Digital Assumptions

Published By Ryan on Jun.27.2008 at 8:00AM

I recently moved into a new home with my wife Jamie. Over the past month every spare moment has gone into fixing and upgrading our house.

Recently the repairs have slowed down. They haven't slowed down because the list of chores has dwindled, they've come to a crawl because of a lack of resources. Two repairs are haunting me: a missing grommet from a septic pump, and a broken shower door.

The fix for both projects is quite simple; I need a grommet for the pump, and a clip for the door. The problem is that these items don't seem to exist in the real world.

The Pump

Stagnant water stench was escaping out of the pump resevoir and I needed a plug to fill the hole from which it eminated. After measuring the opening (with nose plugged) I determined the size was 2 inches in diameter.

The next step was to find the appropriate plug. I hit Home Depot, Lowes, Rona, and even Canadian Tire. None of these store had what I needed.

I finally looked up Myers, the name on the pump basin. After searching the products online, I was no closer to solving my problem, so I called the 800 number listed. I was transferred to someone's voicemail

Shortly after I hung up, I was called back by a very helpful employee named Peter. He suggested that I email him some pictures of the pump and he'd try to identify it and determine what part I needed and where I could get it.

As he made this recommendation, he paused and asked whether I owned a digital camera to perform this task. I do, so he continued talking and gave me his email address.

This is the photo I sent to customer service using my digital camera and email, thanks to technology.

The Shower

The story here is basically the same. I tried all the same stores and could not find the part I needed, so I went online and found the manufacturer, Maax. The customer support agent on the other end of the line made the same suggestion to take photos and email them. When he paused to assess my digital life he asked whether I had the internet so I could email. He assumed I must have a digital camera.

Conclusion

I am currently waiting for the shower clip to arrive by mail from Maax. They sent it free of charge. The grommet is supposedly on order through a Myers reseller in the city. I'm not holding my breath; they didn't seem to keen at the counter to help me.

At the end of the day, I wonder how I might have completed this task 10 years ago. I know I could have done it, but I don't remember how. Now the process is to immediately go online to search google for the company listed on the product, do you own search through the catalogue for the item in question, and then read pdf manuals, etc. until you solve the problem. At worst, the email, phone, and physical address of the company is there for you to get direct assistance.

You don't need any skill as a raconteur to help customer support visualize the part, you simply need a digital camera and their email address. The whole process takes under an hour, and it seems nearly impossible to fail in your quest.

All this said, it's odd that doing this for 2 different items lead me to 2 different assumptions about what is standard. 1 man assumed I should have email; the other, a digital camera. They were both right, but what is the right assumption?