whirlcool
Well-known member
Ah, again Karen got me involved again with the nutty lady down the street. You remember her. She's the one that replaced her Kenmore dryer that was in mint condition because the Sears repairman told her it wasn't worth fixing and she needed a new one when all it needed was a motor. Then she bought a LG with the steam option she just had to have because her daughter told her with the steam option she could dry clean her clothes in it. But two years later she still hasn't even used the steam option.
Yup, now you remember her!
This time Karen said the woman ran into her at the grocery store and she's worried that her smoke detector batteries aren't working. Could I come over and make sure they are working? That couldn't be too hard. Set off a smoking match, make sure the unit goes off. Tell her everything is ok and leave. Couldn't be easier, right?
I get over there and find out that the smoke detectors don't have any batteries. They are connected via hard wiring to the central alarm system which has a battery backup. That battery was deader than a door nail. None of the smoke alarms sounded when I smoked them up. So I go to the central keypad that controls the alarm system and the Power light is off. I explain to the woman that she has to have the alarm powered up for the smoke alarms to work. I go to the master control panel out in the garage and find the System ON/Off is controlled by a key. No key. I ask her where it is and she said the monitoring company came out and took it way back in 2000 when she had monitoring stopped. She didn't want to pay for it. I asked her if they installed the alarm and she said no, a different company installed it when the house was built. The monitoring company just came out and turned the entire system off, took the key and didn't say a word to her when she cancelled her contract. I think they should have left it on in "stand alone" mode where it would still go off but just not report to the monitoring station. I explained that they left her without smoke detection since 2001. Didn't they mention that to her?
Nope, they just took the key and left. So I told her to call them and tell them that she wants her key back.
She called them and they told her if she wanted a key, she'll have to pay for monitoring at $49.95 per month, 5 year contract required. I told her that's highway robbery and that she should report them to the authorities since they put her in a very unsafe situation.
So then I go to one of the bedroom windows to open it to make sure they haven't been painted shut. That happens sometimes and in case this woman has a fire this is the only way out as the doors to the house are on the other side of the house from the bedrooms. I go to open the window. Wouldn't move, wouldn't budge. Try the other window, same thing. It turns out all the windows in the house are like this. I look closely and see that screws have been drilled into where the windows slide up and down and are sticking out into the windows glide path about 1/2 and inch.
And they are "reverse thread" types which require a special tool to remove.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I asked her how her windows got that way and she said a few years ago she was worried about home invasions and had her nephew come over and she told him to make sure the windows won't open because she didn't want to be invaded. It never dawned on her one iota at all that she was living in a total death trap. No smoke detection available, windows screwed shut, husband who is living in his own little world where she is not a part of it and can't do anything around the house.
So in the end, I told her I couldn't do anything else for her but she needs to get this situation resolved pronto. She said she'd think about it and maybe call the monitoring company back to see what they say about this!
You can't save these people from themselves!!!
Yup, now you remember her!
This time Karen said the woman ran into her at the grocery store and she's worried that her smoke detector batteries aren't working. Could I come over and make sure they are working? That couldn't be too hard. Set off a smoking match, make sure the unit goes off. Tell her everything is ok and leave. Couldn't be easier, right?
I get over there and find out that the smoke detectors don't have any batteries. They are connected via hard wiring to the central alarm system which has a battery backup. That battery was deader than a door nail. None of the smoke alarms sounded when I smoked them up. So I go to the central keypad that controls the alarm system and the Power light is off. I explain to the woman that she has to have the alarm powered up for the smoke alarms to work. I go to the master control panel out in the garage and find the System ON/Off is controlled by a key. No key. I ask her where it is and she said the monitoring company came out and took it way back in 2000 when she had monitoring stopped. She didn't want to pay for it. I asked her if they installed the alarm and she said no, a different company installed it when the house was built. The monitoring company just came out and turned the entire system off, took the key and didn't say a word to her when she cancelled her contract. I think they should have left it on in "stand alone" mode where it would still go off but just not report to the monitoring station. I explained that they left her without smoke detection since 2001. Didn't they mention that to her?
Nope, they just took the key and left. So I told her to call them and tell them that she wants her key back.
She called them and they told her if she wanted a key, she'll have to pay for monitoring at $49.95 per month, 5 year contract required. I told her that's highway robbery and that she should report them to the authorities since they put her in a very unsafe situation.
So then I go to one of the bedroom windows to open it to make sure they haven't been painted shut. That happens sometimes and in case this woman has a fire this is the only way out as the doors to the house are on the other side of the house from the bedrooms. I go to open the window. Wouldn't move, wouldn't budge. Try the other window, same thing. It turns out all the windows in the house are like this. I look closely and see that screws have been drilled into where the windows slide up and down and are sticking out into the windows glide path about 1/2 and inch.
And they are "reverse thread" types which require a special tool to remove.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I asked her how her windows got that way and she said a few years ago she was worried about home invasions and had her nephew come over and she told him to make sure the windows won't open because she didn't want to be invaded. It never dawned on her one iota at all that she was living in a total death trap. No smoke detection available, windows screwed shut, husband who is living in his own little world where she is not a part of it and can't do anything around the house.
So in the end, I told her I couldn't do anything else for her but she needs to get this situation resolved pronto. She said she'd think about it and maybe call the monitoring company back to see what they say about this!
You can't save these people from themselves!!!
