Sometimes I do NOT enjoy being a girl….

So yesterday we had another company come out to give us a second opinion on our House A/C Situation.   As I mentioned recently, the last guy from a Very Reputable Company came out and basically said our A/C was dunzo, which on the eve of summer in Sacramento is like being sentenced to the death penalty. 

The incident went down something like this since Garrett was out of town:

Holly:  Our heater wouldn’t turn on all winter and we are now worried our A/C is up to no good as well, although we haven’t tried to turn it on.

Very Reputable A/C Guy:  Well let me do some checking, I’ll be back.

(After about 30 minutes)

H:  So, how did it go?

VRACG:  Here let me draw you a picture and speak to you with lots of big words you will only kind of understand. 

H:  OK

VRACG:  Blah, Blah, Blah, and in the end, I’m not saying you have to get a new A/C System, but you kind of have to get a new A/C System.  Have your boyfriend call me if he wants me to break the situation down for him too.   

*****Cue Panic******

So then yesterday Mr. New Repairman from This Other Company comes out to give a second opinion.  Although he doesn’t know he is our second opinion.  And rather than dealing with me, he deals with Garrett — and when I say “deals with Garrett” I mean spends an hour and a half diagnosing and tinkering and cleaning and servicing and ALLOWING GARRETT TO STAND ON A LADDER WHILE HE DOES THINGS ON OUR ROOF BECAUSE GARRETT IS CURIOUS HOW EVERYTHING WORKS, and then answers ninety billion of Garrett’s very mechanical questions that were relevant to the sitiuation. 

And this guy’s verdict:  There’s nothing wrong.  

Um…wha??????  Nothing?  Like at all?

Nothing.

Two very different answers, and two very different situations.  

One is offering the death penalty, the other is offering an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas.  And I’m feeling sort of vexed by the whole situation.  

COOL THINGS:  

*Um, you know which guy we are going to listen to right?
*The second opinion made sense and was very thorough.
*And most importantly, after a quick cleaning, both the A/C and the Heat are now working like a charm.

THINGS I’M KIND OF ANNOYED ABOUT:

*According to the First Opinion, yes the A/C is technically working, but we are living on “borrowed time” which of course gives me anxiety, but not enough to run out spend $8K just in case, you know?
*Um, did I just totally get worked by Mr. First Opinion?
*Here let me answer that for you.  Yes, I think I totally just got worked by Mr. First Opinion.

I don’t know if all of you will feel me on this, but sometimes in my experience as a female, if I have to have something serviced or repaired I totally get the run around.  I’m not saying I expect it, because I really give people the benefit of the doubt, but I have seriously had some shady situations go down (especially surrounding car problems) that just NEVER happen when Garrett takes the car in or whatever.  It’s annoying, but I’m not going to lie, it’s also kind of fun to let someone go through the process of trying to give you the run around, just to turn around and let them know that you know what the hell you are talking about.  Take, for example:  Many years ago, in my single days, I had actually just picked my car up from having the break pads replaced and went to get my oil changed (which, was obvs my dream day of errand running I’ll have you know)  and the oil change guy gave me a line about how my transmission was all effed up and my break pads really probably needed some attention, but he could handle that for me at the low price of $149.99 or something ridiculous.  Actually, I’m not sure if it was exactly those things, because now that I think about it why would an oil guy be looking at my break pads, but it was somebody looking at my break pads and telling me they were shot even though I HAD JUST HAD THEM CHANGED SO SHUT IT YOU LYING LIAR FACE, DUDE!  Wanna see my receipt, because here it is on the passenger seat you idiot.  

This happens more often than I would like, I find, but I am really having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that this A/C guy would really take advantage of me!  He was so nice to me!  And my mom, who was also there!  How can you want to take advantage of my mom, too?  Grrrrr. 

Well, come to find out, after a long drawn out discussion about an A/C Unit last night (Hey-O, kind of like this blog post!)  apparently, when Garrett called him (as you will remember the A/C guy TOLD ME TO HAVE GARRETT DO) Mr. A/C was a little put off and defensive and kind of evaded all of Garrett’s questions (which, honestly, Garrett does ask a lot of questions about mechanical things, I know this — but um, that’s why I’m pretty sure HE CAN FIX SHIT, which, indicidentally is not my thing.  But hey I have other things!  I can write diatribes on fixing shit on the internet, so there!)  And this sort of gave Garrett a feeling that we really needed that second opinion, which, in the end I’m super glad we got.  But still, the whole thing is just sort of vexing — I mean yes, it’s good news.  But also, I feel sort annoyed about the whole damn thing. 

I bet you all can’t wait to hear about our dealings with landscapers!

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2 Responses to Sometimes I do NOT enjoy being a girl….

  1. The Mama says:

    I agree – this is so frustrating. I feel like it always costs more if I get the car serviced than if my husband does and I don't know enough about it to argue. Sucks.

  2. Laura says:

    Huh. I now feel like the last time I went to get my oil changed for $50 and came out having spent $300 on REALLY REALLY URGENT PROBLEMS THAT NEED FIXING YESTERDAY, which by the way was a point in time when I was unemployed and really hard up for cash, I really just boosted that oil company's profits for no reason. Come to think of it, every time I go there, they try to sell me some other really expensive shit that I wasn't there for. My boyfriend is taking the car in next time, he just doesn't know it yet.