Thursday, June 26, 2008

Update

Fortunately, today we did receive the money that Foto Connection said they were sending us, that is minus the $750 they charged for fees and of course, the verbal abuse we endured, which is why I don't regret filing complaints with The New York BBB, Consumer Affairs, the Federal Trade Commission, and the New York Attorney General, and LG Proper. I didn't know which one would take action, so I filed with them all just in case.

On to other subjects. Rob is enjoying his job even though the schedule is rigorous. We get up at 5am, I go for a 30 minute walk with the dog and he hops in the shower. By 5:45 I'm packing his lunch and fixing his breakfast. He leaves at 6:15 to get to the slug lot. He gets to work a little before 7:30am. What's bad is when Avery hears us and gets up that early with us which he did today. Rob is usually home by 6pm, we do baths about 7:30 and then try to have them in bed by 8:30. We go to bed at 10pm so there's not a whole lot of wiggle room during the week.

The only eventful thing here at the house, is that I whimsically began potty training Avery this afternoon. I like the potty training in a day method, but just don't think I have the patience right now. We focused on it for a good 3 1/2 hours. He finally started going in the potty after about 3 of those hours. Then we went outside and he peed all over the curb. Oh well, start over tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Hard Lesson Learned - Stay far away from Foto Connection

Because the theme of this move seems to be "the only thing you can expect is the unexpected", it is not utterly shocking to us that the events over the last few days regarding my dream washer and dryer that we purchased, have gone so utterly bad.

This is our first "real" washer and dryer purchase. We've either had them given to us, purchased used ones from family for next to nothing, or had them in our homes, such as we just did. For a year and a half now, I have been planning the purchase of the LG Steam Washer and Dryer in blue mind you.

A few weeks before we were to make our purchase, one of my friends announced proudly, that her LG Steam had arrived and that she loved it. In talking to her, we learned that they got it for about $300 less than we had seen anywhere else through Foto Connection. Their purchase experience was nothing out of the ordinary, other than having to get it into their home and hook it up themselves.

We decided great, we will order from them as well. No, I couldn't get it in blue as that would be $400 more, but hey, saving money was the key.

Annoyance #1 It would be 7 to 10 days for delivery. It did arrive, or rather something did, but it was not what we ordered. We received two pedestals that showed a price of $479 a piece which we never would've ordered knowing that the one's we wanted cost $199. Secondly, there was only one box and it was labeled washer. We asked the driver, where is the dryer? The invoice said we were receiving a washer and dryer, though the box just said washer and was obviously only the size of a washer. We didn't open it or accept the delivery, but immediately called the company. I could hear Rob explaining the apparent mistake. I couldn't tell what was being said, but Rob was apparently receiving an earful over the phone. When he finally got to speak I heard him saying things like this,

"Hey, calm down. I'm the customer here."

"Look this is not what we ordered."

"A 15% to 20% restocking fee for returning it?, but that's not what we ordered."

"Don't call me an idiot. Look ,what happened to the customer is always right?"

"Will you stop that so we can try to solve this?"

"Look, you're in business because of me."

My calm husband was clearly exasperated, but maintianing his cool. From my perch on the stairs, I said, "Tell him we'll call the BBB?" Apparently he heard me and said, "I don't care if you call the Attorney General (this later became an ironic response). Rob later told me that he said Rob should just get a truck and two guys and come pick up the order himself.

Having gotten no where with this "customer service person" we refused the product, and it went back on the truck. The guy promised to call us back so we could reorder what we wanted.

There was no call back of course and yesterday, Rob went back to work for the first time in a month. I'll write about that another day. It was one thing in our lives that went smoothly.

Believing that Rob had not been assertive enough, I was anxious to take over the process. Here's how two hours of my morning went yesterday. Call and get that guy's answering machine. It says press "0" to talk to someone immediately. He answers.

"Yes, my name is Traci and you were helping us resolve an issue with our order, I have my correct item numbers to give you."

"Hold on" Classsical music with "there are 9 calls ahead of you..." Finally, it rings. It's picked up and immediately, classical music again, "there are six calls ahead of you." Hmmm....I wait through it. The same thing happens again. I hang up and start over. This guy knows who I am and doesn't want to talk to me. I am persistant. After about the 6th call to his direct line, someone else answers. Same thing over and over again. Finally, he himself answers and before I can get two words out, I am blow away with a barrage of things said to me that no one has ever said to me before (at least not within earshot). To sum it up, I was told that both I and my husband were stupid idiots who don't know how to place an internet order. There were many other descriptive words used. My plan of action had already been set and so I began repeating calmly the same sentence each time he spoke. "I need to speak to the owner of the company."

"Why, because you're an idiot?"

"I need to speak to the owner of the company please."

"Why, so you can tell him how stupid you are and that you can't even place an order correctly? Do you realize you made me lose a $15,000 sale? You've called me ext. 16 times. You have to wait in line for your turn."

"I did. Someone kept starting me over in the phone que. Can I please speak with the owner?"

"I'll let you talk to the owner and you can tell him how you and your husband are such *ing idiots."

Sarcastically, "Yes, please give me the opportunity to tell him that."

"What!!!?"

"Can I speak to the owner please?"

I'll spare you the rest because this is getting long, but I have never encountered this sort of treatment in any purchasing situation. Rob and I shake our heads at the profanity and rude things said to us. It almost seems unreal.

Long story short, after another hour of haggling with more shady characters none of which were the owner, we will be getting our money back supposedly short of $750 which pays for restocking fees and $250 shipping both ways. Never mind, that the truck was headed back to the warehouse that night on it's own. As embarassing as it is to get taken like that (I later found all manner of complaints and a dismal BBB rating on the internet with just a few minutes research), I want to share this with as many people that will read it. Do not order anything from Foto Connection. It is a completely fraudulant company.

Our next move: We've begun filing our complaint with the New York Attorney General. Rob said that small claims court would be pointless as they are located in another state. Also, just getting the word out about Foto Connection in anyway possible.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Settling In

House on the hill.

It seems things have slowed down just a bit. Rob's parents were here during Avery's hospital stay and were a huge help with Alton and Alayna while Rob and I were with Avery. Now this week, my Mom has been here, and we've actually been getting things done around the house. She tends to tackle the boxes and unpacked areas that Rob and I just stare at because we don't know what to do with it or it seems too daunting to tackle.


We've had a little time for fun too. Today we'll take a subway ride and do some shopping before putting Mom back on a plane to go home. Since she has a much better camera than I do, here's a few pictures. This is of our backyard. We thought our property line stopped at the trees, but then learned on the day of closing, that it actually goes way back into the woods; really cool for the kids. Rob will clean out a lot of the underbrush and they will have the woods they learned to love at our last place. I like trees, but far away from my house so no windows are blocked. This is the perfect set up.


So far, we basically have our culdesac to ourselves. There will be one more house built next door to us, and one on the corner. It's provided a great place for the kids to ride bikes, or hit tennis balls around.



Here you can see the front of the house which so turned me off at first. The inside makes up for it however, and hey, I kind of like watching the kids play from my perch at the top of the stairs.




The staircase...and three kids.


Friday, June 13, 2008

Too Much Action

It seems before I could go for weeks with nothing interesting to write about at our last duty station. Life, while pleasant there, was also hum drum and boring.

If the last couple of weeks are any indication of what it will be like living at our new duty station, then I guess we'd better buckle our seatbelts. The problem is, if you have so much to write about, then well, there's usually not time.

Here's the outline version of our lives right now.

1) We are till moving in! This has been the most gradual moving experience I've ever gone through. My advice: if your going to move, move far away from where you were. Living just two hours away means your husband keeps going back to the old home to pack more and more things himself because after all, the military will pay us by the pound. This results in less getting done sooner at the new place. We actually still have to go back there to clean the inside and do the lawn!

2) Avery in the hospital. Wow, there is nothing that sucks the life out of me more than to have a sick child. Avery spiked a fever that I knew within 24 hours was out of my natural healing league. Took him to ER as we had no doctor yet. Within 60 secs he was diagnosed with an ear infection and pushed out with antibiotic #1, all the while my heart was telling me, this is no ear infection. Three days later, nothing is better and the fever which stays at 104 despite doing Tylenol and Motrin around the clock (a big no no in my book normally) is like a wild fire out of control. Back to ER. Immediately admitted, put on antibiotic #2, given chest x-rays, and blood work. When the doctor that diagnosed him with an ear infection came on shift and ordered a cat scan, I balked. I didn't trust this guy at all and a cat scan is x-ray X 10. I felt as though my poor boy's health was being permanently destroyed. Turns out shady doctor was right. Avery had an abscess in his throat; a serious thing with a 50% mortality rate. Antibiotic #3 is started and talks of surgery begin. The ENT is ready to do surgery, but Avery has to be transferred to a children's hospital that has an ICU. That hospital had their own ENT and so surgery talks were delayed. After a ride in an ambulance, we get set up in the new hospital. Thankfully, the ENT does not want to do surgery right away. He wants to see how Avery responds to the antibiotics. Antibiotic #4 is begun. There is a lot more I could relate, but suddenly, this is more than an outline. Sorry.

3) Rob leaves to take care of his Dad who is not expected to live much longer. There are many family dynamics that are stressing him.

4) The good news. We love our library! We absolutely love our brand new organic grocery store that is only 4 miles away, completely huge, and has lower prices than Whole Foods. It just opened Saturday and I know God had that store put there just for me. I am certain that I am the only military wife to get emotional as she walked into a grocery store that was perfectly suited to her. It must be the pregnancy hormones! We love our house. So much work to be done even though it's new, but I don't feel in a hurry. Fixing it up is the fun part of owning your own home.

Phew! I'm going to go watch some Tivo'd "So You Think You can Dance."

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Longer than I Intended

Okay, so my break was a little longer than planned, but there have been a few bumps in the road with this move. I'l write more later, but for now, just keep Avery's health in your prayers. We just returned from a 5 day stint at a children's hospital where he was admitted for a retro phylangel (sp?) abcess. He's still on the mend and I'm praying we don't have to go back.

More soon.

Traci