Story of the Day 6/3/2013- Saga of the camera- Part 2

Saul didn't call.

That was the guy that Amanda told me would call me by midmorning, today.
The guy from Best Buy who is looking for a camera that is now missing in action.

At 3:01 PM, a time I felt was sufficiently past midmorning and therefore a good time to call and say, "You never called me!", I called the 800 number.

I was transferred to Juliana.

At 3:07, I was disconnected.

I called back. That was after waiting 5 minutes to see if Juliana would try to...un-disconnect me.

This time I found myself speaking with Priscilla.
I give her the case number.
She says the case is closed and the camera is there at the store.

I have a moment when I wonder if I should be hearing Twilight Zone music.
But I don't.
Rather, I hear a very pregnant silence.


I explain what I have gone through. I ask her to please check and see if the camera is at the store.

She puts me on hold.

I expect to wait a bit, and then she will come back and tell me that it will be a few more days.
But I am wrong.

Instead, I find myself transferred to Erin.
Erin is at the local Best Buy. The place I left the camera to be repaired.
She asks me what kind of camera it is.

Erin checks and tells me that the camera was not sent out to be repaired until May 23rd. The UPS record shows that the vendor received it on May 29th and that the camera is still at the vendor.

I ask the obvious question, "Why did it sit in the store for 2 weeks after I dropped it off to be repaired?"

"We were busy."

I ask her when we will get it back.
She has no idea, but it will be when the vendor ships it back.
She gives me an order number and explains to me how I can go to geeksquad.com and track it.

Now, I am stupid, but I am not that stupid.
It sat in the store until May 23rd because they were so very busy....

No, it sat in the store until May 23rd when I called and asked if it was back , yet, and they realized they hadn't sent it out , yet, to be repaired.
And they covered up the error, on May 23rd, when I called, by telling me it wasn't back , yet. Which,w as technically true, since they hadn't sent it out.
why they changed the service number? I don't' know. Maybe to cover up what happened, maybe because they really couldn't send it off with a two week old number, or maybe because they decided they didn't' like the first number. Your guess is as good as mine.

So, I am stupid, but not that stupid, and I am also angry.
I am angry because I do not like the levels of lying that this implies.

I tell her "Okay" as opposed to "Thank you" and hang up.

Then I go to geeksquad.com and put in the number. I want to see what it says.
It has been "sanitized".
According to the website, I dropped the camera off to be repaired on May 23rd.
It thanks me for doing that.
Actually, it thanks me for trusting them with the repair.

Except that I no longer trust them.

Story of the Day 6/ 2/ 2013- Saga of the camera- Part 1

I have titlesd this story Story of the Day 6/2/2013, but it is really a saga that started a month ago.
My children have a very nice camera that my husband got for them.
He purchased it using "points" he had accumulated over three years by filling out surveys for a drug company.
Drug as in prescription medicine, not as in crack or heroin.

Theoretically, this means that the camera was a good deal. However, since we pay taxes on the value of the camera, and the value is figured at some incredibly inflated manufacturer's suggested retail price from 6 years ago, when it was the newest model, instead of from last summer, when it was actually "redeemed/purchased", the amount we ended up paying in taxes was really only a little less than if we had bought the camera at it's current, no longer the newest model, Amazon.com price.

Oh well.
At least it is a nice camera, with a nice lens.
Excpet, that it is the old model and certain children seem to complain to us that it is not as good for making movies as the newer cameras.
Despite their complaints, however, they seem to have made a very nice film with it, at the end of the summer , last year, and a few others, since then.

This is the film they made , at the end of last summer. Hopefully, you will think it was worth the investment in income taxes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9ixPIc2YRA

To get back to this year, about a month ago, the wonderful camera with the nice lens had a lens that didn't work.
It wouldn't turn to adjust the focus.
This is bad enough when you are taking regular photos, but it is truly disastrous when you are shooting video.

I groaned a bit when my daughter told me this.
I groaned a lot more after I looked up the cost of getting a new lens for the camera on Amazon.

A friend, Harriet, heard my moaning and groaning and remembered, about then, that she had a Nikon lens in her house left over from a camera she used to have . She went searching for it, and after she dropped it off, we did some internet research.
The lens, apparently, can be adapted to fit the newer digital Nikon camera, but it will not auto focus.
This is fine if you want to take still photos, but it was going to be an issue for shooting video.
Less of an issue than the lens we owned which wouldn't adjust at all, but still.....

So, again, I started looking at what a new lens would cost.

Then, my husband dropped a piece of information on me.

When he got the camera for the kids, he also got an extended warranty.
That covered the lens.
He did?
God bless his neurotic genes!!!!!!

I started digging in all the drawers for the warranty paper he said had come with the camera.
We had the original box, and a number of papers, but I was unable to find anything even resembling a warranty paper.

Fortunately, my husband discovered that he had an email from the purchase. And the email let him access the information about the warranty on the Best Buy website.

Unfortunately, the email indicated that the warranty ran out a few months ago.

What?
That didn't make sense.
The extended warranty was for a year.
We thought and thought and were sure the camera had been ordered during the summer.
The summer of 2012.
How could this be?
It is now the spring of 2013, and , unless I was educated incorrectly about the order of the seasons, less than a year had passed.

On May 6th, my husband checked again, and there it was, in black and white pixels, right on the website, the warranty expired on 1/7/ 2013.

More moaning ensued.

Until a day later, on May 7th, when my husband realized that they had used European date notation.
1/ 7/ 2013 meant the 1st of July, 2013.

My husband sent me the information and I contacted Best Buy- the source of the camera and of the extended warranty.

I called them on May 8th- at their 800 number, and they gave me a service number, after I let them know where I would be dropping the camera off for the repair.
I chose the Best Buy on the west side of town. It is slightly nearer than the one near Castleton Square Mall, and in an area of much less aggressive drivers.

On May 9th, I stood in line for about 5 minutes, and then left the camera and lens ( they had to be left together) to be repaired. I was told that it would be , at most, 14-17 days before it was back from being sent out to be repaired.

Desite the impatience of my children, I waited a full two weeks before calling the store.
On May 23rd, I called the local Best Buy and was told that the camera was not back yet.
Well, they had told me 14 to 17 days,so this was not a problem, except for my kids; and I decided to wait until the weekend to try again.

On May 26th, it being little before the local store opened, I called the 800 number to check on the camera.
After being transferred around a bit, I was told that, "Of course it isn't ready , yet," since it was only dropped off to be repaired on May 23rd.

The 23rd?

I tell the woman that she is wrong: I left it to be repaired on May 9th.
She insists the repair order is for the 23rd.
Then she says, "Oh, this is strange" Apparently, the camera has two different repair numbers. She is not sure why , because she has never seen this before.
She puts me on hold while she calls the store to find out what has happened.

I wait on hold.

She comes back on and explains to me that because the camera took so long to repair, it went over their maximum number of days and they had to assign a new repair number to it. She assures me that it will be back in the store by this coming Wednesday. She is sorry it has taken so long.

I am not happy, but I am not very upset by the slight delay; and, at any rate, there is nothing that I can do.
I am also wondering about that second repair number.
It doesn't feel right.

She assures me, though, that it will be in the store on Wednesday.

Wednesday was May 29th.
It was also not when the camera arrived at the store.
It also did not arrive on the 30th.

On June 2nd, today, I have become a slightly less pleasant to deal with customer.
I call the 800 number.
I ask where the camera is.
I am put on hold.
I am on hold for a very long time.
I read more than one section of the New York Times.
I decide that they have forgotten about me.
At 1:32 PM, Amanda comes on the line.
The camera was never shipped.
I ask what that means.
Was it not shipped out to be repaired, or was it not shipped from the repair place back to the store?

Kristy told me the wrong thing. Kristy is the woman I spoke with on a long ago 800 call, at least, it feels long ago.
She tells me that Kristy told me the wrong thing.
The camera was not ready when she told me it was, it was not already shipped back to the store, it had not been repaired. In fact, it also hadn't even been received by the vendor to be repaired.
They do not know where the camera is and they are looking into it.
She gives me a reference number.
She assures me that I will be called back, at the latest, by midmorning , tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be June 3rd.
I have a bad feeling that there will be a Story of the Day , tomorrow.

Story of the Day 5/ 20/ 2013

I am an evil mother.
My daughter is a senior in high school and her last day of school is tomorrow, Tuesday, May 21st.

During the morning, she has a final. Or two.

During the afternoon, she has a film and animation class that is two hours and a study hall.
I offered to pick her up early.
After all, she has early dismissal, so I can pick her up one period early- and she can skip her last study hall.

My daughter didn't think this was good.
She wanted to skip her last film class.

"What?"

"I will be the only student there."

She is probably right.
After all, she handed her final project for the class in, on Friday.
But it didn't feel right to me.
Sarah was insistant.
I discussed it with my husband.
We agreed and explained to Sarah that it was not respectful to her teacher to skip out, even if she would be the only student there.

So, on Friday, Sarah informed her teacher that she would see him on Tuesday.
He was....well, Sarah said he was trying very hard not to laugh, when she explained that her parents wouldn't let her skip.

More negotiating ensued.

I , again, discussed it with my husband.
We agreed that I would ask her teacher how he felt about her being absent.

I sent him the following email:

Dear Mr. H,

As you have noticed, Sarah's parent are both equally or more rigid about rule following than Sarah is. (Remember: Apples do not come from oak trees.)
We told Sarah she could not just ditch class, because that was rude to her teachers. However, if you have nothing for her to do and no reason that you want her to show up, tomorrow, and if you would not be insulted if she didn't show up, please let me know and I will pick her up from school and take her out for lunch.

Thanks, Sarah's mother, I mean, Cassia

Apparently, my email inspired even more mirth from her teacher......

And the response that she did not need to show up for the last class.

Story of the Day 6/ 5/ 2013 PART TWO

I am using the same photo as for part one. That is to make sure you remember what the hotel in Hobart, Indiana looks like. From the outside.
The Hobart Budget Inn.

And, No.
I did not make reservations for my son at the Budget Inn.
I figured it was bad enough knowing what the outside looked like. The description from the review on-line of the inside was ....a good reason to not want to picture it.

I tried to make them at another hotel that is also in Hobart, and which costs about $50 a night.
$50 a night turns out to be substantially more expensive than the Budget Inn.
Which I took as a good sign.

I called up and asked about prices, AAA discounts, the like.
I gave them my credit card and got a confirmation number.
I told them my son was deaf and would need either a room with a flashing smoke detector or one of the ADA kits that comes with a portable flashing smoke detector in it to put in the room.
No luck.
The hotel has two "handicapped " rooms with strobe fire alarms, but both were already taken for that night.
And they didn't have a portable flashing alarm, because they had those two rooms.
I quickly unreserved the room.

I called another hotel.
I spook with two different staff members.
Neither of them knew anything about a kit with a door flasher ( for people who can't hear knocking) or a flashing smoke detector, and they also didn't have a "handicapped " room.
I told them that they must have one.
They were sure they didn't.
I will add here that they are part of a national chain.
A chain that is NOT notorious for being in violation of the ADA.
I had a momentary thought of calling their corporate headquarters and explaining the problem, but the two people on the phone seemed both friendly and trying very hard, but with the combined intelligence of one high school graduate.
In other words, it didn't' seem worth it.

I called third hotel, this one was $70 a night. Except, they only had 4 roosm left and those where all $109 a night.
They had one kit, and it hd been reserved along with one of the less expensive rooms.
Okay, the room might not have bee less expensive, just guessing.

I called a fourth hotel. They had one handicapped room, and it was also reserved.
And no other flashing smoke detector.
The woman thinks they used to have a kit, but she hasn't' seen it in a few years. She was the second person i spoke with, at that hotel.

The fifth hotel was ....Hobart must be an interesting place.

Story of the Day 6/ 5/ 2013

My son is trying to become an EMT- an Emergency Medical Technician.
Those are the people who ride in the ambulances and do CPR on people who have collapsed while pumping gas, or who have had a stroke in their bathroom or who fell and can't get up.
Except Aaron is not going to become that kind of an EMT.

There are also the EMTs who do the nursing home runs.
Those are important, but not emergencies in the same way. That is because the patient has been seen and cared for by nursing staff before being transported to the hospital, or has been discharged and is being returned to the nursing home from the hospital.

But Aaron is also not going to be one of those.

And it is my fault

You see, Aaron got car sick when he did the fire department/ ambulance run practicum.
Twice.
They were called out twice and both times he almost upchucked on the patient, or on his shoes. I mean, Aaron's shoes.
Although he does well , normally, as a passenger in a car, riding in the ambulance while caring for a patient means riding backwards in a vehicle that is weaving in and out of traffic while constantly reading numbers from the equipment monitoring the patient.
So, my son became car sick, and this is my fault because he has Meneire's disease- which is a genetic condition.
And which causes motion sickness.
And since I am the parent who has it, it is my fault for giving it to him.

So, Aaron is hoping to become a staff EMT- the kind of person who runs around in the emergency room or in the hospital, as needed.

This lacks a few things.
It lacks the nice atmosphere of being a fire department EMT. That is because those professionals spend a lot of time at the fire house with their co-workers chatting, watching videos and using the exercise equipment.
Those EMTs get a lot of downtime and a lot of bonding with coworkers interspersed with high adrenaline runs.
It also lacks the easy workload of the nursing home runs.
Yes, there are plenty of patients transported this way, but the emergencies are limited and predictable.
This job also tends to pay better than the other options.

But a staff EMT position at a hospital does have a major advantage.
It does not make him puke on anyone's shoes.

In other words, for Aaron, this is a good career move.

Becoming an EMT requires attending an educational program.
That was it's own story, or it's own few stories.

A year ago, after deciding he wanted to become an EMT, Aaron was all excited.
He found a program just south of Indianapolis. We figured it was about 45 minutes, each way, if the traffic wasn't too bad.
And it started right after the Jewish holidays, in the fall.
This was perfect, because, when Aaron was looking, last summer, for an EMT training program, that was the only program that was commuting distance that he was not guaranteed to flunk.

You see, there are a mandatory number of training hours. He would be able to miss two classes and not fail, but the third.....
missing that third class meant an automatic fail.
And all of the other programs fell on at least three of the Jewish holy days.
So, when he found this somewhat-out-of-the-way program that started AFTER the fall holidays were over...it looked good, long drive or not.
Although, to be fair, it would mean a careful wardrobe adjustment.
Because that course was being taught in KKK and John Birch country.

My husband, who has spent 20 years working on the south side doesn't stop to fill his gas tank up, in that area, unless he has a ball cap over his kipah ( yarmulke) because he really likes not being lynched.

But, hey, we have several very nice baseball caps in the closet, so the "uniform " would not be a problem.

Aaron signed up, paid the $700 plus dollars, and ordered the textbook , so he could start reading it during the two months before the class started.

That is $700 plus dollars after the drug test, the police records test, the CPR certification class and test, and the electric heart stimulation course and test. In other words, we are well over $1,000 into this.....and we haven't even gotten to the equipment.

The Friday before it started, Aaron went on-line, and , lo and behold, they had added something.
Two Saturday "practicals".
Saturday.
He sent off emails: Were these practicals mandatory ? and was there an alternate date when he could come for that segment?

The answers were "No. " and "Yes", but, unfortunately in the reverse order.
So, the same day that he was supposed to start the program, he had to un-enroll.
And start looking for another program.

This time, he found a slightly less expensive program, only $670 dollars, and only 35 minutes away.
So, while all the other costs were the same, it was a little like getting $50 rebate on part of it.
Hey, I am trying to look at the glass as being half-full!

And the course was in a slightly friendlier area.
If I was black or Jewish , I wouldn't want to buy a house there, or send my kids to that school, but no one would lynch me.
They just might expect me to cut their grass or file their taxes and then politely dissappear.

Aaron checked the schedule and double checked it.
It didn't' have any Saturday practices.
He would miss two days for the holidays, but only two.
Now, he just had to stay well, either that or show up for class if he had pneumonia, mono or the plague.

And he already owned the book.

And we were working on getting his stethoscope.
A decent stethoscope can be purchase from a large number of places for around $20. Yes, there are fancy ones available for $150, but most EMTs find that one that costs $20 will do what hey need.
But those are the stethoscopes for people who can hear.
Aaron is deaf, and there are exactly two stethoscopes available that he can use.
The less expensive one is just under $600.
But we were working on it.

Things were looking good.

Then, after the class was already underway, the teacher altered the schedule.
She made a test on one of the days Aaron was missing for a Jewish holiday, and, "No", she told him, there was no make up.
He would be given a zero.

I should explain: In order to pass the course, you need to get an 80% or above. By missing that test, he would need to completely ace 4 other tests in order to pull his average up enough to pass.

I had Aaron email the teacher. Aaron explained that the test was for a large enough number of points that he was, again, asking if there would be an option to make it up.
"No."

So, with this added pressure, Aaron trudged through the semester.

Fortunately , he passed.

The class.

Now he has to pass the certification test.
The test is another $150 dollars.
And it is only offered on Saturday.
That is when the college he took the course at offered theirs. They offered it the Saturday after the class was over.
When the info was still fresh in everyone's minds.
Aaron, obviously, was not going to be able to test with the rest of the students.

He got a web address from the teacher and looked on-line to see where else the test was being offered.

As it turned out, it was offered at 4,721 places in Indiana.
Okay, more like 50.
And all were on a Saturday.

Except for one.

in Hobart, Indiana.

Hobart is 2 1/2 hours from Indianapolis. It is about as far away as you can get from Indianapolis and be in Indiana.

The test is being given at St. Mary's which is a high school in Hobart.
On a Sunday morning.
At 8 AM.

After thinking this over for 3 1/2 minutes, I decided that Aaron would drive up the night before, and stay in a hotel.

There were several factors involved in making this decision. The test costs $150 and if traffic was bad, there was a detour, or he got lost and wasn't there when it started, that was $150 down the toilet.
And we are talking about Aaron, my son who is very capable of getting lost, even with a GPS.

I figured, "How much can a hotel in Hobart cost?" Certainly, less than another $150.

When I looked, on-line, you would be amazed how many of the "local" hotels were in Illinois. Like I said, Hobart is about as far away as you can get from here and still be in Indiana.

I did find one hotel, right in Hobart.
I sent Aaron the photo.
I thought about calling them, but one look at the photo told me that it was probably a by-the-hour place, or by the month.

I am cheap, but not even I am that cheap.

Usually.