UNITED AIRLINES customer service STINKS!!

Ok, so things haven't been going as planned over the last week or so. First, my laptop broke. That stinks. As you may or may not know, I do a lot of stuff for work on my laptop - update the website, write our e-newsletters, type up our class schedules, email staff, monitor the message board, etc... the lack of computer is slowing me down in those areas. I'm taking this utter failure on the part of my PC as a sign that it's time to switch to Apple. I'm done with the crashing, the viruses, and everything that goes with it. Not only that, but you can do some pretty sweet, creative stuff on an Apple (yes, it appears that my sister is winning me over to the dark side). I'm ready.

2nd, my luggage that I use for work and for attending tradeshows was broken during the course of our flight. UNITED has not been very pleasant or accomodating throughout this situation. I arrived in South Bend at midnight, so there was no one with which to file a claim on the bag. A sign in the baggage area reads that all claims must be made within 24 hours of the arrival of your flight. I called United on Sunday afternoon to report the damage to my bag and they told me that it needed to be inspected by a United representative within 24 hours of my arrival, meaning that I'd have to drive BACK to the airport that day. Not happy. I pack the kids up and drive 30 minutes to the airport. I get to the counter, after having dragged the lopsided bag back inside, along with my children, in below-zero temperatures, from the car. They tell me I'll have to wait 15-20 minutes before someone will be available to speak to me. I wait. 20 minutes later, a woman comes over and asks to see my bag. I show her the damage and she immediately says, "It's missing a wheel? That's not covered - that's normal wear and tear." I'm sorry? No, it's not just a wheel - the entire section of the plate has been ripped off the bottom of the bag. Yes, the wheel happens to attach to that plate, but it's not just the wheel that's missing. And besides, who in the world considers a wheel being violently ripped off the bag "normal wear and tear"?!? We had words. She told me that I could come back for a 2nd opinion from the manager the following day. That's right - a third visit to the airport within 36 hours. So at this point, I've called United's 800 number, followed their directions to the letter, driven and hour back and forth, paid for airport parking and tolls...and they want me to do it again TOMORROW??? I immediately got on my cell and called the 800# again. Have a lovely 25 minute debate with an Indian gentleman (are we surprised that United's call center is located in INDIA??) that got me absolutely no where (unless you consider the scene I made in the airport, causing current United travelers to at least momentarily reconsider trusting those people with their bags). He actually REFUSED to allow me to speak with a supervisor. I had a very difficult time controlling my temper and language at that point. It's a good thing that my children were present to keep me in check.

Monday morning I called South Bend Airport to speak with the manager before making the trip back to the airport. Glad I did, as she wasn't available to see me that day. We made arrangements to meet in the morning before I went to work. Fun! Another trip to the airport, tolls, parking, dragging the bag...all before 8:30am!! Yippee!!!! Fortunately, Manager Melissa knew well enough to at least make me believe that she was going to help me out. She took the bag (did I mention that it's worth $250 and no longer manufactured?) and gave me the name of the man that does their repairs. He'll attempt to repair it, and if he's unable to do so, they'll attempt to find a replacement (good luck). Today is Thursday and I haven't heard from him. Wonder what that means...

Finally - back to Sunday. Adam was at work all day, and I began to clean up after my week away. In the process of unloading and reloading the dishwasher (and rinsing dirty dishes), it became apparent that the sink wasn't draining. Interesting. I look under the sink - water. Bad. I cleaned up the mess and put a jar under the drip and called Adam. A short time later, I left for the airport. When I got home, there was water dripping out of the cupboard doors onto the kitchen floor. I look in the cupboard - lots of water. Very bad. I clean up the mess and put a bucket under the leak. Turns out that the pipe leading out of the house that would normally carry this water out was FROZEN. FUN!!! By that time there was water in the basement - not cool at all. It took most of the day on Monday for Adam to get that situation under control, which I'm very happy he was able to do, as paying a plumber to fix it would have seriously hindered any computer buying plans I might have anytime in the future.

So, I went from Southern California and 75 degrees to the Midwest and -5 degrees, a broken computer, a ruined bag and a frozen pipe, all within 24 hours of each other. What else can I say?