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  My blog was filled up. I'm too lazy to clean it out. So I started a new one. |
| My washer broke. Called the repair company. They tried to sell me a warranty for every appliance in the house for $50 a month: no charge for parts or labor for all household appliances. Lawn equipment and electronics not included. I did some quick math and figured at $600 a year, I would not get my money's worth. I don't have many appliances break down in a ten year period, and can replace them or repair them for less than the $6000 I would pay in 10 years. So he finally set an appointment for today. I had wet laundry stuck in the machine. Before hanging up, he wanted to set an appointment for a free carpet or cabinet estimate. Just not interested. Everything turns into additional sales. I'm told by friends never to order items from TV ads by calling in. You can't get off the phone, because they keep trying to sell related products or upgrading. One lady I know who really needed that back brace ended up saying,"Just forget everything", because they wouldn't finish the transaction. They had her credit card number, so she called the bank to be sure the charge would not go through since they never got her shipping address. These companies try so hard to get additional business that they risk losing the original sale. My personal feeling about extended warranties is that in some cases they are desirable. Price is the biggest factor. When I bought a child's I-Pad for my nephew on sale, the warranty was only $5 less than the I-Pad. But the warranty on the desktop makes sense because of power surges and children. I use a surge protector, but I lost one hard drive to lightning even with one. It made sense to get one on the printer; the price was low enough, and children can't keep their hands off of it. Still the retailers will hammer you on buying the warranties. Some clerks don't want to accept a "no". My washer was re-calibrated rather quickly. It's running smoothly for the time being. If it begins to fail again, buying a new one will be cheaper than getting the new parts that will be needed. No I don't want a warranty on all my household appliances, unless you can do it for, say, $10 a month. |
| Once my husband and I were driving home down a familiar route from an out of town trip. It was pouring rain, and we were arguing, so we missed our turn at the little country gas station. I finally began to realize nothing looked familiar. I pointed this out to him, but he was against turning back and retracing our steps. It finally stopped raining, and the sun came out. We ended up in some rural area in front of a nice brick home with a big yard, parked, examining a map. It was a Sunday evening, so everything was closed and no gas stations or convenience stores appeared. We kept driving straight ahead, not knowing if there would ever be a major road or even a road sign. After a long ride, fearing we would run out of gas, we came to a U.S. highway that parallels the Interstate. We turned north, hoping we weren't too far from home. We discovered we were about 60 miles South of our general area. But at last there was a gas station open. We had spend a couple of extra hours wondering around lost. The next day, I was still mad and told some engineers at work. They immediately interrupted me. "Oh, no. Never ask directions. Never go back." It turns out there is an unwritten code among men that you just don't do that. Ever. They were quite adamant. No one has to ask for directions any more. First there was GPS. Now you just ask your cell phone. I'm confident women invented that, or at least asked for it, because men had infuriated them so much. To avoid the stubbornness of men, we had to have satellites figure out where we are and get us where we're going. Younger women don't appreciate how much easier their lives are. . |
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