Hot Water Saga - during a pandemic, no less.

Yes, I said "saga" because the situation I mentioned on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving spiraled  completely out of control very quickly.  For the record, there was no artistic license taken in the telling of this tale.  It actually went down exactly in this manner.  

Note:  This REALLY is a saga - so go to the bathroom, grab yourself a drink and some popcorn.

The service technician arrived Friday morning after Thanksgiving and, I was VERY happy to see him.  Think of the absolute horror of washing Thanksgiving dishes by having to heat water on the stove.  The Husband tried to cook as much as he could with foil pans to help ease the clean up chore and we ate on paper plates but it was still a nightmare.

BUT, we got through it somehow and the service tech was here to set my world back on track on a day when a great majority of the country usually has off; so I was relieved that he was working that day.

Until, he knocked on the garage door to tell me that I needed to order a part.  He explained he couldn't order it since the warranty was in our name AND as they hadn't installed the unit, they didn't have any of the information on it. Why the home warranty people had decided to use this company instead of the one that installed it left the tech and I puzzled.  

Fine.  He had written all the information down that I needed to give the manufacturer, gave it to me and left.  I immediately called the manufacturer only to discover that they were closed for the holiday AND don't have weekend hours.

The cursing that poured out of me surprised even The Husband.  Once I resigned myself to not having hot water for the entire weekend, the cursing abated a tad.

I called the manufacturer bright and early on Monday, successfully ordered the part and inquired about expedited shipping.  The helpful woman on the other end of the line said I would need to call back, go through the phone tree again to be connected with the same department she was in and request to speak to the shipping department.  When I asked why she couldn't just transfer me to the shipping department, she informed me that the shipping department didn't open until 9:00 am.  How does any of that even make sense?

So AT ('00 AM I called back, went through the phone tree, spent a significant amount of time on hold, requested the shipping department and was finally able to procure expedited shipping to ensure the part would arrive on Tuesday.

The part came as promised, The Husband texted the tech who told him to call the office to schedule something.  The next thing I knew, I had received an email that an appointment has been made for Friday.  I was furious.

I called them and said no, this is unacceptable and mentioned that we had been without hot water for SEVEN days at that point - the lady was firm and I ended up hanging up on her.  At this point, I was in tears I was so mad.  The Husband came home for lunch - where I was boiling water AGAIN for dish water and had somehow worked his magic and was able to move the appointment up to Thursday.  Thank God for small miracles but still, I was outraged.

This next part, still enrages me when I think of it.  You're not going to believe it.  I didn't, still don't and yet, it actually happened.

Our appointment was scheduled for Thursday morning...until I got a call from The Husband who informed me that the service company called him to push back our appointment to the afternoon because "they had an emergency."

I have to wonder what kind of "emergency" takes precedence over a house that has not had hot water for the past EIGHT days?!

Whatever.

Finally, the service tech showed up, I opened the garage and went into the house.

He was out there for a very long time.  Then I received a call from The Husband.  We needed to order ANOTHER part.  And The Husband informed me the service tech was extremely puzzled about why they were doing this job anyway since they don't even install this particular brand of water heaters.

Y'all.  At this point I am surprised I didn't have a stroke on the spot.  I was, as I am sure you are quite aware by now, outraged.

Not with the tech.  None of this was his fault.  He couldn't help the timing, the part issue, any of it.  Turns out when he finally knocked on the door to give me the bad news I could see how upset he was on my behalf.  He seemed like a very decent person.  I was gracious as I could be.  He informed me that he had called the manufacturer to tell them what his readings were and to figure out what could be wrong with this machine - the kind he doesn't even install - was able to order the correct part and get expedited shipping.  And to call him directly and he would come back.

I looked him in the eye and informed him as calmly as I could that he needed to promise me because it would NINE days since we had hot water on Friday.  He promised.

On Friday, I waited and waited.  The day got later and later.  Still no package.  I had the tracking number so I knew the part was in town and on the truck for delivery.  Still no package.  Finally, I sent The Husband a text and asked him to text the tech to make sure he would still come even though the package was late.

The service tech acted as it everything was fine.

Finally, about 4:00 pm the package arrived.  I sent The Husband another text and asked him to call the guy.

And he responded that we needed to call the office.  So basically, he lied.  Yes, I understand that he still had a full roster of clients to attend to AND it was near the end of the day but still...

Guys.  I mean honestly?!  Can you even with all this?

So they set up ANOTHER appointment - this time without a many day wait - they set this one up for Saturday afternoon - TEN days at this point without hot water.

I was losing my mind.  The entire time this is all we obsessed about - hot water and the absurdity of the situation.  

At long last, yesterday (Saturday) the guy was able to get the stupid water heater working - but here's the thing.  Even though his readings told him everything was working correctly WE couldn't confirm that by turning on the tap because it would take at least an hour for the water to heat.

I really didn't want the tech to leave until I could confirm for myself but I didn't want to risk the kidnapping charges he would file against me if I forced him to stay.

My neighbor, meanwhile, was increasingly disturbed during this episode and kept texting me to come over to use their shower.  In normal times, I would have just moved into her basement for the duration, but here we are in a pandemic and I knew they had travelled over the holidays.  She offered to bleach everything and stay upstairs while we snuck into the basement.  I just couldn't do it.  So we made do with heating water for dish water, sponge baths, etc. It was awful and I have never felt so gross in my entire life

About 5:00 pm last night, I confirmed the hot water was working and took the longest, hottest shower that I have ever had in my life.

So to sum it up, 2020 is the year that keeps turning everything into an absolute nightmare.

About the only silver lining to this saga?  That coffin-sized shower that I hate so much?  I hate it a LOT less today.