I’m behind on my salad postings. I’ve been on the phone/instant chat with Sears’ customer service. I think I’ve spent around 5 hours at this. My new hobby!

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Please wait for a Sears Customer Service Representative to respond. This chat may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance purposes. Thank you for holding.
Hi, my name is Bourne, and it is my pleasure to assist you today. May I have your name please?
Christina: Christina
Bourne: Good Evening Christina!
Bourne: I appreciate the opportunity to help you! How are you doing today, Christina?
Christina: Fine. Thanks.
Bourne: You are welcome.
Bourne: Good to hear!
Christina: I have a few questions about an order (you have the order number.)
Bourne: Let me know how may I help you today, Christina?
Bourne: I will be glad to answer the questions that you have in your mind regarding the order.
Bourne: Do you have an order number, Christina?
Christina: 1. There were several mistakes made on my order (you might be able to see. Sears ended up canceling the hood (that was for store pickup.) That is fine but it hasn’t shown up (You already have my order number – that’s the first thing they asked me on the chat.)
Bourne: Thank you for confirming the order number.
Christina: Anyway, it’s been at least 8 days since the hood was cancelled (2/29/12) and the refund hasn’t appeared on my credit card.
Christina: That’s question NO. 1.
Bourne: I am sorry to hear that the order which you placed for the hood for store pickup has been canceled.
Bourne: I’m sorry for any inconvenience this matter may have caused you.
Christina: I’ll wait for the answer to NO. 1 before I go any further.
Bourne: I will surely check on the status of the order and will help you regarding the refund of the order.
Bourne: Before we continue, please verify your full name, complete billing address and the email that was used to place the order?
Christina: It’s 100% fine that the hood was cancelled. However, I was told the amount would be refunded to my credit card within 3-5 days. It’s now been over 8 days.
Christina: ——————
Christina: ——————
Christina: ——————-
Christina: ——————
Bourne: Thank you.
Bourne: I am sorry to hear that you haven’t received the refund on this order as it is been canceled.
Bourne: Just a moment while I check on the refund status and help you in getting the refund.
Christina: Ok
Bourne: Thank you for staying online. I appreciate your patience.
Christina: Well, I want the refund.
Christina: And I have a few other questions after that.
Bourne: Christina, I have reviewed the order and understand that the order for the item “30 34 Convertible Range Hood 5205″ is canceled.
Bourne: I am forwarding the request for the refund on this order.
Bourne: Please allow 3-5 business days for the refund to reflect on your card.
Christina: The refund needs to be expedited IMMEDIATELY though. Not in another 3-5 days.
Christina: Please talk to your supervisor if you need to.
Christina: B/c otherwise, Sears is holding my money for longer than the terms imply.
Christina: Do you think it’s right that I have to wait 3-5 days? That means I will have waited 11-14 days for the refund when Sears’ policy explicitly states that my refund will appear within 3-5 days.
Bourne: Let me check with my supervisor regarding this matter.
Christina: Thank you.
Bourne: You are welcome.
Bourne: Thank you for staying online. I appreciate your patience.
Christina: Ok
Bourne: I have checked with my supervisor and we are sorry that the refund processing is taking slight delay.
Bourne: I’m sorry for any inconvenience this matter may have caused you.
Christina: Ok. Let’s not use the word “sorry” anymore.
Bourne: Please need not worry.
Christina: I just want my refund immediately.
Bourne: I understand that the sorry word is not worth for this inconvenience.
Bourne: I understand your frustration with the way you feel. I don’t blame you for feeling disappointed.
Christina: Question: can I get the refund immediately?
Bourne: To be honest I would feel the same way if I was in your situation.
Christina: I am not “disappointed” I am considering getting legal counsel.
Bourne: We have forwarded the request to our refund processing team to process the refund.
Christina: I would like your supervisor to get the refund expedited ASAP. LIke today.
Bourne: I absolutely understand how you are feeling right now and to be honest, I would have felt the same.
Christina: Please tell your supervisor that I am going to get legal counsel regarding this matter if my refund is not made TODAY.
Bourne: I wish that we could have processed the refund right now to you but since it takes 3-5 business days to reflect the refund on the card we apologize for the slight delay.
Christina: No, it doesn’t take 3-5 business day. It takes 11-14 business days.
Christina: Please pass this chat to the supervisor right now.
Bourne: I completely agree to you and it is completely an inconvenience regarding the refund and hence I certainly agree to you that waiting for these many days for a refund is not acceptable.
Bourne: I am taking the chat under the supervision of my supervisor.
Christina: Then please make it right.
Christina: Thank you.
Christina: Thank you.
Bourne: You are welcome.
Bourne: Please stay assured on it, Christina.
Christina: What does that mean: “I am taking the chat under the supervision of my supervisor”
Christina: Does that mean you are passing the chat over to your supervisor?
Bourne: We have forwarded the request to our concerned department and you will receive the refund for this order.
Christina: When will I receive the refund?
Bourne: Yes, I understand and we will certainly take care regarding the refund.
Christina: When will I receive the refund?
Bourne: All I suggest you to wait for 3-5 business days.
Christina: No.
Christina: That is unacceptable.
Christina: What if 3-5 days pass and it still hasn’t posted? Should I then just wait another 3-5 days?
Christina: Please get your SUPERVISOR.
Christina: I am not kidding around.
Christina: My brother is an attorney. Do you want me to get him involved?
Bourne: Just a moment while I ask my supervisor to assist you regarding this.
Bourne: Just a moment while I transfer this chat to my supervisor.
Christina: Ok
Bourne: Please allow me 2-3 minutes while I transfer this chat to our supervisor.
Christina: As long as it’s not 3-5 days
Please wait while I transfer the chat to ‘Bryan’.
Hi, my name is Bryan, and it is my pleasure to assist you today. May I have your name please?
Christina: Christina
Bryan: Thank you for staying online. Christina
Christina: Hopefully you have all the information from “Bourne”
Bryan: Yes, I am reviewing the chat for you.
Christina: Hi Bryan,
Bryan: Good Evening. Christina
Christina: The hood I ordered was cancelled by my local Sears store on 2/29/12. The refund was supposed to be posted to my account within 3-5 business days. That would be today.
Christina: The refund has still not posted. Please advise.
Bryan: Sure, I will check and get the information for you.
Christina: Thanks
Bryan: You are welcome.
Bryan: I checked the information for you, the refund should have been processed. However, there seem to be an issue.
Bryan: I have forwarded the concern to the concerned department so that refund is done at the earliest.
Bryan: We will get back to you within 2-3 business days.
Christina: What seems to be the issue?
Bryan: I am sorry, we do not have the required information. Hence, we have the forwarded the issue to the concerned department.
Christina: Do you realize Sears cancelled the hood by mistake on Friday the 24th? And STILL didn’t post the refund?
Bryan: I am sorry to hear that the hood was cancelled.
Bryan: Yes, I understand your concern.
Christina: I contacted Sears cust. service last week who assured me the refund would post w/in 3-5 days. It’s now been 9 days since they cancelled the hood on my order.
Bryan: Yea, I am sorry for the delay. I will make sure you get the refund at the earliest.
Christina: What is the required information you don’t have? Why don’t you call the concerned department right now.
Christina: Can I ask you the other two questions?
Bryan: I am sorry, we do not have the option to call the department. We have forwarded it to the concerned department.
Bryan: Sure, please go ahead.
Christina: Question 2: Can you refund the installation fee since the Sears delivery guys were unable to install it?
Christina: (the range)
Bryan: I will check the information for you.
Bryan: May I have the information to which appliance you are referring to?
Christina: Don’t you have my order number?
Christina: ————-
Bryan: Thank you.
Bryan: Yes, I will check the information for you.
Christina: Model# ——
Christina: Thanks.
Bryan: You are welcome.
Bryan: I checked the information for you, I am sorry, we have not charged installation fee on this order.
Christina: Oh Ok.
Christina: Thanks.
Christina: Question 3 (the last question):
Christina: We DID pay for “haul away” but since it couldn’t be installed, they couldn’t haul away the old range. They said they could come back when it was ready to be picked up. It’s now ready to be picked up. Can we arrange for the haul away now?
Bryan: Yes, you can do that. You just need to call the delivery team at 1800-732-7747.
Christina: Ok. Thanks.
Bryan: You are welcome. Christina
Christina: You said I will hear from Sears within 2-3 business days. How will I hear from Sears? Via email or phone?
Christina: B/c last time I was told I’d hear from Sears, I didn’t.
Christina: They didn’t even call the day before or day of delivery!
Bryan: We will reach you through email.
Christina: Who?
Bryan: You will get email from the billing team.
Christina: Ok. Thanks.
Bryan: You are welcome.
Bryan: May I help you in any other way today?
Christina: No. You really haven’t helped that much. No offense! I have nothing but mistakes from Sears since the beginning.
Christina: I hope you can find a new job when Sears goes bankrupt.
Bryan: I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. We will make sure that you do not experience the same situation again.
Christina: I doubt it.
Bryan: Thanks for chatting with me regarding order issue! Thank you for choosing us today; we appreciate your business. Good bye and have a great day!
Christina: We are going somewhere else for our appliances next time. I have wasted about 5+ hours just trying to sort this out.
Thank you for chatting with us. Please click the “Close” button on the top right of the chat window to tell us how we did today.

In the matter of a few months we found out our landlord wanted to sell the house we have been renting, so, rather than look for a new place, pack & move, we bought it, discovered we had TERMITES, cut a pesky avocado tree down before we could get the termite tenting done, exorcised a disgusting, overgrown, rat/possum den of a bird-of-paradise (thanks, Suzanne! NOT a banana tree as we boldly claimed) and then just went crazy and cut the hedges, gave the magnolia a buzz cut and the rest is history – the backyard went from a damp shady den of moist dog doo to the Sahara desert. (A few semi-colons probably would’ve worked nicely in that last passage, eh?)

Jasmin: SEE YA LATER!

LP: Sleepy!

(He’s cute!)

Avocado tree: AU REVOIR!

Nasty vermin filled bird of paradise: ADIOS!

Wait a minute? What’s that apartment building back there? I’ve never seen THAT before. D’OH!

There went our privacy & shade. But it’s worth it, right? Now we just need $700+ to remove the sap oozing stump.

But I digress…

In the course of all that we thought it’d be a good idea to go camping during the termite tenting. We didn’t want to go far on account of the backseat passengers and our nerves. So we drove up to Malibu – Pt. Mugu – and camped in our VW on the beach. Doesn’t that sound nice? Beach camping in Malibu? What could possibly go wrong?

Before camping we had to drop LP off at Cat Camp. He was excited about the early morning lake swims, hoisting the flag up the flagpole & archery.

His camp cost more than our camp site. That should’ve told us something.

This sign was posted in the door of the medical lab next door to the camp. Brilliant! I want to put this sign on my front door.

After discreetly tucking the Sit-N-Spin and Bop-It Extreme in my back pocket & getting back into the van, we headed up to the camp site with high hopes and a beach blanket.

Bea put her shades on.


Everyone got comfy in the van.

Our arrival. Looked pretty nice for car camping on side of PCH.
On the second level with the pop top up!

The view:

OK. Let’s go outside!

Bea can just sit on this nice blanket with a “toy.”

Maddie pretending to help with something. She is strongest at pretending to help.

Get back on the blanket, BEA!! Don’t eat sand, BEA! Don’t eat rockscigarettebuttsstringsplasticbbsrustybottlecapsfilthyurinesoakedsand, BEA!!!

Phew! At least Maddie is behaving. The wind picked up & blew the chairs over & anything else we had.

At least SOMEBODY stayed on the blanket!

This one’s for you, Lynchie!

The only way to keep Bea from putting everything in her mouth.

It looks nice in a photo in a brand new frame from Target but for how many hours is this really sustainable?

We give up. Let’s sit in the van. All 4 of us + the dog.

How many hours till bedtime?

Sand treasures:




Oops! That was all us!

One thing I cannot capture is the dusty filthiness of the sand. G advised everyone to wear shoes & socks and he couldn’t have been more correct.

After a sleepless night, we decided to high tail it out of there & possibly even find a better campsite for the second night. Everyone was grumpy.

We packed up

and high-tailed it out of there.

We drove to Ventura and ate at Toppers Pizza. I absolutely LOVED it!! Did I really love it or was I just so happy to be near hot water & soap, pizza and the chocolate chip pizza they claimed as their specialty? I don’t know and I don’t care.

On the way back we decided to take the scenic route through a canyon. It was warm and got warmer & warmer all the while. The girls fell asleep.

I tried to read.

What is an ague?

We kept driving.


We got out to stretch in a swarm of flies. We got right back in and drove right back to our same campsite from the previous night.

What I don’t have pictures of is the amazing cliffside playground/dog park G found high above the Pacific Ocean. Thank garsh, G!! We stayed there till around 7PM. Then it was back to the “beach.”

CIAO! And don’t say we didn’t leave you anything!