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How Frustrating!!!

By September 24, 2014August 30th, 2022Lost in Translation

I’m on a rant today. I guess it’s the culmination of a bunch of stuff that is going on in our personal lives that is incredibly frustrating. And just because it will be cathartic for me, and perhaps some of you can sympathize with the frustrations that Janet and I are experiencing, I have decided to list just the things that have happened in the last 24 hours.

For those of you who are followers of TBTB, you know that I had real issues with an online order for home goods last week. On the bright side, I am pleased to report that the merchandise finally arrived at our home, in good condition, but the accessories that came along were wrong and I just don’t have the energy to even call and complain. I think I may just eat the cost and be done with it. Case closed, at least for now. How frustrating!!!

So on to the other stuff this past day. We are in the process of ordering window coverings for the house and, of course, the quotes for the various items were incomplete. As much as we rely on our designer, it is frustrating when people so dedicated to their craft take so much time to complete the details of the transaction and so we wait far longer than we would like for the successive phases of our master plan to be complete. And then there is the issue with another enhancement we have had done in several of our rooms. After three trips to repair something, I was told yesterday that another service call will be necessary to complete the work – how frustrating!!!

And then there is the ice maker in the lower level kitchen. It needed more than $700 worth of repairs, had to be removed – then delivered – two additional times and was finally returned in “good working order” – except that it has a huge dent in the door now. I called and was told that they would replace the door or just give me a credit against a new unit – but that is ghastly expensive and frankly, if we didn’t have the ice maker it wouldn’t be a big deal. But we do have it, and so I want it to work properly. Yesterday I was told that, although it has already been 8 weeks that we have been waiting for the replacement door, Whirlpool doesn’t have enough orders for the part so it will be another 8 weeks before we can expect a replacement – how frustrating!!!

On another note, I was finally able to order the chandelier for the front hallway this morning. How nice it was to call, place the order, give the credit card number and be done with the whole thing. Until several minutes ago when I received a call from the store letting me know that they had “lost” my credit card number and needed it again. Come to think of it, did it get lost, or stolen? And what if we now have fraud on the card? There are all kinds of accounts linked to that card… How frustrating!!!

And then there is the really big one… Several weeks ago Janet and I had our eye exams and after our exams (they came out fine), we decided to order new glasses. Yesterday, I came home in time to pick up Janet and drive to pick up our eyewear. Six pairs between us – and all six of them were wrong. I don’t mean that they needed to be adjusted – I mean the lenses in all the pairs of glasses made it impossible to see clearly unless you were a contortionist and could bend your neck at such as odd angle that there was some small window through which you could see into the distance.

Now the total cost of the glasses is relatively unimportant – but they were more than Janet and I paid in apartment rent for the first full year that we were married. On top of that, we were told that they contained all the latest and greatest advancements in lens quality, progressive lens technology and all the various coatings for scratch resistance and anti-reflective. Since I do quite a number of presentations, that is pretty important to me – so the audience doesn’t see the reflective glare off the ceiling lights in my lenses as I am speaking. By now you can probably discern that this wasn’t the case – they were all ordered with the older technology and re-ordering will require a third visit, not including the trip to pick them up, if we want to go that route. Oh, and the cost could go up another $360 for this revision. How frustrating!!!

Anyway, I know the eye doctor pretty well and so I spoke with him this morning and really complained about the customer service. We have gone to this practice, or its predecessor, for more than 30 years and I have about had it. Where has customer service gone? At least, he called me back and now has scheduled a meeting in the morning with his staff to address our concerns. I am most appreciative but this doesn’t help with getting the new glasses right.

As I reflect on my writings today, it seems to me that I must annoy people as well. In fact, I have just been complaining about a loud whistling sound, kind of like a siren noise in the doctor’s office while we are waiting for Janet’s appointment. It is very annoying. But you know what? After 45 minutes of listening to this, somebody just told me that it is coming from me!!! You know what? It was something with my phone… How embarrassing!!! So, in honor of our imperfections, the verse for tonight is from Luke 6:42, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” My encouragement tonight is that God knows we are imperfect and wants us to strive to do better. While we focus on others, my prayer is that every once in a while you will look in the mirror and see if you are doing everything you can do to be tolerant of others. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…

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