The Baby Lock Saga Continues

That email I sent to all the executive officers of the Tacony Corporation actually produced some results. I really thought it would be read by their assistants and that the actual people I sent it to would never see it.

The president of Baby Lock called me this afternoon from his cell phone since he was on the road. He had just opened my email and thought he'd better call because he sensed the urgency. That means he read the part where I told him I was a blogger and would be publishing my very honest review of his company online.

Dude was really nice and said he understood I'd been having some trouble getting my machine serviced. I was prepared to start my rant but didn't need to since he proved to be very solution oriented. He said it looked like the repairs I needed were covered under the warranty and if I would be willing to ship the machine to their corporate office, they would see if the parts I need are still available. If so, they will repair the machine at no cost to me and send it back. If the parts are no longer available he said we could "work something out". I would like to work out something along these lines:

Either one would be fine and since they retail in the $8,000-$9,000 range, I figure that should just about cover my pain and suffering.

I am now waiting for Mr. President's assistant to call me and arrange the exchange. I didn't expect to hear from her today but if I don't hear from her by noon on Monday I'll just give her a little ringy dingy. Or I'll call Mr. President back since I now have his cell number.

Just a couple of hours after I had reached this agreement with the dude and all was well in my world, I got a call back from the gal (the Product Support Supervisor) responsible for yesterday's email that sent me over the edge. You know...the one where she asked when was the last time I had my machine serviced? Yeah, that gal. Let's call her Sue.

Sue called late this afternoon and in a very chipper voice said that she could offer me the option of sending my machine to corporate where they would clean and service it for $125 and then assess what repairs needed to be done. She did not mention whether or not there would be a charge for those repairs.

Yesterday when I emailed a copy of my warranty to Sue I told her about one of our local dealers who offered to let me pay them $65 to see if my machine had any internal injuries that I was not aware of. In her chipper phone call, Sue suggested that I might want to take my machine to that dealer since it would be cheaper and I wouldn't have to bother with packing and shipping. Because she's all about customer service like that.

After I listened to Sue's almost giddy spiel, I thanked her for the offer and told her that it wouldn't be necessary since I had spoken to Mr. President earlier today and he is taking care of it.

Sue said, in a very NOT chipper voice, "You talked to him TODAY?"

I replied, in an unusually chipper voice, "Yes, he called from his cell."

Sue said, in an even less chipper voice, "Just what exactly did he tell you?"

I said (trying to tone down the chipper lest I be struck by lightening), "He told me that his assistant would call and make arrangements for me to ship my machine to him and he would see that it gets fixed."

Sue said, "Oh. Well okay then."

We said our goodbyes and I hoped that would be the end of our short tempestuous relationship.

The Saga isn't over yet but I sure hope the drama is.