Repair Man

I have been in the unfortunate position of requiring an engineer to come out to look at a problem that has developed with a tall AEG freezer I keep in my garage.  Although supposedly self-defrosting it ices up something shocking inside, so badly that all the drawers are iced to the back wall and difficult to pull out. The inner ceiling and inner floor of the freezer are thick with ice too.  I have only had the freezer two years and it is under a 5-year warranty, so I thought there would be no problem getting it fixed.

The problem was however in trying to get hold of a repair man to come out. AEG give you a number to ring under the warranty. Just one number. When you ring it, it is engaged. ALL THE TIME. I tried over four days to ring and was unsuccessful in getting through. In the end I sent an email. I got a holding reply saying my email would be handled within 10 working days. In frustration, I tried one last time to ring early on Saturday morning on the off-chance they might work on a Saturday and someone answered. Yayyyy. I booked an appointment for today sometime between 6am and 6pm.  I was told I would get an email the day before to narrow down the engineer's arrival time to a more respectable range of 2 hours.

My dilemma was whether to leave the freezer all frosted up to show the AEG engineer what the exact problem was, or to defrost it so there was nothing to see. I decided on the former, but at the same time, ran the freezer down so not too much would spoil if he did decide to work on it with all the drawers out.

Of course no email came to narrow down the time slot, so I was out of bed at 6am this morning to be ready. In the event, the engineer turned up at 11am, so not too bad a wait. He took one look at the problem and identified what needed doing, but said, as it was all frozen, he would not be able to do anything with it today. I was to defrost it and make another appointment for a call-out next week.

I rang that one  AEG number and got through first time. I was very chuffed as I considered they must have solved their phone problem. After pressing 1 for this and 2 for that, a friendly voice said I was number 5 in the queue. I got out the ironing board and did some ironing. After about 20 mins I had edged up the queue and an operator prompted me to tell them what I wanted. She said today's engineer had noted what needed to be done but before she could give me a call out appointment she had to speak to the engineer and put me on hold. I carried on ironing with the phone on speaker phone, bopping away to some beaty music for about 10 minutes. Suddenly I heard the stomach-churning sound of the disconnected tone.  Nooooooo. I waited, then turned the phone off hoping the operator would have my number on the system and call back. I waited for 20 minutes, giving her the benefit of the doubt. She didn't call.

I called back and was told I was now 12th in the queue. Reluctantly I decided to wait in the queue. I got down to about 6th in the queue when the disconnected tone happened again. By now I was shrieking expletives at the wall and tearing my hair out. Once more I dialled THE number. It was engaged. It was engaged for the next 8 attempts over a half-hour period. Then I got through. I was 6th in the queue. I waited and waited and waited and finally got through. I had to explain all over again to another operator who said that it was noted on computer that the other operator had tried to call me back but she couldn't get an outside line.  She told me, they apparently have a new phone system and it has teething problems. You're not kidding!!!! She apologised.

I now have another appointment booked for the end of next week. I'm not holding my breath. Meanwhile, I'm eating for 50 people to use up the contents of the freezer in time. I may become so fat, I shall not get through the door to let the engineer in. What else can go wrong?

courtesy of 123rf.com