I Still Hate Home Crapot!

My town's battle with the big box giant Home Crapot is well documented in parts of this blog as well as on Sunland - Tujunga's own website. And yes, we've won that battle. But I still can't bring myself to shop there.

Yes, the battle has something to do with the way I feel - It's hard to get over a corporation calling me a racist when the real issue is that I simply didn't want to hear trucks idling, loading and unloading in my back yard 24/7.

But my newest reason to hate them has to do with the ceiling fans they make. Hampton Bay is an exclusive Home Crapot line (something I bought in 03, long before our battle). And yes, they do come with a lifetime warranty but OY! the frustration of cashing that in!

I found my model number and looked up a phone number on the Internet. Wrong number but they gave me the right one. Easy. I called, gave my info and they told me I needed a capacitor (whatever that is), asked for my address and one arrived a week later. Easy.

I opened it. No directions included. Not so easy. I had set aside Sunday to deal with electrical issues as all the clocks would need resetting anyway. I phone the toll free number... no one was in.

I spent an hour looking for instructions on the Internet. Very frustrating. I called Home Crapot. No one could help me til tomorrow...More frustration. They suggested I call some local stores because they all have electricians on staff. I called three before I found out...they never work on weekends...you know, when people might actually need them. Extremely frustrating.

I studied my fan and couldn't even begin to guess how to take it apart. Even more frustrating because I'm usually good at that. I called an engineer I know, he's disabled and can't stand on ladders but he came over, sat on my sofa and gave me a few directions. I had the fan on the floor in under a minute. Joy!

The new capcitor has more wires than my old one. Frustration. The old capcitor is wired into a gizmo that has no screws; it's held together by pins that don't budge. Anger.

I check the internet again. No wiring diagrams, No directions on how to open up the fan, no easy to find anything. Super Angry!

Hampton Bay is a HUGE name, widely known. WHY wouldn't Home Crapot use this as a marketing tool??? Why don't they put up PDF files of all the Hampton Bay fans? Why don't they put up wiring diagrams? Why, if they are a store that's supposed to make it easy for the do-it-yourselfer, don't they actually use the Internet to do exactly that?

While job hunting, I was snooping around a website for a phone number for a company that had a position I was interested in. The company's site said in big bold letters: Absolutely no phone calls! The Internet is your Friend, USE IT!

Home Crapot, please heed that advice.