Beauty Has Its Price

When you use a styling tool on a near daily basis you expect it to work properly. Especially if you keep the tool clean and lint free. The last thing you expect is for it to catch on fire while it's in your hands! While blow drying my hair the other day my hair dryer's cord started sparking. I was in the full-on head upside down stance, trying to add just a tiny bit of body to my lifeless hair, when I heard a popping sound. I turned the dryer off, lifted my head, and saw sparks shooting out of the cord of my dryer. Yikes! I held the dryer in disbelief when a flame shot out and hit my wrist. Immediately I dropped the thing as my brain processed what was happening. My blow dyer just caught on fire and burned me. Wow! Thankfully, it died withing a few seconds of landing on the floor.

Violet heard the dryer drop and she came running to see if everything was okay. What she saw put her in a tailspin. Fire freaks my little girl out just as much as it does her mother. After answering all of Violet's questions and reassuring her that I was okay she finally settled down some. That is until she noticed my burn. Poor thing went into full-on mothering mode and made sure that I was okay. Man, I love my kid!!!

As if getting burned wasn't enough of a downer, I had to go out and buy a new blow dryer that night. As everyone who is trying to stretch each and every penny as far as it can possibly go knows, this was not something I was happy about having to replace. Especially once I saw how much blow dryers can cost now days. Ughh. So, I determined that I was going to call the company to see about getting reimbursed for all of this.

Just a side note: I always take care of the things I use. My blow dryer didn't have any lint in the unit. The cord is always loosely wrapped and then dropped in it's little basket where it waits until it needs to be used again. No built up residues from hairspray or anything like that. From all outward appearances, there was nothing wrong with this blow dryer.

I spoke with the company that made the blow dryer earlier in the day. They were on top of things. Even though my blow dryer is several years old it didn't matter to the lady who I was dealing with. Here is the most part of our conversation...

Customer Service Lady: "I heard you had an incident with one of our dyers? Are you okay?"
ME: "Yes, for the most part. I have a tiny burn mark on the underside of my wrist that is a little bigger than a cigarette sized burn. I was frightened more than anything."
Customer Service Lady: "I bet. So, Mrs. Wiltshire, what can I do for you?"
ME: "Ummm, I'd really appreciate you reimbursing me for the cost of my new dryer."
Customer Service Lady: "Yes mam! We can certainly do that for you. You will be getting a postage paid envelope in the mail next week. Just put your receipt in that and mail it back to us. You'll get a check the following week."
ME: "Wow! Thank you!"
Customer Service Lady: "Thank you for letting us make this right for you. I hope you have a good day now!"

Now, I'm no fool. I know they are doing everything to cover their tails so that I won't sue them. Which, really, I have no desire to do. In my opinion, we live in a nation that is too quick to sue. I just want the situation to be taken care of and then call things even. But, I must say that their customer service was amazing.

My new blow dryer is the exact version of the one pictured here with the only difference being the color. Mine is a bright blue. When I pulled the blow dryer out of the bag Violet's response was, "Oooohhh, it's so pretty!" She is such a girly girl.