16 January 2007

The real reason for the current drought (me)

I drink a lot of water, now i know they say you should drink water every day, but is 4 litres too much? Tough!!! I am one of those people that when they go out to restaurant always asks for water, while every one is enjoying their ice cold glass of coke i am sipping my plain boring water!

But i am bit of water snob, given the choice i will go for tap water over spring water over spring water and filtered water over tap water - filtered water is defiantly my preferred taste.

At home we have gone through a few water filters, there was the one that attached to the tap via a rubber hose and you had to have the tap only just on to avoid the hose popping off or the water leaking out. This needed constant supervision and soon became just something that sat on the bathroom bench and collected dust.

The next filter we tried was a jug filter, it sat in the kitchen cupboard and we filled the jug and let it filter down in its own time. The main problem with this one was that it could not keep up with our water consumption needs, we kept emptying it and having to wait for it to filter through more water. Plus the fact that the water was only at room temperature and we could not keep up with the ice making to compensate for this.

We then took a shine to the idea of an electric filter that had a bigger reservoir for water that the jug and was able to chill the water for our instant enjoyment. We could also switch it deliver room temp water if need be.

So armed with a $100 gift voucher (that could be used at a few different stores under the same ownership) and some extra cash thanks to Christmas we went to the local shopping centre to buy the filter. At one of the stores that the gift voucher was usable at we found the filter we wanted - last one on the shelf! Plus thanks to the post Christmas sales it had 20% off the normal price, score!!!

We got the filter home and i started running water through to prep the filter while M34tb4LL looked at the current kitchen cupboard configuration to accommodate our new purchase. I run water three lots of water through as pre the instructions and then when i pulled the filter forward to move it to its new spot i noticed that it was sitting in a rather large body of water.

The filter was leaking water - through the motor - and on to the bench.

We hurriedly packed it back into the box and the next day went back to the original store of purchase with our faulty appliance.

Handing the box over the counter we explained the situation to the shop wench, and being the last filter they had in stock they were not able to offer us a replacement for the filter so we opted for a refund. Having paid some of the asking price via a gift voucher and some with cash, this is how the refund had top be given to us.

Only problem was that the store in questions computer / cash register was not "setup" to refund something purchased with generic gift card on another generic gift card, and they wanted to give us a store specific gift card instead! not good enough. If the product purchased is faulty and they are not able to supply a replacement we should be able to obtain a refund via the method in which we paid.

Well, because we were adamant that they give us the refund in the method that we dictated to, there had to be multiple calls to their office and shop wench eventually had to get an office manager to come to the register to do the refund for her. But we did get our generic gift voucher and cash - as we should have.

This is the funny bit though, we then went down a few levels to the men's clothing section (same store) and bought M34tb4LL five new shirts that cost the amount of the disputed gift voucher and then some!!! so if we had have taken the refund in the method that they wanted to give it to us and not gone to the mile of trouble we had put them through the money would have been spent in the same store the same day, but we bought the shirts with another method to keep the voucher for the filter purchase.

But we still did not have a the filter, so we went to the other stores under the same ownership but none of them had the filter in stock. In fact most of them looked like they did not stock that filter at all.

We then went to a store that had no affiliation with the other stores and found the filter we were after!!! and the best bit? it was 30% off the normal price! cheaper than the other store. And it works perfectly!

But if you have figured out by now - we still have the $100 gift voucher with no target purchase. I think we will be able to find something to spend it on though.

(: G