5C's Que Pasa

Over the past few years our tankless hot water on demand went down perhaps twice per year. Colin would simply go outside and reset it.  It is built into a custom cabinet attached to the house. This system was installed into this new home in September 2012. We were told that we did not need to do anything to the system at all. Wrong. It should have been serviced once per year with the all import flushing/descaling done. We certainly had a good deal on our minds when we moved in as I was in major pain waiting for my second hip replacement among other issues. At least we were only here half of the years since it was installed and we always get the system blown out before we leave for Mexico  We also get bonus points for using a water softener. Still it was up to us to do our due diligence and to not rely on what we were told by the builder of this home.

Since we arrived home on April 10th it has shut down every few days. Now it shuts down every day over and over despite the resetting. So Colin found someone from Vernon to come and service our Noritz system this past Tuesday. He called before he left and told us the price would be between $700.00-$1000.00. It was obvious that he really did not want to do the thirty minute drive here. I got on my phone and found someone else who could come the next day (Wednesday afternoon – they service a neighbour on the street next to us),  for a much more reasonable price.  It seems that not too many people know how to service this unit. Meanwhile Colin got on the phone to Nortiz in California and was able to source the problem and got a list of what needed to be done. So he sent all that info to the new plumber so he knew exactly what needed to be brought here.

Our hot water on demand system.

The fellow arrived and had nothing from our list. He said he did not know what he was here to do, so no isolation valves, no equipment to do the descaling and no compressor to blow things out. What was his problem?  I called the office and they said that it was all on his work order including the PDF’s on how this system ran. He says he had worked on them before but did not know why he was here. Long story short he could do nothing and the next open appointment was Friday, May 20th. Plus he did not work overtime nor after 2PM.  Adios amigo!!

Made a great pizza the other night. I am now letting the crust rise 45 minutes and it is even better than before.

Meanwhile we each found someone else to come, one Tuesday morning and one Wednesday morning.  The Tuesday guy sounds good but the Wednesday guy sounds perfect as he claims to have rebuilt this units in the past.  I don’t think we can wait till then. No hot water at all yesterday so I could not bathe.  No hair washing, no dish washing, no laundry, etc.

This morning I called Telus, Colin’s cell phone provider and our home landline as we had made a switch from a business account to a consumer account recently. God why were we signed up as a business all these years for so much more money per month? I would like to add that we have been with Telus since 1986!!  Loyal customers you might say. Also when we came back from Mexico I called Telus Mobility to complain about roaming  charges made to Colin’s cell while we were in Mexico. Not possible as his phone was totally shut down as we only used my cell phone in Mexico. So on April 2oth, Kevin from Telus authorized $67.50 in credits. That appears to have been lost in space. I spent over 90 minutes today on the phone with Santos today and he had no idea. Finally I asked him to find and speak with Kevin. He came back and said that Kevin was going to call me back and sort it all out. Guess what, Kevin never called. I think Santos was just trying to get rid of me.  What a waste of two hours. I so look forward to doing this again tomorrow 😯

Thank goodness I have two of these.

Next I was working on our company Scotia Visa when I found a charge for $601.98 on April 14th.  Some data processing company in Quebec.  We had only been home for four days and we did not start using the Visa card until April 23rd. This was almost a three hour phone call. I spoke with the person who answered my call after 50 minutes of holding and he asked me 7 security questions, he eventually transferred me to fraud who asked me more security questions.  They then sent me to Ashley in the dispute department. I spoke with her for way over an hour. Very long story short, they will credit me the money but that will take 30 days so I have to pay it and the rest of my bill by May 24th.  We also now need two new Visa cards. I was told that it would take 7 – 10 business days. I said that that was not acceptable and suddenly the new cards will be delivered Tuesday. What a miracle!

Oh and in the middle of my five hours on the phone I got an email from our accountant that our company year end was ready to discuss. I emailed back that I could not until tomorrow.

Meanwhile our lawn boy showed up to repair our drip irrigation to the flower pots. They were  constantly dripping which gave much too much water. They were only supposed to work for a few minutes per day. Of course the system worked perfectly for him so he could not repair something that was working. We now need to keep constantly checking our automated system. Ironic I think.

Can you see the slight smile in the middle horizontal board?

Also Frank came to do some fence work today. We have been waiting for this since last fall. We need to put a steel bar in the 8′ high sections of the fence to keep it from ‘smiling’. The funny thing is that while both of these guys were here and in between their arrivals, I was constantly on the phone. This has been a major stress event for me.

Frank  ( dark head blob to the left of the tree trunk ) on the other side of the fence taking out the top. He then installed a steel member in the middle of the horizontal board. It is almost  perfectly straight now and of course much stronger with all these strong we are now getting.

This post was delayed because my website was down yet again.

You know it is 10:15PM and we have take out Subway for dinner.  I really would like a hot bath first. Oh right, no hot water 🙁

I wonder what tomorrow will bring 🙄 Stay tuned.