The iRobot Service Department

When I finally opened the box to my Roomba, I was really excited to get started. I wanted to set up the invisible walls and get my living room vacuumed because it NEEDED to be vacuumed. As I'm checking the Roomba's moving parts and making sure that I know how to clean the brushes, one of the pieces snaps. Broken. Arg.

I registered my Roomba on their website and then placed a request with iRobot for a new part since OBVIOUSLY it was defective and NOT MY FAULT. I was prepared to go back and forth with many e-mails and phone calls on this subject. The first response I got from iRobot was very polite, apologized for the defective piece, and informed me that a replacement was already in the mail. This was all on a SUNDAY! Beautiful.

The only catch? They sent it via UPS. I had never had anything shipped to the apartment via UPS, so I was wary. The following Tuesday, I had a knock on my door. It was the UPS guy. He had the new part for my Roomba. He left in such a hurry, I don't know how he got in the building!! Maybe he has a key? (which would be weird) Maybe a neighbor let him in? (which would be doubtful) I still have no idea.

The Bakery Discount Store

I'm not really sure where this sort of store comes from or how you can search for one near you, but if you can find one, they are really amazing. My experience is only based on going to 2 different stores in 2 different states, so your mileage my vary.

On to the tale!

I have never been one to pass up a deal. When I lived in Rochester, Minnesota I was lured into the local Bakery Discount store by huge signs that proclaimed half price baked goods. Sounds too good to be true? Not really. I just had a similar experience here. There is a bakery discount store about half a mile from my apartment. I had been meaning to visit there for a few months (even more since it is close to my job as well), but they seem to only be open very short hours and never when I was thinking about stopping in.

Not so today. Although the place looks a little shady and is set back from the road more than the other stores around, once I had parked and entered, the store was clean and non-shady on the inside. The best part? Tons of signs that said "$1 each" or "50% off marked price" These words are beautiful to me.

I ended up getting bags of tortilla chips - a local brand that I trust - for $1 each. I can go through a bag of these a week when I eat them with a taco salad, so this is definitely a good thing.

I also got salsa (2/$5) which was on my shopping list for this week. The price was comparable to what I pay in the grocery store when salsa is on sale - and the jars were larger.

I managed to get through the cookie aisles with only a few things - all trusted brands (safeway and a few local brands) and all items that I was thinking about buying at the grocery store this week.

The last thing that I bought was actually an investment in my career - donuts to bring in to the office. They are seconds from a local bakery that is pretty well known in the area for very good donuts. The price was less than $3 for a baker's dozen. And my co-workers are extra happy with me today, which will make my life easier during the rest of the week.

You can look forward to a post about my Roomba and one about my couch in the coming days...

The FedEx Problem (and the Solution)

Last week, there was a Woot-Off at Woot.com. For those of you not familiar with Woot, they normally sell one item a day until it sells out. At midnight CST, they put a new item up for sale. Items for sale range greatly, but usually are electronic in nature. During a Woot-Off, when an item sells out, a new item is put up for sale. Sometimes items sell out within a matter of seconds. It can be quite addicting.

Anyway, during the last Woot-Off, I purchased an iRobot Roomba 4296 Remote Scheduler Robotic Vacuum. Vacuuming is one of my least favourite tasks, so having a robot to do it for me is especially exciting. Unfortunately, Woot is currently shipping via FedEx. I didn't realize this until I received my order tracking information in my e-mail inbox yesterday. There is nowhere at my apartment for FedEx to leave this package, so I gave their customer service department a call.

I had researched on their website that they do have a "hold at location" option available so I asked if I could have this done. Unfortunately (again), since the item was shipped FedEx Ground, the closest pick-up location is an hour and a half away. Driving that far (3 hours round trip) is just not an option. I asked if there was any way that I could have the shipping address changed to my work address. Of course, I could not do this through FedEx, the original shipper was the only one who could do this.

Fortunately, Woot's customer service e-mail address must be checked by approximately 1,000 trained monkeys, because I received an e-mail saying that they had changed the address with FedEx within an hour of my original e-mail being sent! YAY!

Note to self: When ordering from Woot in the future, list my work address as the shipping address.

The 3 foot receipt

Last night after work, I went to one of the local grocery stores. I had seen the circular and there were a lot of buy-one-get-one-free deals and I wanted to check it out. The problem with buy-one-get-one-free deals is that if the item's price is way too high to begin with, you aren't really getting much of a deal. I grew up in a family where we didn't buy anything unless it was on sale AND we had a coupon AND it was double coupon day. So, this trip to the grocery store involved lots of calculations on my cell phone.

Even though I have no pantry space and no place to put dry goods in my kitchen, I filled my cart. FILLED. I got 12 boxes of pasta ($0.50 each), but I won't be able to cook any of it since I still do not have any pots and pans. I got 4 packages of hot dogs (brand name, $1.50 each), but no hot dog buns (they were not on sale). I got 8 2-liter bottles of Vanilla Coke Zero ($0.79 each - yum). And that's just a cross section of my purchases.

What really got me was when I was paying at the cashier. The woman ringing me up said to me, "You saved 35 dollars! ................. your total is $89.30" I felt bad after I laughed at her. I had to spend 90 bucks to save 35? How did they rope me into that deal?

I guess I'm just a sucker for a sale. On the plus side, I won't need to buy pasta for a good 6-months and I certainly got a good work-out carrying all of it up to my 2nd story apartment in the 90 degree weather.

The Laundry

I did laundry in my apartment for the first time last night. It wasn't all that exciting, but I did learn a few things.

• During the spin cycle, my washer vibrates the entire apartment building. (This is only a slight exaggeration)
• The washer does not beep when the cycle is completed.
  
• The dryer beeps for 5 minutes and then starts a "wrinkle release" tumble cycle and then beeps for 5 minutes and repeats the cycle until you open the door.
• The stop for the lid for the washer is gone. This means that when the lid is open, the washer cycle knob gets pushed in and the cycle stops. Fun.

Most of my blouses for work need to be hung to dry. Since the laundry is in the kitchen, there really isn't any place for me to hang stuff. So, I put everything on hangers, hung them over the shower rod, and left the bathroom fan on. This morning my clothes were nice and dry! Oh, sometimes I am so smart.