Last week, D and I bought a new washer and dryer and the guys were scheduled to come and install it on Thursday between 10 AM and 2 PM. Right from there, we should have known some stuff was going to be up. We asked for a specific time and they said…”well isn’t four hours a good enough window??” Nevermind people have jobs to go to and what not.
Fast forward to Thursday at 5PM. There was no washer, no dryer, and no laundry being done in my house. Dirty clothes piling up and what not (the old set had been taken away in prep for the new one). After two phone calls, they showed up at 5:45PM. An extra from the Sanford and Son set and K-Fed’s janky looking twin showed up at our front door with cheese eating grins, smelling of McDonald’s. I guess they were having an extended lunch before showing up at our place…C.P. time shouldn’t apply to things like this.
Forty five minutes later they tell us that the washer is all hooked up ready to go but they’d have to come back with the correct power cord for the dryer. Cool. We figured we’d run a test cycle just to see if the washer worked properly.
Half an hour later, I went to check on things and saw an ocean in the laundry room. Water, water everydamnwhere. All that was missing was a whale and maybe Noah ‘nem. A hot, wet ass mess. The laundry room is situated directly above the kitchen, so D ran downstairs and of course it was RAINING in my kitchen.
The water was running down through the ceiling, through the vents in the ceiling, and directly through the light fixture. Here’s what one of the light fixtures looked like…

and

Not great pics, since they were taken with D’s phone. But notice that there is water flowing out of the fixture and the cover cracked under the weight of the water. Yeeeaah, not a good look. The vent, which is right next to that light fixture also had water flowing out of it. There was a good 3/4 inch of water on the floor and everything that was on the kitchen table (including my handbag, which happened to contain my phone and work planner) were destroyed.
We had the good sense of mind to grab the camera and take pics before we started the cleanup. We were able to get the water mostly cleaned up from the kitchen and laundry room in short order, thank goodness. But now there’s a LOT of water damage to the ceiling, and that light is shorting out every time it’s turned on. Claims were filed with the homeowner’s insurance within two hours and pics were emailed to the adjuster not long after.
Of course the installation people were gone for the day so we couldn’t get in touch with them Thursday night. So rather than call, D went over to their shop on Friday morning and the manager tried to poo poo our situtaion, even after looking at our pics, saying there was no way they could be at fault. He said he’d send someone over to look at it and if it was their fault, they’d pay for it all.
Three hours later than their promised arrival D was back on the phone raising cane when his guy finally showed up at our house and saw that they never.hooked.the.hose.into.the.drain so all the water naturally ran from the washer onto the floor. He noted that the damage to our kitchen is pretty bad and told us he’d let the manager know. The guy even called us a short while later to tell us to be expecting a call from the manager.
It is now Tuesday and we have not heard from the manager. Our homeowners’ has already taken care of the issue, and our kitchen will be fixed this week and we will be indemnified for our other destroyed items. Once the insurance pays us, they will go after the company on our behalf. And of course, we will be in court with them trying to recoup all of our money and lost wages (D stayed out of work on Friday waiting for them to show up…pssshht). We’d rather handle it this way at this point because we know trying to mess with the company (I’m avoiding saying the name of the company for legal reasons…but it starts and ends with S…get it??) will get us nowhere and we’ll be left with a soggy ceiling and potentially fried electrical work.
I’m so extra done with this and can’t wait for it to be over. I can’t wait for my house to be completely dry! Jesus be a towel.