By Rita R. Robison
My week was busy with most of the time spent pruning my rhododendrons and azaleas.
My best consumer experience: Living to tell about severing the electric cord of my hedge trimmer
Two years ago, I pruned about half of my 40 rhododendrons severely. They were getting too tall. Last year, I didn’t prune as much, mostly just trimming the plants away from the fence and back of the house prior to painting.
It takes me more than an hour to prune a rhododendron. After spending 30 hours pruning this year, I decided I needed a new plan.
I tried my battery-operated hand trimmer. It worked well on some of the rhododendrons and azaleas. Due to that success, I decided to try a hedge trimmer. It performed well some of rhododendrons.
However, when I was standing on my ladder, the hedge trimmer suddenly stopped working. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Then I looked down and saw that I’d cut the extension cord into two pieces.
I feel fortunate that I wasn’t electrocuted. Either the hedge trimmer has a safety device in it or the ground fault circuit interrupter in my electrical system sensed the current flowing to ground and switched off the power before electrocution occurred.
My worst consumer experience: Trying to get a credit union transfer completed
Since I was extremely busy this week, I called to see that if I could transfer some funds from one of the credit unions I belong to to another one. I’d done it before to pay my credit card bill, so I thought I’d try it again.
One credit union referred me to the Credit Union Service Center. The clerk wanted me to give her the last five digits of my Social Security number. Used to only giving the last four numbers, I gave her what I thought were the last five numbers. She asked me the numbers over and over and typed them in the computer again and again. She said couldn’t figure out what the problem was.
Finally, I determined what was wrong. I was giving her the last six digits of my Social Security number, not the last five.
The clerk wasted 15 minutes of my time and caused me great frustration. I spoke with her supervisor and complained that credit unions are in the number business and the clerk should have been able to figure out what was wrong.
