It's difficult for any family to go weeks without a washing machine. However, it seemed almost like an emergency for Pacifica resident Carolinc Augustine when she suddenly couldn't do her laundry.
Augustine admits it sounds crazy, but she absolutely loves doing laundry.
"I mean, that's my hobby. I love laundry," she said.
Augustine relishes the challenge of things like getting out a stain, coordinating colors, rolling towels into pretty patterns.
"And it smells good. I can do laundry for weeks and days and hours," she said.
That explains why it was so traumatic for Augustine when suddenly she no longer had a washer and dryer this summer.
"Oh my god, I was like, I'm having withdrawals," she said.
It all began when Augustine bought a new washer and dryer set from Airport Home Appliance in Redwood City. The store took away her old machines, but couldn't install the new ones.
"I didn't have the plug," she said.
So an electrician put in the right outlet and the store delivered her new washer and dryer. But this time the dryer didn't work right.
"So they took the dryer back," she said.
The delivery truck came again days later, but now there was another problem. The technicians forgot the stacking kit that bolts the washer and dryer together. So, they set up another appointment.
"Again they come out, no stacking kit," she said.
Without the kit the dryer could fall off the washer, so they set up another delivery date. However, this time no one showed up at all and Augustine was going nuts.
"I was looking at my laundry pile up and was like oh my god this is not happening to me," she said.
7 On Your Side contacted the company and the managers got right on the case.
"She had multiple deliveries and it should have really taken us two deliveries to complete," Airport appliance general manager Kate Van Eeghen said.
Van Eeghen said this was a rare case of miscommunication among managers.
"And so we've made some changes in our structure to make sure that we could respond a lot quicker in the future," Van Eeghen said.
Not only that, Airport Home Appliance gave Augustine a free upgrade on her dryer worth $400 and waived delivery fees.
"So we more than compensated her for it because we really wanted to take care of her. We didn't want her to feel bad every time she used her washer and dryer," Van Eeghen said.
"I was so excited. I think I stayed up half of the night doing laundry," Augustine said.
Van Eeghen was happy to hear that.
"I'm glad you guys do this. I love 7 On Your Side and what it does," Van Eeghen said.
"Thank you 7 On Your Side. I mean, you give me a shirt, put a stain on it, I'll get it out," Augustine said.
Airport Home Appliance really stepped up. The manager told 7 On Your Side that she has changed procedures because of our story to avoid future delays.
