While on the topic of beverage carts- for East F/As, be on the lookout for a half-size Bucher cart that keeps reappearing, primarily in the forward galley of the 190. I had the number but lost it. This cart is completely bowed in on the inside to a point where you can only fit three drawers in it, stacked on top of each other rather than slotted in, like what we are hearing about these West carts. In other words, to get to the bottom dawer, I have to lift the other two drawers out and put them on the floor to access it. The outside panel is bent too so it is a two-man job to get it back into it's space. The latch you use to open and close the door is sliced in half, it's like a knife- not that it is possible to close the door, or even open it all the way (it won't fold back). There are also sharp edges inside that could easily slice a flight attendants hands. This cart appears to have been either run over by a fuel truck or inadvertantly rolled onto the Septa train track. This piece of equiptment is completely unnacceptable.
Now of course EMBFA did not go with this cart. I had the caterers swap it out and told them it is not be boarded on another airplane. Low and behold, the next day two seperate friends of mine have the same cart. One refused it in Philly and it was replaced. Later in the trip, it reappears on my bird. I tell the catering lady no way, who tells me there are no more carts of this kind. Our major hub, Philly, supposedly does not have another half-size Bucher cart that we use on the E190, A319/20/21, B757, and A330. Yeah right. I tell her to find one and she responds by getting all West Philly in my face and slamming carts around the galley. I tell her she can act as ignorant as she wants, I'll catch up on my phone calls while I wait for her to do her job and get a workable cart, and sit down in FC. She continues to throw around bags of granola bars and tell the non-English-speaking cleaners what a b*itch I am.
The captain gets on the phone and calls the tower, who says of course they have other carts, she needs to drive out and get one, it will take two minutes. By now a buddy of hers she has radio'd has shown up to yell at me too that I must be deaf because they keep telling me they don't have another cart. I show him deaf, and blind too, because I'm not participating in this silliness. Finally I get off the plane and tell the agent that either the cart goes or I go, or I'll go with the cart but not perform a service, as long as an inflight supervisor is present during boarding to explain the situation to my first class passengers.
A new cart was boarded when I returned.
Please be on the lookout for this cart or any other piece of equiptment that is unsafe, and do not work with it. There's nothing casual about safety, and low cost has no bearing on it.
