The washer saga continues. The service tech showed up Thursday as scheduled. Yep. Needs parts. Nope. Parts are not on the truck. Parts are due to arrive September 5. So I called Whirlpool and expressed my wish to have the defective washer replaced immediately. “We can’t do that. Your warranty covers repair, not replacement. All I can do for you is extend your manufacturer’s warranty for a year.”
“But I already bought an extended warranty. Your extension will overlap it, and I don’t gain anything.”
“That’s right. As you bought an extended warranty, there’s nothing we can do for you.”
Bzzzt. Wrong answer.
I called the dealer and told him to take his new washer back, reinstall the old one that his crew couldn’t figure out how to get up the stairs anyway, give me a full refund for the transaction, and let me worry about fixing the old one. Then I called the credit card company to ensure that the entire transaction would be credited back to my account as if I had never walked into the appliance store.
This morning, I went to the local appliance parts store, bought a valve, came home, removed a few screws, disconnected the old valve, installed the new valve, replaced the screws, and I’m good to go as soon as the delivery goons show up and do their thing. The appliance service guy who recommended the appliance store in question, which shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, doesn’t get my money this time. And when another appliance breaks, as surely it will, he won’t get my business. The appliance store is stuck with what is now a scratch-and-dent lemon of washer. And I’m out thirty-nine bucks for a part instead of nine hundred for a high-tech, computerized, extended-warranteed piece of junk. Whatever I’d have allegedly saved in future energy costs to operate the new washer doesn’t come close to the energy cost of manufacturing a new one and recycling an old one. So I did myself and the environment a favor.
That’ll teach ’em.
Okay, time to get back to earning a living.
3 comments:
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Bravo, Dick!
The denouement: Curly and Moe just left a few minutes ago after removing the new machine and supposedly hooking the old one up.
Except they switched the hot and cold water hoses. So I had to redo that, too, after they left.
But my repair worked and the washer is running fine. They don't build 'em like they used to.
You are right, they don't build them like the used to--appliances, that is (and occasionally delivery yahoos, as well).
Reading this made me smile and did my heart good.
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