Snow Blower Adventure
Jan. 27th, 2022 12:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deguspice[This is an expanded version of a reply to Ann's FB account]
Getting the new snow blower has been an adventure.
I had a small battery powered, single-stage Ryobi snow blower, but I was tempted to upgrade to one that can clear more than 13" of snow.
At the end of last summer, I got an email from Home Depot (Ryobi) advertising a new battery powered, two-stage snow blower that can clear 21" of snow. It sounded interesting, but they wouldn't start selling it until the start of snow season (no need to clutter their store with snow blowers when they can still sell BBQ grills)
Beginning of November, I checked the Home Depot site and saw that it's now available.
2021/11/9
After thinking about it for a couple of days, I went back to the web site to place the order for free delivery (it's heavy enough that I didn't want to try to get it into (or out of) my truck, even with help). But by that point it was backordered with "Est Arrival: Dec. 2 - Dec. 7", that seemed reasonable so I placed an order.
Periodically, I'd check their site to see if it was still listed as backordered (it was).
2021/11/21
While waiting for the snow blower to arrive, I get a "cleanout" stick from Amazon for the snow blower. I highly recommend getting one if your snow blower doesn't come with one. It keeps your fingers away from the whirling blades of death.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003X9O9RU
After I bought the cleanout stick, I found that it comes with one (my previous snow blower didn't).
2021/12/02
After a month of waiting, I got an email saying that if it didn't arrive in another month, they'd cancel my order (which I didn't want to happen because I used a 10%-off coupon to purchase it and I wasn't sure when the next coupon from HD would arrive).
------
Unfortunately, this item is still out of stock. It was originally estimated to arrive by November 27, 2021, but there's been an unexpected delay in getting it restocked. We apologize for the inconvenience.
[...]
If the item is not available by January 6, 2022, it will be canceled from your order.
------
2022/01/06
A month goes by and I'm waiting to see if they'll cancel the order. Periodically, I've been checking the site to see if it's back in stock (I even signed up for a notification for when it's on sale again, which they never did).
2022/01/18
12 days have passed since their deadline with no emails from HD and then out of the blue, I get an email with a tracking number. At the bottom of the email it says "Expected Delivery Tuesday, December 7". TARDIS Express?
When I click on the tracking number link, it says "Now At BLOOMINGTON CA USA" and it'll arrive on the 19th which seems highly unlikely, even if they send it by cargo plane.
2022/01/19
Tracking site now says "Trailer 450480 Is Loading At BLOOMINGTON CA USA"
2022/01/20
The tracking site says "Trailer 450480 Is Enroute To KEARNY" (transfer location in NJ?) and it'll arrive here on the 25th.
2022/01/23
To make room for the new snow blower that's about to arrive, I sell my old snow blower to a friend and bring it over to them.
2022/01/24
it still says "Trailer 450480 Is Enroute To KEARNY"
I have no idea how it'll get here on the 25th if it hasn't yet arrived in NJ.
2022/01/25
By the end of the 25th, it still says "Trailer 450480 Is Enroute To KEARNY", but now it says it'll be here on Friday the 28th.
This makes me a little nervous because the 10-day forecast says there will be a snowstorm starting the evening of the 28th. As I've been watching the forecast bounce between 9" and 19" At the moment, it says 10".
2022/01/26
Early afternoon it says
"Trailer 450480 Is Enroute To MAYBROOK NY USA"
The estimated delivery date is now Thursday the 27th.
Late afternoon it now says
"Now On Trailer 450480 And On-Hand At MAYBROOK NY USA"
The site is back to saying it'll arrive on Friday the 28th.
Edit:
2022/01/27, 2pm
It still says it'll be here on the 28th, but it hasn't moved.
"Now On Trailer 450480 And On-Hand At MAYBROOK NY USA"
Maybrook, NY is ~3 hours from here, so it can make it here by tomorrow, but it probably has to drive to a warehouse near here and then transfer to a smaller truck that will be making multiple stops to various customers.
Edit 2:
2022/01/27, 4:30pm
The status message hasn't changed (still in Maybrook), but now it says it'll be delivered Monday, January 31st, after the snowstorm.
Edit 3:
This morning, there was no change to the status, but now it says:
"Trailer 530796 Is Loading At MAYBROOK NY USA"
That makes the promised delivery of Monday more likely.
The irony of this if the snow blower had been delivered today (before the snow storm), there would be plenty of room for a truck to drop off the snow blower. And if we were expecting another delivery on Monday, we could have easily used the snow blower to clear additional space to make it easy to a truck drop off a shipment on Monday. But we're going to be limited to using shovels to clear the driveway this weekend, so we're probably are just going to shovel out the minimum area needed.
Edit 4:
2022/01/29
New status is "Trailer 530796 Was Closed At MAYBROOK NY USA"
If the truck departs Sunday, getting here by Monday is a possibility.
Edit 5:
Doing it the old fashioned way, we used shovels to clear most all of the driveway (two cars wide, 1 1/2 cars deep) the, for the berm (left it as a barrier against further incursion of snow later in the evening)
2022/01/30
Shoveled out the rest of the driveway by the street and whatever snow fell after sunset last night.
Checked the tracking site a couple times, finally, around 6pm, the status changed to:
"Trailer 530796 Is Enroute To BOSTON MA USA"
Just before midnight, it now says:
"Now On Trailer 530796 And On-Hand At BOSTON MA USA"
I don't know where in Boston the snow blower is, but it's probably a half hour away from my house. So it's possible it might get here on Monday.
However, instead of a delivery date, it now says
"An estimated delivery date is not available at this time. If it has been more than 3 business days since the last update, please contact homedepot.com"
Edit 6:
2022-01-31
"Now At BOSTON MA USA"
It's now 3pm and the status hasn't changed since this morning, so the odds of it being delivered today seem slim, but I'm optimistic about tomorrow.
Edit 7:
2022-02-03
No change. It's still in Boston, probably 30 minutes from my house. Since the tracking page says contact Home Depot if it hasn't moved for three days (it arrived in Boston five days ago), I gave them a call. The person I spoke to couldn't get any more information than what's on the tracking site. She tried contacting the carrier, but they didn't answer the phone. She filed an internal ticket (for ETAs) to see if someone further up the food chain can get an answer.
While talking with her, she confirmed my guess that the company with the large trucks will need to transfer it to a smaller, "last mile" truck to get it to my door. The website says it weighs 187 pounds, so it can't be tossed into the back of someone's pickup truck (if it could, I would have done that). It'll need a truck with a liftgate and a pallet jack. Once it finally arrives, my plan it to assemble it in the driveway and use its self-propelled mode to put it away.
BTW, this has turned into a log for myself to keep track of the progress. I'm not expecting the readers (Hi) to find this level of detail to be exciting.
Edit 7:
2022-02-11
The tracking page still says:
"2022-01-31 Now At BOSTON MA USA"
Home Depot was supposed to contact me by Monday about the snow blower. On Tuesday, I called Home Depot. The guy said it might be lost and put me on hold to try to call the shipper to see what was up, but after a half-hour on hold, the connection was dropped. I waited a bit and called back. This time I got a different person and they checked the information also wondered if it might be lost after she dug around a bit, I asked if it would be possible to cancel the order. She said yes, but it'll need to be reviewed by a couple people. However a few minutes after I called, I got an email from Home Depot saying "We have received your returned products". So I think this saga is done.
Checking the weather, it's going to be cold but no significant snowfall is predicted, so I'm going to gamble and skipping order another snow blower for this season. Sometime in the future, I'll do some more research and in October or so, I'll try again to buy a two-stage battery powered snow blower.
Edit 8:
The tracking site now says:
FEB 19 DELIVERY DATE: 02/19/2022
Saturday morning, Ann comes in from retrieving the newspaper from the driveway to report that there's a large green box in the driveway.
This morning at 6:37 am, my doorbell camera shows a Ryder rental truck with a liftgate shows up and the driver using a powered pallet jack delivered the lost snow blower to my driveway.
Once it arrived in Boston, it took another 21 days for it to get delivered.
That afternoon, I sent Home Depot a message asking what should I do with it since they already issued a refund for it.
Edit 9
2022/02/24
On Tuesday, I got a reply via FB saying that they've created a case number for me and they'll get in touch with me within 48 hours. I waited 48 hours and 30 minutes and then called Home Depot. After I explained the situation, she said that I'll be given a new case number for pick up and they'll be in touch for pickup with 24-48 hours. When I asked about the old ticket, I was told it was cancelled (without notifying me).
11" of snow is expected by tomorrow evening, bringing us to 55" so far this season.
Nope:Hopefully the snow blower will arrive before the snow storm arrives.
Instead of trying out the new snow blower on Saturday, Ann and I will be shoveling by hand. At the moment, 24" of snow is predicted.
Getting the new snow blower has been an adventure.
I had a small battery powered, single-stage Ryobi snow blower, but I was tempted to upgrade to one that can clear more than 13" of snow.
At the end of last summer, I got an email from Home Depot (Ryobi) advertising a new battery powered, two-stage snow blower that can clear 21" of snow. It sounded interesting, but they wouldn't start selling it until the start of snow season (no need to clutter their store with snow blowers when they can still sell BBQ grills)
Beginning of November, I checked the Home Depot site and saw that it's now available.
2021/11/9
After thinking about it for a couple of days, I went back to the web site to place the order for free delivery (it's heavy enough that I didn't want to try to get it into (or out of) my truck, even with help). But by that point it was backordered with "Est Arrival: Dec. 2 - Dec. 7", that seemed reasonable so I placed an order.
Periodically, I'd check their site to see if it was still listed as backordered (it was).
2021/11/21
While waiting for the snow blower to arrive, I get a "cleanout" stick from Amazon for the snow blower. I highly recommend getting one if your snow blower doesn't come with one. It keeps your fingers away from the whirling blades of death.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003X9O9RU
After I bought the cleanout stick, I found that it comes with one (my previous snow blower didn't).
2021/12/02
After a month of waiting, I got an email saying that if it didn't arrive in another month, they'd cancel my order (which I didn't want to happen because I used a 10%-off coupon to purchase it and I wasn't sure when the next coupon from HD would arrive).
------
Unfortunately, this item is still out of stock. It was originally estimated to arrive by November 27, 2021, but there's been an unexpected delay in getting it restocked. We apologize for the inconvenience.
[...]
If the item is not available by January 6, 2022, it will be canceled from your order.
------
2022/01/06
A month goes by and I'm waiting to see if they'll cancel the order. Periodically, I've been checking the site to see if it's back in stock (I even signed up for a notification for when it's on sale again, which they never did).
2022/01/18
12 days have passed since their deadline with no emails from HD and then out of the blue, I get an email with a tracking number. At the bottom of the email it says "Expected Delivery Tuesday, December 7". TARDIS Express?
When I click on the tracking number link, it says "Now At BLOOMINGTON CA USA" and it'll arrive on the 19th which seems highly unlikely, even if they send it by cargo plane.
2022/01/19
Tracking site now says "Trailer 450480 Is Loading At BLOOMINGTON CA USA"
2022/01/20
The tracking site says "Trailer 450480 Is Enroute To KEARNY" (transfer location in NJ?) and it'll arrive here on the 25th.
2022/01/23
To make room for the new snow blower that's about to arrive, I sell my old snow blower to a friend and bring it over to them.
2022/01/24
it still says "Trailer 450480 Is Enroute To KEARNY"
I have no idea how it'll get here on the 25th if it hasn't yet arrived in NJ.
2022/01/25
By the end of the 25th, it still says "Trailer 450480 Is Enroute To KEARNY", but now it says it'll be here on Friday the 28th.
This makes me a little nervous because the 10-day forecast says there will be a snowstorm starting the evening of the 28th. As I've been watching the forecast bounce between 9" and 19" At the moment, it says 10".
2022/01/26
Early afternoon it says
"Trailer 450480 Is Enroute To MAYBROOK NY USA"
The estimated delivery date is now Thursday the 27th.
Late afternoon it now says
"Now On Trailer 450480 And On-Hand At MAYBROOK NY USA"
The site is back to saying it'll arrive on Friday the 28th.
Edit:
2022/01/27, 2pm
It still says it'll be here on the 28th, but it hasn't moved.
"Now On Trailer 450480 And On-Hand At MAYBROOK NY USA"
Maybrook, NY is ~3 hours from here, so it can make it here by tomorrow, but it probably has to drive to a warehouse near here and then transfer to a smaller truck that will be making multiple stops to various customers.
Edit 2:
2022/01/27, 4:30pm
The status message hasn't changed (still in Maybrook), but now it says it'll be delivered Monday, January 31st, after the snowstorm.
Edit 3:
This morning, there was no change to the status, but now it says:
"Trailer 530796 Is Loading At MAYBROOK NY USA"
That makes the promised delivery of Monday more likely.
The irony of this if the snow blower had been delivered today (before the snow storm), there would be plenty of room for a truck to drop off the snow blower. And if we were expecting another delivery on Monday, we could have easily used the snow blower to clear additional space to make it easy to a truck drop off a shipment on Monday. But we're going to be limited to using shovels to clear the driveway this weekend, so we're probably are just going to shovel out the minimum area needed.
Edit 4:
2022/01/29
New status is "Trailer 530796 Was Closed At MAYBROOK NY USA"
If the truck departs Sunday, getting here by Monday is a possibility.
Edit 5:
Doing it the old fashioned way, we used shovels to clear most all of the driveway (two cars wide, 1 1/2 cars deep) the, for the berm (left it as a barrier against further incursion of snow later in the evening)
2022/01/30
Shoveled out the rest of the driveway by the street and whatever snow fell after sunset last night.
Checked the tracking site a couple times, finally, around 6pm, the status changed to:
"Trailer 530796 Is Enroute To BOSTON MA USA"
Just before midnight, it now says:
"Now On Trailer 530796 And On-Hand At BOSTON MA USA"
I don't know where in Boston the snow blower is, but it's probably a half hour away from my house. So it's possible it might get here on Monday.
However, instead of a delivery date, it now says
"An estimated delivery date is not available at this time. If it has been more than 3 business days since the last update, please contact homedepot.com"
Edit 6:
2022-01-31
"Now At BOSTON MA USA"
It's now 3pm and the status hasn't changed since this morning, so the odds of it being delivered today seem slim, but I'm optimistic about tomorrow.
Edit 7:
2022-02-03
No change. It's still in Boston, probably 30 minutes from my house. Since the tracking page says contact Home Depot if it hasn't moved for three days (it arrived in Boston five days ago), I gave them a call. The person I spoke to couldn't get any more information than what's on the tracking site. She tried contacting the carrier, but they didn't answer the phone. She filed an internal ticket (for ETAs) to see if someone further up the food chain can get an answer.
While talking with her, she confirmed my guess that the company with the large trucks will need to transfer it to a smaller, "last mile" truck to get it to my door. The website says it weighs 187 pounds, so it can't be tossed into the back of someone's pickup truck (if it could, I would have done that). It'll need a truck with a liftgate and a pallet jack. Once it finally arrives, my plan it to assemble it in the driveway and use its self-propelled mode to put it away.
BTW, this has turned into a log for myself to keep track of the progress. I'm not expecting the readers (Hi) to find this level of detail to be exciting.
Edit 7:
2022-02-11
The tracking page still says:
"2022-01-31 Now At BOSTON MA USA"
Home Depot was supposed to contact me by Monday about the snow blower. On Tuesday, I called Home Depot. The guy said it might be lost and put me on hold to try to call the shipper to see what was up, but after a half-hour on hold, the connection was dropped. I waited a bit and called back. This time I got a different person and they checked the information also wondered if it might be lost after she dug around a bit, I asked if it would be possible to cancel the order. She said yes, but it'll need to be reviewed by a couple people. However a few minutes after I called, I got an email from Home Depot saying "We have received your returned products". So I think this saga is done.
Checking the weather, it's going to be cold but no significant snowfall is predicted, so I'm going to gamble and skipping order another snow blower for this season. Sometime in the future, I'll do some more research and in October or so, I'll try again to buy a two-stage battery powered snow blower.
Edit 8:
The tracking site now says:
FEB 19 DELIVERY DATE: 02/19/2022
Saturday morning, Ann comes in from retrieving the newspaper from the driveway to report that there's a large green box in the driveway.
This morning at 6:37 am, my doorbell camera shows a Ryder rental truck with a liftgate shows up and the driver using a powered pallet jack delivered the lost snow blower to my driveway.
Once it arrived in Boston, it took another 21 days for it to get delivered.
That afternoon, I sent Home Depot a message asking what should I do with it since they already issued a refund for it.
Edit 9
2022/02/24
On Tuesday, I got a reply via FB saying that they've created a case number for me and they'll get in touch with me within 48 hours. I waited 48 hours and 30 minutes and then called Home Depot. After I explained the situation, she said that I'll be given a new case number for pick up and they'll be in touch for pickup with 24-48 hours. When I asked about the old ticket, I was told it was cancelled (without notifying me).
11" of snow is expected by tomorrow evening, bringing us to 55" so far this season.
Nope:
Instead of trying out the new snow blower on Saturday, Ann and I will be shoveling by hand. At the moment, 24" of snow is predicted.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 03:31 am (UTC)I'm a bit more surprised at Maybrook, NY. Until the early 70s that was a big yard where the New Haven RR interchanged with Erie-Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, New York Central etc. But there was a lot of room after the Poughkeepsie Bridge burned, so maybe another transload place? Reasons to go to Maybrook rather than straight into CT are internal to the carrier.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 03:46 am (UTC)Looking at Google Maps, YRC (the carrier) has a building that looks like it's meant for transferring goods from one truck to another. There are train tracks, but it looks like they're not being used to drop off freight there. Closer to I-84 are a bunch more freight companies in Montgomery.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 03:02 pm (UTC)Okay, okay, I know what it really does.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 03:31 pm (UTC)If you prefer, I've also heard them called "snow throwers".
Snow throwers
Date: 2022-01-29 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-21 09:25 pm (UTC)Also, if there's meant to be an image at the end, it's not loading for me. I'm just seeing a large space with what looks like a grey "Do Not Enter" shape in the middle of it.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-24 05:55 pm (UTC)I tried fixing the image. Let me know if it works. I can see it, but I'm the owner of the image.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-25 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-25 02:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-25 03:04 am (UTC)