www.thegardenisland.com

Monk Seal and Me...

Search This Blog

Saturday, November 12, 2011

"The Air Conditioner saga..." (A cool story) 'James "Kimo" Rosen'

"Air conditioners may come and go, but there's still nothing like the fresh ocean breeze. I use my air conditioner primarily as a white noise machine, to block out the chitter chatter of neighbors...I know it's November and many of you are battling cold weather and I am blogging about a broken air conditioner. :D)
This is a cool story (pun intended) that happened last week... 

Sixteen months ago I bought a Kenmore window type air conditioner from Sears. It quit working last week so I called customer service about my warranty, my warranty expired in May of 2011, one year after I bought it. I  sure wish I had bought the extended warranty for $60.00 at that time. 

 The person on the phone told me that there is a $97.00 fee just to see what's wrong and diagnose the problem, the same thing on the 'Mainland' United States is $65.00 and the $65.00 is applied towards your repair, however after much hoopla I was told the $97.00 is just to examine the air conditioner and any repair done in Hawaii is additional. 



I scheduled the appointment and decide to take the gamble on the diagnosis, I wait from 8:00A.M.-12:00 P.M.  the guaranteed time they say they will be at my residence,  one o'clock came around and I had a doctors appointment at 2:00 therefore I call Sears and they feel bad and reschedule and give me a $50.00 credit towards my repair for not showing. The customer service rep tells me  that the  $50.00 is only good for the repair and not the $97.00 estimate.  I was somewhat disappointed but decide to reschedule for the following Wednesday. 

In the interim I am shopping on Craigslist and see many used air conditioners and one in particular for $71.00. The lady says she will get back with the particulars, is it quiet, how old is it etc, I asked?  Even though I am ready to buy, she is not ready with answers or even ready to show it because she is so bogged down in work.


Sears comes and I show them what's wrong, within 2 seconds without touching the unit the repair-woman says, "I can tell you with-out touching it that it will cost you at least $190.00 for the repair alone not including the visit." The repair person sees the look of distress on my face and says to me, "I never touched the unit so I recommend you buy a new one." "If Sears calls for a follow-up tell them you just decided to buy a new one, Technically I was never here."


The repair-woman also stated make sure and buy the extended warranty next time, especially on the Hawaiian Islands electrical appliances take a beating from the salt air, and my place sits on a hill with the ocean slightly below. OK great advise, Mahalo Nui Loa, I replied. (Thank you very much)


I am thrilled I did not have to spend $97.00 just to be told my air conditioner was not repairable. I was ready to write off my Kenmore Air conditioner and look seriously for a new one with a warranty.  I decide for fun to give my air conditioner  one last  hard kick, I had kicked it a few times before calling customer service, but this time I really kicked it hard just out of frustration and low and behold, 'hallelujah' it starts spitting out cold air! 

 The air conditioner Goddess's decided that my Air conditioner needed a miracle healer and so be it, Amen. My air conditioner is fixed, for free, just with a kick. The moral of the story when your AC is sick give it a kick!

(The names of the air conditioner and store may have been changed to protect the guilty.... other than that this story is the truth!)


The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this blog site do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Publisher of Dakinetalk the blog, but they could? ;D)