Sunday, July 28, 2019

my weeping A/C

In my building, there are people who can help with electrical problems, plumbing problems, and even pest problems. What we don't have here is someone who can deal with air-conditioner problems. Instead, because each A/C was manufactured by a particular company (Carrier, etc.), we have to phone a repair request in to that company's service-center number.

For the past several days, my LG air conditioner has been dripping water out of parts where water isn't supposed to be. When I finally went down to the concierge to talk about the problem, he advised me to call the building repairmen first even though I knew that would be useless. We called the in-building staff, anyway, and the repairman I spoke with told me I needed to call whichever company manufactured my air conditioner. I said my A/C was an LG model, so he gave me the number for LG's appliance service center.

Bizarrely, the repairman asked me if I'd be okay talking to the service center in Korean. Since he and I were speaking rather smoothly in Korean at that very moment (there were no "huh?"s from his end to indicate I hadn't spoken clearly), I had to wonder where that question came from. I told him I'd be as fine talking to the LG guy as I was talking to him right at that moment. I thanked the repairman, hung up, thanked the concierge for the use of his front-desk phone, and went back to my place.

Once back in my apartment, I tried calling the LG service center. A computerized voice told me that these were not the company's hours of operation; I was referred to an online site to put in a request, as well as an emergency number to contact if this was a true emergency. It wasn't a true emergency (I had set up cups and cling-wrap drip catches), and I didn't want to bother navigating another badly designed Korean website, so, assuming that 8:30 p.m. was the wrong time to call, I resolved to call again today, i.e., Sunday.

So I called again. Same message. Obviously, this is a Monday-through-Friday operation. I guess I'll be calling the LG office tomorrow, then. Am I living in France?



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