If you recall, we received a broken washing machine the other day. The installer told us that he was going to report the damage and the company would call us. Which company? We THINK he meant the company that shipped the washer, but we weren't sure.
So yesterday we received a call - yay! The guy wasn't kidding! The woman said we need you to FAX us the receipt from the installer which has the receipt number on it. FAX? We don't have one, so I asked if we could email the receipt number to her. Sure, she says, just use the email address on the receipt.
No problem! I carefully type in the email address on the receipt and email her the information.
It bounces back.
Hmm, I think, I must have typed it in wrong. I try again.
It bounces back.
We decide to call the company since they had called us so we had the number in our phone, right? Wrong, it was listed as a private number, so the woman must have called from her private cell. We call the general number on the receipt. We tell them the story. No, they said, our email is fine, it's YOURS that is not working.
Here we go.
We deny that our email is broken, since we'd been emailing people all day. She says, well we MUST see the receipt or we can't help you! Oh, boy. So I quickly figure out how to fax from our brand new printer thingy and I send the fax! It's sending! Yahoo! Then the fax report comes back from the recipient that it failed. I try again. Failure again. We call again. No, they never received it, are you sure you have the right number?
What is it, because they can hear our foreign accents they assume we are not very smart?
We get VERY frustrated and my husband decides to go back to the store we bought the item from and ask them for help. They are really nice and helpful and fax the reciept from their store. It says it was successful. Bern calls to make sure the company received the fax. Nope.
Bern then gets fed up and hands the phone to the store owner who proceeds to have a brief but very loud and fast conversation in Hebrew with the person on the other end of the phone. When store guy hangs up, he says, "No problem, I will make sure you get a new washing machine in a couple of days, I'll handle it." We are putting our faith in this person so I'll let you know what happens. In the meantime our washing machine is sitting in the middle of our kitchen. That would be so handy if it was really hooked up, wouldn't it?
In another milestone, we pretty much emptied out all of the boxes we could and the place is looking much more liveable. The machsan (storage closet in the garage), however, is, um, let's just say - full.
It's kind of like those cartoons where the house is neat and clean and then you open a closet and everything falls on your head. Kind of like that. But hey it's in the garage so we don't have to deal with it right now!
Just a note about the weather - ok, you are already yawning, but just hold on as econd. Someone out there must know someone who knows someone (maybe Tom Tasselmeyer?) who can tell me if I'm right or wrong that the sunshine here is brighter, glarier (is that a word?) than on the US East Coast. Also, I love watching how the weather changes during the day. OK, boring part over, you can wake up now.
An amusing note about our parking spot. Not that I'm complaining because we have a covered parking spot in a country where it gets to a zillion degrees in the summer, so that's great. But our spot, and most of the spots in our building's garage, is between two very scary looking concrete walls. Our little rental car is not very wide and we are having issues with getting in and out of that space. Each time, we advise each other, "Swing it more widely!" "Back it in!" [very scary option, not used much] " "Back up the OTHER way and then turn around!" "Turn your wheel! NO NOT THAT WAY!" You get the idea.
Well, Shabbat Shalom AND Good Shabbos - one last story. The carpenter who came to give us an estimate this week came highly recommended. I had asked the local email group to recommend someone who speaks English. His English sounded American, so we were thrilled. Ends up he grew up on the Chabad kibbutz here and was born here but raised speaking English. Today he called with an estimate and at the end wished me a Good Shabbos. NOT Shabbat Shalom. What an interesting country.
So yesterday we received a call - yay! The guy wasn't kidding! The woman said we need you to FAX us the receipt from the installer which has the receipt number on it. FAX? We don't have one, so I asked if we could email the receipt number to her. Sure, she says, just use the email address on the receipt.
No problem! I carefully type in the email address on the receipt and email her the information.
It bounces back.
Hmm, I think, I must have typed it in wrong. I try again.
It bounces back.
We decide to call the company since they had called us so we had the number in our phone, right? Wrong, it was listed as a private number, so the woman must have called from her private cell. We call the general number on the receipt. We tell them the story. No, they said, our email is fine, it's YOURS that is not working.
Here we go.
We deny that our email is broken, since we'd been emailing people all day. She says, well we MUST see the receipt or we can't help you! Oh, boy. So I quickly figure out how to fax from our brand new printer thingy and I send the fax! It's sending! Yahoo! Then the fax report comes back from the recipient that it failed. I try again. Failure again. We call again. No, they never received it, are you sure you have the right number?
What is it, because they can hear our foreign accents they assume we are not very smart?
We get VERY frustrated and my husband decides to go back to the store we bought the item from and ask them for help. They are really nice and helpful and fax the reciept from their store. It says it was successful. Bern calls to make sure the company received the fax. Nope.
Bern then gets fed up and hands the phone to the store owner who proceeds to have a brief but very loud and fast conversation in Hebrew with the person on the other end of the phone. When store guy hangs up, he says, "No problem, I will make sure you get a new washing machine in a couple of days, I'll handle it." We are putting our faith in this person so I'll let you know what happens. In the meantime our washing machine is sitting in the middle of our kitchen. That would be so handy if it was really hooked up, wouldn't it?
In another milestone, we pretty much emptied out all of the boxes we could and the place is looking much more liveable. The machsan (storage closet in the garage), however, is, um, let's just say - full.
It's kind of like those cartoons where the house is neat and clean and then you open a closet and everything falls on your head. Kind of like that. But hey it's in the garage so we don't have to deal with it right now!
Just a note about the weather - ok, you are already yawning, but just hold on as econd. Someone out there must know someone who knows someone (maybe Tom Tasselmeyer?) who can tell me if I'm right or wrong that the sunshine here is brighter, glarier (is that a word?) than on the US East Coast. Also, I love watching how the weather changes during the day. OK, boring part over, you can wake up now.
An amusing note about our parking spot. Not that I'm complaining because we have a covered parking spot in a country where it gets to a zillion degrees in the summer, so that's great. But our spot, and most of the spots in our building's garage, is between two very scary looking concrete walls. Our little rental car is not very wide and we are having issues with getting in and out of that space. Each time, we advise each other, "Swing it more widely!" "Back it in!" [very scary option, not used much] " "Back up the OTHER way and then turn around!" "Turn your wheel! NO NOT THAT WAY!" You get the idea.
Well, Shabbat Shalom AND Good Shabbos - one last story. The carpenter who came to give us an estimate this week came highly recommended. I had asked the local email group to recommend someone who speaks English. His English sounded American, so we were thrilled. Ends up he grew up on the Chabad kibbutz here and was born here but raised speaking English. Today he called with an estimate and at the end wished me a Good Shabbos. NOT Shabbat Shalom. What an interesting country.
What is it, because they can hear our foreign accents they assume we are not very smart?
ReplyDeleteYes, that is exactly it.
Today he called with an estimate and at the end wished me a Good Shabbos. NOT Shabbat Shalom. What an interesting country.
I spent Shabbat in a chareidi neighborhood this week and almost everyone said Good Shabbas, I think it was the first time I heard that since I got here.