Shady Appliance Repair Shop

So.. We have a dehumidifier in our basement.. We bought one when we got the house from this little local maytag store in the town we grew up in.. My MIL is all about the supporting local business thing since her father owned a furniture store in a small-ish town for many years.

That one lasted.. maybe 6 months.. til our first winter where it just stopped sucking water out of the air.. So MIL returned it to the appliance store to get "fixed" and she gave us hers.. which is an LG purchased at home depot.. which appeared to be a fancier and better working model than ours.. I think she has the "fixed" version of our original one still.. but she said it still doesn't work like its supposed to

So.. awhile back.. I think it was January actually.. Jeff went to plug in the (new) dehumidifier and he saw a flash come out of the back of it, like sparks or fire.. So obviously we didn't plug it in after that.. It took awhile getting all the warranty info from MIL.. and then we have just been dragging our feet to get it repaired.

Until i saw the giant centipede in the basement two nights ago.. I promptly called the shop that LG gave us for warranty repairs (There were three options but this one seemed the closest). So we bring in there this morning.. We walk in the door.. The only two appliances we see in the front of the shop? Two dehumifiers IDENTICAL to ours.. hmm.. Maybe we should just start fresh.. (This shop also claims to be Maytag and several other brands certified repair shop.. so its not just LG stuff that SHOULD be there). Lady at the counter actually tells us that they usually have a lot of these laying around so they have to check the serial numbers to make sure the right ones go back to the right people.. And didn't seem at all shocked when we said the thing was sparking.. And she said they may or may not call us to let us know when it will be ready.. (sometimes they forget..)

The strangest part was the two men in the back (which was open to the front counter).. they were two old guys.. One of them answered the phone.. said someone else was "on the road" and said.. "I'll transfer you to the manager".. The manager was apparently the guy sitting next to him, who picked up the phone using a headset.. but the thing is.. the originaly phone answerer guy was very clearly telling the guy they were calling the manager what to do.. Like he put the phone on hold and said "Now.. put the headset on and answer the phone.." almost like he was training him.. And the "manager" seemed to have very little familiarity with whatever computer software they were using to track jobs.. He kept telling the person on the phone "I'm opening this window.." or "It takes awhile to get back tothe other window once you open a new one.."

I don't have great expectations for this dehumidifier.. good thing its under warranty!