Just Venting about my dishwasher.

I have lost all faith in men I don't know.

A while ago a part in my dishwasher broke.  It's not a big part, and for a couple of months now we have been dealing with it. 

 I looked up the part online and bought it about 2 weeks ago.  It came.  It was the wrong one. My bad.  I start looking for it again and can't find it anywhere online.  It's like the part didn't exist except in my dishwasher.  So Saturday I decided to go to the Maytag store where I bought it and see if they could give me a part number or be of some greater assistance.

Saturday I went out and stopped at the bank.   All the ladies at the bank were really nice to me and BL and I left in a good mood.  When I go out to the parking lot I see that there is a line at the coffee shop take out window (next to the bank), but someone has left space in the line so that you can drive through it to the exit of the parking lot.  Just as I approach the space to drive through it a MAN decides that I am going to take his place in the coffee line (how absurd!) and closes the gap to the exit.  He completely blocks the way out.  I turn around and go out the other exit of the strip mall (over a block in the other direction).  Thank You MAN #1

So I drive over to the Maytag store and go open the dishwasher that looks like mine.  I ask for the part number to this part I am pointing out.  I get the response, "I don't know. We don't do parts here!" For a salesMAN, he was rude and very unfamiliar with true customer service.  I asked for a drawing, or any other help he could offer me.  So he hands me a business card for Maytag Parts Sales and writes down my model number for me (like I don't already have that at home).   What really got me about him was all the other salesMEN in the store didn't say anything.  None of them offered to call this number for me, or even said hello.  I felt like I shouldn't have bought from them if they were going to treat me like that.  Thank You MAN #2 and coworkers.

So, I came home and I called the parts place and gave them all the information they asked for.  The MAN I talked to was helpful to a point.  He described the part to me the best he could, but it didn't quite fit my description.  I tried telling him how mine looked, and he assured me that this was that part.  Then when I ask for the part number he tells me he can't give it to me and this and that.  I just wanted a part number to go find a picture of it online so I wouldn't buy the wrong part again.  No, they don't do that and he can't help me further.  I got mad and thanked him before I threw the phone.  Thank You MAN #3.

DH talked some sense into me--I needed the part. They had the part. Order it and get it over with.  DH called back and ordered it.  I love you DH!

I wait patiently for my package and it comes today, YEAH-UUUGH! It's the wrong part.  So I call up Maytag parts service again and get a MAN.  I explain to him I am very, very irritated and that I tried to prevent this from happening and this and that.  I go get the part out of my dishwasher so that I can give him  a complete description.  In doing so I broke the part that works with it.   Now part of one rack is totally non functional.  I was so mad.  This guy tries to tell me 8 different ways that I have the part listed.  I know that.  It still doesn't make it the right part.  Thank You MAN #4.

Aside: Maybe I have no patience for people like this because I used to do the same job in a different sector and I know when the customer really is right, and what customer service really ought to be.

So after 20 minutes of me asking this guy "Where I am supposed to get the right part if he doesn't have it?" I finally get his supervisor.  This MAN asks me the same questions.  Sends me part diagrams, and calls me back.  He still can't believe I didn't get the right part.  He doesn't know why.  

While I was waiting for him to call me back I was searching on the internet for this unobtainable part and stumbled upon information that there were two kinds of my dishwasher model. Series 10 and Series 30.  I asked Mr. Supervisor if he had information on a Series 30.  No, his is all for Series 10.  Obviously, I have a Series 30 dishwasher and he CAN'T HELP ME!  Thank You MAN #5.  He does give me the number to Maytag (isn't that who I called?) and transfers me to Customer Service so that I can return the part that I just bought.

A nice woman answers the phone in Customer Service.  She tells me that it would not be cost-effective to have the part returned, so I am going to get a credit to my credit card and I get to keep the part. (Ebay here it comes!)  

Then I call Maytag (not Parts Service) and another nice woman answers the phone and confirms that I do, in fact, have a Series 30 dishwasher.  She tells me "No, that other part is wrong and this part is right (and less expensive) and here is the part number for both the parts you need.  They will get shipped today. Is there anything else you need?" 

I know that all men are not like this, but during this transaction, all the men I had to deal with were (you fill in your insult of choice) and all the women were helpful, pleasant and gave me the information I asked for, and were very accommodating.  

If this were all that happened today it would seem like an interesting day, but I also made dinner like a mad woman after the Maytag fiasco so that it would be done when DH came home.  I folded a mountain of laundry that has been sitting on the washer for 4 days.  I watched BC wet his pants for no reason twice before nap time.  I changed a poopy diaper while on the phone with the parts people.  I planned my primary lesson.  I stayed in the house all day with BC because it was snowing. I did a load (load and unload) in the dishwasher.  I did 3 more loads of laundry.  I colored.  I did baths for the kids. I took time to blog just so this whole nightmare of an experience doesn't bug me.    I'm exhausted.

If you need the number to Maytag (not Parts Service) it is: 800-688-9900.