That Dryer Guy was Made of Lies!

Remember when I was all pumped up about that guy who came to service my dryer and cleaned my vents for me and all that stuff?  Turns out, he wrecked my dryer!

I did a white load last Wednesday, and a third of the load was stained with at least one dark brown line, and not just Rob's underoos.  It has ruined four or five of Rob's work shirts, and now has gotten on to some of Leila's white turtle necks, and let me assure you, IT NEVER COMES OUT!  So Wednesday I had had it, and I called Sears and scheduled a service call.  When the guy came out in September, it was a "routine maintenance" call, not a "service call" (apparently there is a big difference) and since he wasn't supposed to clean the vents or "fix" the dryer, they don't care that my dryer is now ruining my clothes.  For $195, a service guy would come out, and up to $500 worth of parts would be included, and if they couldn't fix it, I would get a $500 voucher for a new machine.  This sounded too good to be true to me, but Rob said we should go for it. 

Oh! Also! The September dryer guy gave me his direct cell phone number and said he could save me some money by going around Sears.  I called that number and HE DOESN'T WORK THERE ANY MORE.  Shocking.

Anyway, the new guy came out and told me that the reason I'm getting these stains on my clothes is that there is a metal ring somewhere in the dryer and when there is too much moisture the metal ring rusts and the rust stains the clothes.  The moisture comes from the vents being clogged.  Since my vents were "cleaned," I have had to open the windows and take down the smoke detector in the back of the house because the whole place gets steamed up.  This was not happening before Mr. Dryer Ruining Guy worked his magic.  The new guy tells me that there's no way the old guy could have cleaned my vents properly without a crazy vacuum in a van, and that he probably just shoved the lint around and compacted it somewhere in the dryer vent and that is what is causing all my problems. 

AND THEN!  He tells us that this problem isn't covered by the $195 deal with Sears because the vent isn't officially part of the dryer. Of course it isn't!  Awesome!

This morning I have to find someone to come out and clean the vent properly, and I can't use my dryer until I do.  The guy scraped all rust off and cleaned the metal ring thing, but if I use the dryer again, the moisture will accumulate and the problem will start all over again.  By the time I'm done paying for all of this, I may as well have bought a new dryer without a metal ring. 

This is all by way of saying: My benevolent appliance Gods have abandoned me, those bastards.

So what's the lesson?  Is it a bad idea to "maintain" appliances and cars that are in reasonably good working order lest some A-hole eff them up?  My car is idling weirdly since I had that major service, too...

**Addendum: Can't get an appointment with the well yelped vent cleaners for TWO WEEKS!  I don't think I can make it that long, even if I turn my underpants inside out.  Its been a while since I've been to a laundromat, but luckily my book club book requires time an attention, so that's where I'll be if you need me!