid.\u00c2\u00a0 I have a dormant domain name registered (I think it cost me $1) just to play around with some stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 I put the PHPBB forum software on there when I first set everything up.\u00c2\u00a0 I got busy with other stuff and really never did anything with it.\u00c2\u00a0 I looked this morning and had a couple thousand posts, all from spammers.\u00c2\u00a0 All of them.\u00c2\u00a0 If you put a couple hundred telemarketers in a room together, you think they’d try to sell each other stuff?\u00c2\u00a0 I’m assuming they scripted a registration ‘bot’ somehow… but I thought that software had a CAPTCHA<\/a> in the registration, but maybe not.<\/p>\n That’s not really the point of this post either.<\/p>\n Cold.\u00c2\u00a0 My house is cold, and has been since Saturday.\u00c2\u00a0 It was almost really<\/em> hot on Saturday. Sunday gave me some time to stew over the whole thing.\u00c2\u00a0 Replace a couple of parts?!\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got burning plastic smell in my house and duct work and I don’t think a couple of parts are going to save this thing.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if they do, what else got damaged that is going to fail in 4 months?<\/p>\n Monday comes and they finally call in the afternoon to say they had to order some parts, they should be in Tuesday or Wednesday.\u00c2\u00a0 WTF?\u00c2\u00a0 I know UPS does overnight delivery.\u00c2\u00a0 I also asked about just replacing the whole thing so it doesn’t turn into a “well that didn’t fix it, we’ll order more parts.\u00c2\u00a0 Be another day or two.\u00c2\u00a0 Well that didn’t fix it, need a few more parts, be another day or two.”\u00c2\u00a0 I also wanted to know if they could clean my ducts out.\u00c2\u00a0 I called another HVAC company to come give me a quote, called my homeowners insurance to see what my policy might cover, and posted some pictures and questions on a HVAC forum.\u00c2\u00a0 Pretty much every response on the HVAC forum was along the lines of “No one in their right mind would put that thing back in service.”\u00c2\u00a0 A number of people were baffled that the company arguably responsible for starting it (and almost burning my entire house down) just wanted to replace parts… and might be a few days.\u00c2\u00a0 The sales guy from the ‘new’ company was out later that day… obviously he said it should be replaced.<\/p>\n The adjuster for my homeowners showed up Tuesday and looked at.\u00c2\u00a0 I have to say I’m very<\/em> pleased with Farmer’s Insurance.\u00c2\u00a0 Fast, friendly, helpful… everything you’d hope for in your insurance company.\u00c2\u00a0 He even asked if I thought the company that serviced it was responsible.\u00c2\u00a0 I said it sure seems like a big coincidence if not.\u00c2\u00a0 The first time I use it since they came to service it, and it burns up after 2 minutes of use.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll let him fight that fight if he wants.\u00c2\u00a0 But man was he nice… asked if I needed them to rent me some space heaters even!\u00c2\u00a0 After he left, I called The Stupid Company and got a “We haven’t seen the parts yet”\u00c2\u00a0 I asked about replacing the whole thing, and what they found out about cleaning the ducts out.\u00c2\u00a0 Would you believe I got “Well you talked to so-and-so… she’s out today… I can have her call you tomorrow” ….. WTF?!?\u00c2\u00a0 A few minutes later someone else from there called – I’m not sure if it was the owner or just someone in-charge.\u00c2\u00a0 He thinks it can be fixed, the smell will go away when they clean the stuff out of the furnace, ducts probably don’t need cleaned… they’ll fire it up and figure it out then.\u00c2\u00a0 Seriously.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s melted plastic flung all over the inside of the unit, so every time I run my furnace my house will smell like that.\u00c2\u00a0 He doesn’t think so, that compartment doesn’t get hot.\u00c2\u00a0 Umm… hello?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a furnace, the entire thing at least gets warm when it’s being used.\u00c2\u00a0 No thank you.\u00c2\u00a0 He finally offers to turn it into their insurance “… but they probably won’t replace the whole thing, might take awhile, and we’ll have to put a stop on the parts until that all gets sorted out”\u00c2\u00a0 “Go ahead and do that”\u00c2\u00a0 At this point I’ve already decided that I’m replacing the whole thing – we’ll figure out later if I pay for it, they do, or my insurance covers it.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m sure as hell not letting them back in my house after screwing the thing up in the first place and<\/em> the complete lack of concern or anything resembling customer service on their part.\u00c2\u00a0 I give you people $300 a year for the last number of years to make sure something like this doesn’t<\/em> happen, then you probably cause it?!\u00c2\u00a0 Any decent company should be falling over themselves trying to make everything right!\u00c2\u00a0 That conversation pretty much sealed it.\u00c2\u00a0 I actually know a couple of other people who use them – they won’t after this if I can help it.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll get the cost of a new furnace out of them, even if I have to do it by costing them sales.<\/p>\n Wednesday evening<\/em> someone from The Stupid Company’s insurance calls.\u00c2\u00a0 By now, I’ve already schedule one of the guys<\/a> I talked to on Monday to install the new furnace.\u00c2\u00a0 His price was decent and a number of people I talked to, including a professional home inspector, had nothing but good things to say about them and Trane.\u00c2\u00a0 Insurance guy wants to send someone out to look at it. Sigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No one has built a better mouse trap. I have a mouse running around my house.\u00c2\u00a0 I picked up the “Tomcat” traps at Kroger because it was all they had.\u00c2\u00a0 They tried to get fancy with the big yellow cheese-looking … Continue reading
\nI was getting ready to head out Saturday evening and decided to kick the furnace one while I got ready and ate dinner.\u00c2\u00a0 About 2 minutes after I turned it on, all my smoke detectors went off.\u00c2\u00a0 I ran to the kitchen thinking it was just my dinner burning, but on the way there saw smoke coming out of a register and smelled burning plastic.\u00c2\u00a0 It only took a second to make the connection and run for the breakers to kill the furnace.
\nI went to check the furnace to make sure nothing was still smoldering.\u00c2\u00a0 The outside of the unit had some discolored paint, and that actually made the access panel difficult to get off.\u00c2\u00a0 In the meantime, I called the company that had just been out a week before<\/em> to do the fall check-up.
\nOne of their techs came and looked around inside the furnace.\u00c2\u00a0 At this point, I had already gotten the access panel off and could see the damage – burnt wires, melted plastic, melted aluminum<\/em>, and just general destruction.\u00c2\u00a0 He apologized a couple of times, but stopped short of admitting it was their fault.\u00c2\u00a0 He said they’d have to order a couple of parts, but they would replace them all at no charge to me.<\/p>\n
\n“You have until Friday morning… it’s being replaced then”
\n“Oh.\u00c2\u00a0 So you’re having it replaced?”
\n“Yes… numerous HVAC professionals I’ve talked to and a home inspector I trust all said it needs replaced and duct work needs cleaned”
\n“I assuming you’re not having the same company replace it?”
\n“You assume correctly.”
\n“Ummm… ok… yeah… I’ll let you know tomorrow how we want to proceed.”
\nGuess their insurance sucks too – they don’t have ‘replacement’ insurance, so they only pay off what the damaged stuff was actually worth, prorated by age.\u00c2\u00a0 Furnace was only 6 years old, but that’s probably 1\/2 maybe 1\/3 of its expected life.\u00c2\u00a0 At this point I’m just being shitty… I really just wanted them to have to make a claim.\u00c2\u00a0 I think my insurance is going to take care of most of it for me, and maybe go after theirs to get some of their money back.\u00c2\u00a0 Still… 6 cold nights, stress, missed time from work… just a crappy situation and The Stupid Company doesn’t seem to care.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, on Monday Logan’s said “You want it installed tomorrow?”\u00c2\u00a0 So I could have a whole new furnace installed in less time than it takes Stupid Company to get a few parts?!<\/em><\/p>\n