Long Week

I’ve been working outside on project sites all week. The temperature and humidity made it difficult. I’m glad it’s over. We still have a number of University projects that we’re pushing to get completed before school starts at the end of the month. The next couple of weeks will be busy, but shouldn’t be non-stop outdoor work like this week was.

Most of my time was spent in Butner. I have a 45 minute commute to Raleigh and the trip from Raleigh to Butner is another 45 minutes. The older I get, the less I like to drive. The hour and a half trips between home and Butner have been especially irritating with north Raleigh traffic to deal with and then the drive back after working all day in the heat.

Like I said – glad this week is over.

Thermospas

Let me recap the hot tub status. The light switch in the control panel has been malfunctioning. And causing a short which trips the circuit breaker.

I had a service call appointment with the technician – which he didn’t keep. He came a day early (when I wasn’t home) – decided the control unit was OK (which it isn’t) and didn’t replace it. It’s still broken

I called last week. After a bit of phone tag I finally hooked up with the technician. He said he’d have to look at his schedule and would call me back to arrange another service time / date. He never called.

I was able to reach him this week - Wednesday morning. Oh yeah, I was the guy with the control panel problem. He thought he might be able to get back out to the house this week but he wasn’t sure. He’d have to look at his schedule and would call me. Confirmed he had my home, office and cell numbers. Guess what? Never heard back from him.

I’ll call him again Monday.

I like the Thermospas hot tub. It’s designed pretty well and the materials and equipment is first rate. Like any device with electrical and mechanical parts – they require occasional maintenance. Being a bit of a specialty hot tub – Thermospas will only warranty work performed by their own technician. Parts are covered by 10 and 20 year warrantees – which is pretty much a lifetime for hot tubs - pro rated of course which is understandable. But all work must be done by Thermospas technicians. So I’ve got to deal with this guy who doesn’t seem to be organized at all. So far I haven’t been able to rely on his showing up or calling back when he says he will. I’ll keep trying to work directly with him for another week. If things don’t get fixed by then – I’m going to have to call the factory in Connecticut and see if they can get the problem resolved.

My nephew and his wife have moved back to Japan. It can get down right annoying with his “all things in Japanese society are superior to America” spiel. But I’ll say one thing – this kind of shitty service (or lack thereof) wouldn’t happen in Japan. Over there – the technician would show up – on time – probably wearing white gloves – and wouldn’t leave until the problem is repaired. And apologizing the whole time for the control panel malfunctioning in the first place.

If the Thermospas technician doesn’t get his act together – Maybe I'll introduce him to the concept of seppuku. I have knives. ;-)