I got a call at 4 pm yesterday from my helper saying that she couldn't turn on the air conditioner in the master bedroom. I asked her to try a different remote, but it still wouldn't turn on. I could hear her pressing the buttons of the remote over the phone and the unit sounding an alarming "beep beep beep" instead of the melodic "ding de ding" that I am accustomed to. I instantly knew we had trouble.
When I got home, I saw the display panel on the unit was flashing "CH 02". A quick Google revealed that it's a short circuit on the main board and would require servicing.
Most people would be upset for a breakdown to happen right after the Chinese New Year long weekend, where it is impossible to book a servicing slot. Sure enough, when I called up today, the next available slot is on 9 March, which is 2 weeks away. If this had happened 5 years ago, I probably would have threw a tantrum, requested to speak to the manager and insisted they send someone out today.
Thank goodness it happened now.
Part of accepting happiness is to look accepting things you cannot control or change. So in this instance, I looked on the bright side and decided that:
a) It was fortunate that we bought the 5 year extended warranty for the air-conditioner, given how much we use it every day.
b) Plus, we were very lucky it broke down now because I checked and found the warranty expires on 5 March 2015 which is next week.
c) The nights have been fairly cool for the past couple of weeks so we can get by without the air conditioner as long as we switch on the fan and wear as little as possible.
So instead of yelling at James, the nice customer service guy at Gain City, I thanked him and politely requested for him to try and get us an earlier slot if he can. I also requested that he arrange for a new servicing contract and ensure all the air conditioners are checked before the warranty expires. He assured me he would try to expedite my request and I thanked him once again before hanging up.
Having worked in customer service myself, I know CSOs often take the brunt of a customer's frustration. The worst part is when there is nothing that can be done to help the customer. From a CSO's point of view, whenever a customer is nasty, you never want to help them because why help someone who is taking it out on you? However, when the customer is polite and nice, you tend to want to lend a helping hand because kind people deserve better. So keeping this in mind, it was easy not to get upset and even easier to remember to thank James for his help.
Sure enough later in the day, I got a callback to inform me that a slot has opened up this Thursday and it was mine if I wanted it. I grabbed it immediately.
Looking back, I am glad I did not waste energy on getting upset and generating negative emotions. It would not have been worth the frustration and getting angry would not have solved the problem. In fact, it would have probably made it worst and we would have to wait until March 9th. So remember -
