It is for me, since I am not at work, but getting paid for it all the same. Can't beat THAT with a stick..... right ?
Here is my story about my ice machine. Sounds intriguing, doesn't it ? LOL.... Not really, I know, but here is the story of how I now have one in my kitchen.
Christmas before last I gave my Mom a nugget ice machine. Nugget Ice is the greatest crunchy soft ice there is. You may have had some at a local restaurant or... somewhere. Here, there is a fast food place called Sonic. It has no inside dining option, but it is a drive-in, where you pull into a space, roll your window down, push a button on a menu thingy that sticks out beside your car after you have decided what you want. They then make your food and a "carhop" rolls out on their roller skates and brings you your food ! Fun... right? They also have a few nice outdoor tables and are known for having lots of handmade milkshakes of various flavors, but also, there are many people who LOVE their ice. Anyway...
I gave my Mom the ice maker, it's not cheap, but these days I don't care about prices when something is for my Mom. I have no hubby or children to dote on, so Mom is my most prime concern. She IS worth it after all. She loved it and so did my younger sister.
Last spring my sister was going through some tough life crap and I decided she needed one of these too. She is after all, one of those addicted to the Sonic Ice. 😄 So.... I ordered her one too. Believe me when I tell you this thing is a HOSS ! It is really heavy. Then life went on, until about November when my sister sent me a message and said her ice machine was no longer working. She said it had power and would run through the cleaning cycle fine, but then the snowflake (appropriate icon for an ice machine wouldn't you say?) ...kept blinking and no ice was being made. She had tried all the trouble shooting things she could find, but ... no ice. She asked if I could look into it as her life was hectic and she couldn't focus on it. I said I would and then I looked for a contact for customer service, didn't find it right away, thought I'd check Mom's book next time I was out there and .....procceded to drop the ball on this issue as Christmas things cranked up. Imma Bad Sister ! Bad! Bad !
After Christmas my sister invited my other sister, Mom and SILs to her house to see how beautifully it was decorated for Christmas before she took everything down and put it away. We had a nice meal and visit. When we were leaving, she asked me about the Ice Machine at which time I told her I had forgotten it. She said that was ok and she was now at a good place to address it and she would. So, she sent an email to the company. Every week or two I asked her if she had heard back, but she had not, so a couple of weeks ago, I got the contact info, a video from Sis of the machine not working and a copy of what she had sent. I emailed the company, gave them my Amazon order numbers where I had bought two of their dang machines and fussed a little because they had not responded to my Sis. I gave them every kind of info, more than they wanted I am sure and told them I expected the broken machine to be replaced ! I didn't even ask, I just told them to do it as if I were the Queen and they had NO choice. I also mentioned I had thought about buying another one for myself, but if they were not going to be good about backing up their product, then of course I would not. 😉 Actually, that was the truth, I just hadn't pulled the trigger on it yet.
I had also given them my Sis's contact info in case they wanted to contact either one of us since the machine was at her house. I told my Sis if she heard from them to let me know and if neither of us heard anything, I was going to forward my email to them about every 3 days. I told her I was very good at being annoying when I wanted to be.
After a couple days neither of us heard from them, so I did what I said, I forwarded the email and added that we had not heard from them yet. Within a day, I got a response as their Customer Service claimed they had not gotten the first request. They asked for another video. I messaged my Sis and told her to make another one, she did, I sent it. Then they responded again in a couple of days and said the best they could do was refund my money for it and they did not need me to send the broken one back. I call that a pretty good BEST action.
Actually, I had already ordered my sister another one. I wanted her to have one whether or not the company made the old one good or not. Once they said they didn't need it back (which would have totally cost one of us (them or me) a fortune, as like I said, this thing is HEAVY. They asked me to send them a photo of the model info from the back. I messaged sis, she took the pic, I sent it back. Within about 2 days the money was back on my card ! The whole process was easy peasy.
By the end of the week my Sis had her new one. I was going to ask her to give me the old one. I like tearing stuff apart and seeing if I can fix them, but before I could, she asked if I wanted it to tinker with and I told her I did. Last Sunday when we met at Mom's for our family Easter Feast, she brought it and put it into my car. When I got home I lugged this hoss into the house. Believe me when I tell you it was a strain on me. I had a large, thick canvas bag with handles that I maneuvered it into when I took it out of the car, so I would have the advantage of the handles to pick it up with. I then pulled my wagon over to it and lifted it onto the wagon, pulled it over to my front steps, lifted it onto the bottom step and took my wagon back to the carport. Then I lifted it and sat it down one step at a time till I got it onto the front porch whew LOL !
Once inside, since it was still inside the canvas bag, I slid it across the floor a few feet at a time till I got it to the kitchen. After resting a minute I then power lifted it onto the counter. You would have thought this thing weighed a hunnert pounds !
After I bit, I plugged it up, put it through a cleaning cycle twice, put some fresh water in it and hit the button......
HUMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmm... on it came. What ? In a short bit, some ice started dropping down into the basket. I let it make a whole well full, poured it out and then did it again.... huuummmmmm.... happily along it hummed. The next day.... the same.....making ice as pretty as you please ! I messaged my sister and told her and sent her a photo of ice in the bucket ! Her response had some cuss words in it that I cannot repeat here. She can be right "colorful" at times. LOL !
So here it is, 5 days later and the photo above is what I took right before I came to make this post. I only skipped one day, which I did on purpose to see if after leaving it off a while, would make it not come back on. The day after though..... HUMMMMMmmmmmm... on it came, just like nothing had ever been wrong.
I resisted telling her it must just like me better than her ha-ha, but I did say I was kind afraid to say it seems like nothing is wrong with it, as it may be trying to gain my trust before it stops working again. So for today and however long it continues, I have some very nice soft crunchie ice !
Has it crossed my mind that if it is no longer broken maybe I shouldn't have it free? Yes... but also, it has crossed my mind that tomorrow it may not come back on, so this early in the adventure, I am hesitant to go there. My sis did say in jest, that we may have run quite the scam, but I can honestly say, neither of us would ever risk any negative legal issues for anything....and especially not for something like an ice machine, no way.
That is the Resurrected Ice Machine story for now.... and the saga continues.
Hope you are all having a very good day and are getting ready for the weekend.
