Okay… my dishwasher broke. I loaded it, closed it, pressed the on button and it didn’t click or turn on. My guess, the on/off button was broken. But I’m not a repairman! So I had to call a repairman.
Because I’m swamped with shit to do: sort out the taxes, WORK(!), get a new SSN & DL & change the name on all my credit cards, and WORK(!). Plus deal with getting the quotes for finishing my garage, the yardwork, the kids… oh and WORK! Because of all that it took a few days for me to get around to finding someone to fix the dishwasher.
I pulled off the info from two companies that certainly looked very reliable. I called both and they assured me that the estimate fee would be waived if I had the repairman do the work. My problem was, how could I compare prices between one and the other without incurring extra diagnostic costs! So after learning this from the first guy I told him, “Well, forget it then. Don’t send anyone.” I caved on the second one because their diagnostic cost was lower and had them send someone out that day.
When I get home at 4pm there is a white van in front of my house. I’m grumbling to myself, “I told them 4:30.”
He introduces himself and his Armenian accent is so thick I cannot catch neither his name nor the company he’s with. But he’s too old to be a threat & I assume (correctly) that he’s a dishwasher repairman! lol. He goes to the dishwasher and after I explain the problem, he tears the front apart. About 15 minutes later a Blue van pulls up.
This excites the kids who think Sex God has come over. (Last time he did they ambushed him with Nerf guns & the 4 of them had a 20 minute Nerf war in my house!)
Turns out its the OTHER repair company’s man!
Oh, my. I wasn’t sure what to do. How do I explain this? And which guy is from the company I said yes to? (This is as bad as my biggest fear of accidentally double booking a play night!) I’m pulling the paperwork but he’s already at the door.
I do about a minute of hemming and hawing and then the original repair man comes from my kitchen to the front door. Oh God, I’m thinking. But they both brake into streams of Armenian and it doesn’t seem to sound angry. Then the original waives the new guy in and I step aside saying, “Well, apparently I’m not part of this conversation.”
They go straight to my dishwasher and I’ll be damned if they didn’t both start working on it together. While carrying on a discussion in a language incomprehensible to me. Between the whole craziness of it and the fact they barely speak English, I totally stay out of it!
They eventually both leave the house for their vans and as I watch they are using their cell phones (I’m amazed they get reception in my canyon) and continuing their private Armenian discussion. Again, no anger or arguing or demanding one leave, that I can tell. They must have worked something out because the original guy comes back while the new guy drives off. So he finally talks to me, tell me he’s going to try cleaning and testing the starter in hopes he won’t have to replace the part. After which he puts the front back on and BAM my dishwasher is fixed.
He helps additionally with tips on cleaning the interior of the thing, the filter and even gets it to stop tilting by securing it better to the cabinetry. AND answers my questions (in his severely broken English!) about putting a piece of wood over some exposed part on the bottom.
All for just $110. Wow… I was impressed. Not only with how well he did the work, but with the price and how he handled the surprise of my or their miss-communication with the dispatchers.
The boys are thrilled because now they don’t have to assembly-line style hand wash all the dishes they accumulate through out a day. Although I enjoyed chocking up a life lesson for them in my books.
Win/win!