Complaint Department

is now OPEN!

I'm just writing this down so the next time I have a really bad day, I can look back at this and say, "At least it isn't THAT bad!".

We're getting a hot tub placed in our back yard.  There have been several hoops to jump through to make this happen.  A hot tub was recommended due to my back issues from falling down a flight of stairs.  Due to that fall, I have arthritis in my lower spine, bone on bone, LOTS of severe pain that never goes away.  Sometimes it's worse than other times, but it's always bad.  I recently found out that the sharp pain in my right knee is due to the fact that it's also bone on bone.  Enough back story.

So we were moving right along with the hot tub.  After going to several companies, we found the hot tub we wanted from Hot Springs Spas.  They let me get into their hot tub in their showroom and it was a go.  Because power lines cross diagonally over our back yard, we needed a roof over the hot tub, so we found an amazing contractor who was willing to build a pavilion for us.  After meeting with us, he also wanted to make stairs with railings and a tiny deck (a large top step) so I'll be safe and comfortable getting into and out of the hot tub (if I'm not comfortable, I won't use the hot tub and then it would be silly to have one).  Plans were agreed upon.  Our contractor really liked the ideas I brought to it and really liked the fact that I totally understood his rough sketches.  We're a really good match.

It was finally our turn to get the concrete poured for the four inch thick slab, when it started to rain... for three weeks!  Concrete had to wait.  Finally, it was Concrete Pour Day on Thursday, September 6, 2018.  The concrete guys went FAR above and beyond what they needed to do so we could put our hand/paw prints into the concrete, letting me know how to take care of Musketeer's paw after it had been in the concrete so it wouldn't burn him, etc.  They were FANTASTIC!!!!

Yesterday, I emailed the hot tub people (their show room is 40 miles away), letting them know Kiva and I would be coming in to give them the balance for the hot tub at 11:00 am on Thursday, Sept. 13th, making sure that time and day was okay with them.  At 10:00 am, I received an email telling us that the owner of the showroom would be arriving at our house between noon and 1:00 pm to check the concrete and our back yard.  Kiva and I had plans!  We had several errand that NEEDED to be done!  I emailed back, letting them know, they just replied with one word, "Sorry", and we had to change our day's schedule so we could be here.  We waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally, at 1:15, we HAD to get going cuz they were a no show, or if they were running late, they didn't have the kindness to give us a call to let us know, so Kiva and I left to take care of one of our TO DO LIST items.  (Hot tub story to be continued.)

Kiva and I went grocery shopping.  As soon as I got into the store, I heard, "Awwwww!".  I looked up and a lady told me, "You have a beautiful dog!".  I was grouchy from the hot tub people, so I felt like saying, "I should have gotten an ugly service dog!".  But I didn't, because I appreciated that she told ME instead of talking to my dog (which totally pisses me off!), so I told her "Thank you" and Kiva and I tried to continue to do our shopping so we could be finished before we needed to get the wee ones from school.  But then the lady continued, "You're such a good dog, aren't you!  You're so pretty, yessssss!".  I said, "Please do not talk to my dog, you are distracting him from his job.".  She spent the next three minutes apologizing to my service dog.  *insert rolling eyes here*  Another lady stopped me, "OH!!! A SERVICE DOG!!!!!!!  I have one of them at home!!!!".  (No you don't, lady.  If you did, you'd know NOT to bring attention to the dog, not to bother the dog or the handler and not to be yelling all excited like that!).  Then we were approached by a store employee, who KNOWS they aren't allowed to talk to service animals, but want to be near them, so talk extra loudly and get extra close, "Are you finding everything okay?  May I help you locate anything?"  (smile hopefully at the dog) "Just let me know if I can do anything for you!".  I think Kiva told her we were fine seven times.  After a few more "OH!  A SERVICE DOG" interruptions, we had to get out of there, needing to go back later to finish our shopping because it was getting close to time to pick up wee ones.   Had folks ignored my service dog, we would have been finished shopping for everything on our list a lot sooner.  People have NO IDEA what they are doing when they go off on a service dog and their handler!  Kiva went on ahead to load our car with the groceries and I was putting the electric wheelchair back when a lady and her four adult children were all at the electric wheelchair parking spot.  They were just standing there, and the lady was slowly telling her adult children which items they could carry from the cart.  One of the children turned and saw me waiting for them and she waved to Musketeer.  *sighs*  Finally, the adult children had the items, and the lady that was using the electric wheelchair hopped out of it and walked off just fine and dandy.  SERIOUSLY???

I was EXHAUSTED by the time I got to our car!  People have no idea how tiring it is to have constant pain, then have others be a constant pain when I'm out and about.  I told Kiva, "Now I remember why I don't go out very much anymore.".

(Hot tub story continued)

We got home to discover a note on the door, letting us know the hot tub person had been there.  I sent an email, letting them know we waited as long as we could (Kiva went to pick up wee ones while I was emailing), but saw they were there.  I asked them if they got the information they needed, or if they'd like us to send them photos or anything.  I received an email back, saying they were there, got photos, asked us how much power was coming into our house (Ummmm....  isn't that something that should have been asked BEFORE we put half down on the hot tub and hired a contractor and put half down on his work?????), asking us if we could remove the post that our large gate is attached to (No, we're not going to spend another $300 to do that when you had told us you tip the hot tub on its side to bring it in and a skid loader got through that gate just fine), asking us the delivery date (our contractor wanted to build the pavilion first, so it would depend on when that was done), and asking if how they drew the hot tub on the photo of the concrete slab was how we wanted it placed (No, needs to be turned counter clock wise 90 degrees).  I got all of those questions answered, then called them cuz they were sounding mean, not at all how they were before.  The boss was getting on the lady's (that we normally dealt with) back.  So she was stressed cuz of him.  He was stressing me out too!  Everything was basically fine again... then I got another email from them, asking us to be there at 9:00 am on Thursday to bring in the final payment, because the boss wanted to meet us before they delivered the hot tub.  I didn't realize that had to be done to get a hot tub.  Kiva said tell them no.  We can't possibly get there by 9:00 am when Buggy girl doesn't get dropped off at school until after 8:00 am.  If the "boss" wanted to meet us so desperately, HE could change HIS schedule, we were finished changing ours!  I emailed back that we would try to be there before 11:00 am, but 11:00 works best for us, and if we run late, we'd give her a call like we did last time cuz we ran into a bunch of construction.  I emailed our contractor, Jeff, and told him that the hot tub people told me they had to put the hot tub down before he started on construction, he replied that he can work with that, not a problem.  Jeff is SO COOL!!!!  BEST contractor EVER!

So while all of this hot tub pain in the tush stuff was going on, I got another phone call from the doctor's office.  I had gotten one the day before, bitching me out for not going back to see one of their doctors and seeing a different doctor (in the same office building).  This time I thought I'd go ahead and explain myself so there was no longer any question about it.  I told them I had talked to the doctor office "complaint department" after seeing their doctor because he left the exam room door open for 3/4 of the visit, letting everyone in the hall know my business.  Then when he asked me how I was doing, I told him I was having a hard time, being really sad cuz my Mom had passed away the month before and the doctor asked, "Hasn't that been long enough?"  WHAT????  ARE YOU KIDDING ME????  SERIOUSLY!?!?!?!?  Extreme grief, like that when you loose a parent, spouse, child, takes TWO YEARS to get through the worst of it!  "Hasn't that been long enough?"  It had been ONE MONTH!!!  The lady at the complaint department said, "You aren't wanting to see THAT doctor again, are you???"  I was like NO!  She said she wouldn't want to either!  My favorite doctor who was about to leave, gave me the name of another doctor who she thought would be a perfect match for me and she is and she agreed to take over the care of my diabetes esp. since I have a service dog esp. trained to help me with my diabetes!  So I told the nurse all of that and she said she totally got it and would tell the other nurses in that department to leave me alone and stop calling me.  WHEW!!!

That's more than enough for one day!

Thank you for reading, if you did.  Next one will be HAPPY!!!  At least I hope so!!!!