by Dominick Basile

Created on: June 08, 2009

The Grand Repair

We don't know who Wendy Freeman is, but she must sit at the right hand. She said she was from the executive office. But you know what? She may even be THE MAN. Wendy Freeman did the impossible. Wendy Freeman lifted us from the deepest pit of despair and made us think the world probably was OK, maybe, after all. We and Wendy Freeman were in telephonic communication over our problem. Wendy Freeman listened to our problem and Wendy Freeman solved our problem. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

The problem began some thirty five days before Wendy Freeman entered upon the stage. The problem was a malfunctioning GE, General Electric Corporation, appliance. In fact it was a GE washer/dryer, model number WSM2480D1WW. Truth be told, it's been a problem ever since we moved into this apartment. It is not a big unit and it's not a-top-of-the-line unit. In fact it's not even a middle-of-the-line unit. It's the kind of thing a builder buys and installs into his condominium units to fulfill his part of the bargain: 2 br, 2 bts, full kitchen, w/d. We do not own this apartment. We lease this apartment from a young lawyer who, given the opportunity, we are told, had purchased a few apartments in this building. He sold some and leased the remaining few. So, in essence, we are staving off, for him, the sheriff's knock. In his lease agreement he signed over to the tenant, my wife and I, the responsibility of maintaining the GE appliances in the apartment. On our first reconnoitering of our intended abode the "super" told us the washer/dryer was not operating and that management would have someone here to repair the machine before we were ensconced. Once the machine was repaired, however, we, my wife and I, as tenants, would be responsible for the tedious and frustrating task of dealing with GE and its service operatives. What he or management did not tell us is that although the building was only three years old, the apartment had lain vacant all that time and that servicemen who had visited the building to repair GE appliances in other apartments had used the machine in our apartment as a repository for spare parts.

We moved in and the washer/dryer model number WSM2480D1WW was not functioning. Management, i.e. the super, had tried to repair it, had gotten nowhere and had put in a call to GE service for help. The serviceman (this was an all male situation) came, twice. Both visits were after we had taken possession of the apartment. During the first visit he assessed the

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