The Heating Saga

Absent the previous post, I haven't been doing much here.  I got slammed with work over the Holidays, and just needed to have a mental vacation.  Plus the New Year has plumbed depths of evil and insanity heretofore pretty well unknown.  (I'm looking at *you* Moslems and *you* Barack Obama.)  So my writing energy (such as it is) has been focused on the other blog.

So.  Sometime last November, I ordered the four radiators, thinking that I'd have heat for Christmas.  If' you've read the previous post, you might infer that I in fact have no heat.  You would be correct in your inference.  Thus, the saga.

Dee, the nice lady at Runtal agreed to break up the payment into four easily digestible chunks.  This due to the fact that we are using a debit card, with a $1,000.00 daily limit.  The payments were going thru OK,  OK, that is, until I got an e-mail from Dee saying that the last payment kept getting declined.

There was about twice as much money in the account than was needed, so it wasn't a funds problem.  I called the bank in Texas, and the nice lady there looked into the problem for me.  It turns out there was a "zip code mismatch" on the transaction.  Runtal had used the delivery address here in PA as the billing address, which should have been Deb's address in Texas.  I called Dee and left a message with the pertinent information, and she called me back in about five minutes to tell me the transaction went through.  Yay!  The really interesting part about this (to me, anyway) was that she had used the PA address on all of the previous payments, and the bank had (obviously) taken them.  Finally, then, the order was sent to customer service for fulfillment and shipping.

All of that took place the week before Christmas, so I wasn't expecting anything right away.  I *was* hoping for heat by New Year's, but no.  I got  call a week ang a half ago from the shipper, to set a delivery appointment.  We agreed on the 4th, and they would leave them on the front porch in my absence.  I got a call on the 4th asking to reschedule to the 5th, which was fine.  The 5th came and went, no radiators.

When I called the next day, the conversation on the shipper's side was mostly about why they couldn't deliver to me.  I used my loud indoor voice with the agent, and they finally  agreed to get the shipment to me that day.  Which they did.

Here is the e-mail thread I had with Runtal about the whole fubar:

Hi, Wanda,

Thanks for getting back to me.  I understand the issues involved, it was just an experience about "Why they couldn't deliver", rather than "How can we?"  And, they did get the equipment delivered Wednesday afternoon.  They put it on a bobcat instead of a semi, and the driver and I were able to get off the truck and into my yard.

I plan on starting installation tomorrow!

Thanks again,
Lee

On 1/8/2016 2:13 PM, Wanda wrote:

Hello Lee,

I am sorry for all of the issues with the trucking company.  Unfortunately our experiences with each of the trucking companies varies from region to region.   Most of the trucking companies are accustomed delivering to commercial location, where there is a staff to unload the trucks.   The drivers only expect to pull up and open the back door of the trailer.    UPS is much more customer friendly, but will only take packages up to a certain size.   Our larger units due make for a difficult residential deliveries.  I do appreciate your comments and will speak to the sales staff to insure certain shipping details need to be pass on at the time of the sale to the customer.

Hopefully your units have been delivered and all is well.

Regards,

Wanda

Runtal North America, Inc.

187 Neck Road

Ward Hill, MA 01835

P. 800-526-2621; F. 978-372-7140

www.runtalnorthamerica.com

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lee Webber
Date: January 6, 2016 at 9:28:34 AM EST
To: Diana
Subject: Re: Runtal Order

Hi, Dee,

I'm sitting here, on hold with the delivery folks, who just can't seem to get my radiators delivered.  They were originally scheduled for Monday, but they called to re-schedule for yesterday.  And they weren't delivered. Because of 'parking problems'.  Now they tell me that I have to be home because the driver can't carry them by himself.  Which would mean that I wouldn't have heat until next week.  It's currently in the teens here.  I've solved their parking problem for them, and I'm not looking at re-arranging my schedule to accommodate.

Update: the lady at the shipper says that there is no lift gate on the truck, which is why the driver needs help. This company is more excuses than performance.  They will get them out to me today (they say), as long as I am willing to help. 

You might want to reconsider using them in the future. Worse. Than. Useless.

Happy New Year.  I'm looking forward to warm.

Thanks,
Lee Webber

P.S. Please feel free to pass this along to the shipper, as I don't have their e-mail.  lw

So, if you have read the previous post, you are completely up-to-date on the heating situation here in Red Lion.

More, later!