Continued----Third Time is the Charm

On Monday I call the salesman at the machine place back. I explain how happy I am about the 24/7 service which doesn't include holidays. He's baffled that no instructions were in the box, especially no phone number for the tech people. By the way, they have a different phone number, and they were on call all weekend.

Okay, after a few more pleasantries, I call the tech group and attempt to download the application a dozen times. The problem I'm told is that I need an analog phone line and that I should find a neighbor that has one. In over hundred degree weather, I have no plans of knocking on doors. Besides I figured everyone in my neighborhood had the same phone line as me. After three hours I ask why they can't send me a machine with the application already downloaded.

To my surprise, I'm told that they normally send the machine 'ready to go.' They promise to ship another machine and it'll arrive by Wednesday. Well, Wednesday came and went, and no machine.

I call my friend back, we're rather chummy at this point. He promised to overnight one. On Friday morning the machine arrived. I'm excited. It has instructions and even extra rolls of paper. I call the tech group, because I figure I need a code to activate it, even though the instructions don't indicate I need one.

After an hour, the thing still wouldn't work. I asked for another tech person, but they insisted no one else would be able to help either. I become more persistent. They agree to transfer me and put me hold. Music is piped over the line. The same bad song plays over and over, grinding on my nerves. For someone that is not in a happy place, this will not improve their mood.

I call back and explain my situation to a new tech person. I was nice, really I was. Well, she immediately puts me hold and I'm forced to listen to the same awful music. After five minutes, I call my sales friend. I'm told he has stepped out, but will call me as soon as he returns.

I wait and wait. At this point my usually low blood pressure has escalated to the boiling point. It's after three o'clock and I have a big event, and really need my machine. I pour myself a glass of wine. It's early to be drinking, but decided it wasn't worth having a coronary over.

I take a deep breath, and a big sip of wine and chill. After an hour, I decide I've had enough. Either they get the dang thing to work, or I would demand a refund. So I call the sales person again. and low and behold he answered.

After a lengthy discussion, he nabs a tech guy, and the three of us spend another hour trying to activate the machine, with no results. I'm told I need to move somewhere that I will get better reception. I told them the place that I was sitting had the best reception in the house, and if it didn't work there, it wouldn't work anywhere that I would be selling books.

I ask about the life time warranty again. I'm assured if the machine is dropped or anything is split on it, that they will replace it. I ask if that would be true if I threw it at someone. They laughed nervously and continued their spill.

The tech guy says, "Maybe if we put in a different code, it'll work." So he goes off in search of the code. It seems 'the code' is kept in a secret location. I envisioned him becoming Indiana Jones and going through the Temple of Doom to retrieve the code. Thank goodness he didn't play that awful music, or he may have wished he'd endured the perils of the Temple of Doom instead of what I would have done to him.

Can you believe that once the new code was entered, it worked? He says, "That was simple." He thinks three days on the phone is simple!!!! I wanted to say, "That's why I called in the first place--to get a code, and why has it taken all day to do this?" But I didn't--I thanked him and hugged my new machine that actually worked.