Month: January 2005

Pickles

I guess this is a follow on from my bit about the American fixation with cheese. Its the American fixation with pickles.

Try to get a burger.. and if you are lucky enough to get one without cheese then its a sure bet that it will have pickle on it. Pickle seems to have seeped into the diet as a mandatory, yet mainly unnecessary, food stuff (in a similar way to sprouts are to the standard UK Christmas meal).

The “restaurant” in the Interstate Bowling Center in Augusta, Maine actually states on its menu for burgers that they are “served with the infamous pickle”. Served with it yes, but does anyone actually eat the things.. I think not.

Anyway who would want to pickle a cucumber anyway?

DIY – what a pain.

DIY has to be one of the most annoying things in life. We are currently in the middle of a kitchen re-design.. yes you read that correctly.. re-design. We haven’t actually done anything physical (like rip out any cupboards) but its already been one big huge pain… and what is the cause of this pain? Is it the odd shape of our kitchen? No. Is it the fact that we have a range cooker rather than a boring single unit/slot in cooker? No. Is it anything obvious? No!

I’ll tell you what the cause of the pain is – the supplier of the kitchen units.

The story goes as follows:

1. We work out exactly what we need to buy to build the new kitchen
2. We go on line to order it all (free delivery being a big incentive here)
3. Not all of it is in stock – and on this web site if its not in stock you CANT order it
4. I visit the local store and despite them having this specific kitchen type on display (with a “Buy this kitchen today” notice) they dont actually stock the damned stuff.
5. We redesign the kitchen (changing some cupboards to mixed drawers/cupboards) and check that what we need to do this is in stock on the website. It is!
6. I phone the company the next day to ammend the order – I can’t!!
7. So I try to place a second order for the new bits – I can’t because they are now NOT in stock.
8. Worried that its an end of the line range I phone customer services. They assure me its not end of the line.
9. I explain the situation. Customer Services fail to find any one of their stores within 60 miles of Cheltenham that actually stock the damned stuff.
10. As I can’t order it on line I have to order it in store (who can order stuff when its out of stock!!). Its a 6 week lead time for orders from the store!!
11. Whilst in the store I find that if I dont want white cupboard ends but want them to be colour co-ordinated I have to buy new end panels for every exposed cupboard end (so basically replace 50% of the cupboard).. If I want to put a “textured” end panel on rather than just plain wood (bascially looks like planking) then I have to redesign my kitchen as these end units are over 2 inches deep!!
12. When I said the store doesn’t stock it – I mean it doesnt stock ANYTHING to do with it – so if I want pelmeting to go round the bottom I have to order it (6 weeks) then cut it to size..and if I make a mistake its another 6 weeks to get another peice of it..
13. I decide to cancel. Desipte the email that was sent when I ordered the units which states that their customer services department is open on Sunday it very obviously isn’t … not that it tells you that when it first picks up… oh no.. it takes you through several sub menus before it tells you that.
14. I phone them this morning and they dont seem very happy when I want to cancel the order..

Expect to read more in the near future!