This Blog Not Guaranteed

This Blog, as life, carries no guarantees.

Many things I buy, as you do too I'm sure, have guarantee's, warranties, certainties and other 'tees.

Earlier today, I asked M.D.B. to compose a list of items we purchased that failed while still under warranty.

It was longer than I thought it would be.

I asked her to compile this list as I was on the way out the door to replace our kitchen faucet. One of those ones that you buy for its looks, and buy it for life.

Yeah, that one.

Last year, a little piece in its pull out nozzle sprayer thingy broke. I took the nozzle sprayer thingy bit back to the store I bought it from to cash in on the lifetime guarantee and get a new part.

No dice.

I would have had to send the part to the manufacturer (rhymes with groan) for my replacement. I bought a replacement nozzle sprayer thingy that fit and carried on. This week it started to leak out of the top of the handle. I took the whole faucet with me to my local home improvement store, which just happened to be having a sale on a competitor's model. When I explained to the Helpful Associate what part I felt I needed, I got the same story as before, contact the manufacturer.

What am I supposed to do while I wait for a part? Use the garden hose? Can I get a loaner faucet? When I had warranty work done on my car I was given a loaner. I bought the competitors tap.

So, back to the list.

Most of our small appliances have broken under warranty and some have been repaired, some others we just bought new ones.

Microwaves (that's plural), Rice Cookers, Can Openers, multiple Coffee Makers (we now keep a spare) and the like.

One retailer we frequent offers an extended warranty on most small appliances for an extra charge. We usually bought it. We were glad we did when a high end Coffee Maker we purchased crapped out a few months after we bought it. It was replaced without question. When the second one quit while still within the 2 year period, it was not replaced. Only one replacement per unit. So when we bought the next brewer (not the same brand) we declined the extended warranty.

When a six month old T.V. quit a few years back, we contacted the manufacturer for warranty info. We were told that that model was exclusive to one retailer (rhymes with fall cart) and all we had to do was go back there and get a new one. When I wheeled the unit up to Customer Service I was met with the obvious question, "T.V. broke?" My reply:"Nope, I just hate to miss my shows." (I sent that one to Bill Engval) It seems they knew nothing of the warranty deal, and tried to get me to send it to the manufacturer. I told them that the manufacturer sent me to them. And the phone Olympics began. In the end, I got a new T.V., that night even. It just took a little work.

When our then 3 1/2 year old furnace broke a number of years ago, I sent a nastygram off to the manufacturer complaining about the repair cost on a basically new unit. They told me it had a 5 year warranty and I shouldn't have been charged. The repair guy told me to contact the installer, who told me to contact the retailer I bought it from, who told me to contact the manufacturer, who told me to contact the repair guy.

This is the song that never ends....

We never did get reimbursed. We also didn't replace it with that brand last year. We didn't want to get Rheem'd again.

Then there was the stove that quit 10 minutes after the warranty ran out.

And the washing machine that only lasted 7 years.

So my point is (at last, a point!) : what good is a warranty if it is next to impossible to collect on it?

I hope the toilet we bought with a lifetime warranty earlier this year never has to go in the shop.

If it does I hope we get a loaner.

DJW

Any warranties, written or implied, are at the sole discretion of the warrantor, and may be made null and void by actual use or misuse of the product described herein, and are not transferable to another owner, living or dead, and may not be used in your next life either, and any damages caused by the use, misuse or abuse of this product are the sole responsibility of the owner, not our fault, all yours, nyah nyah.
Void where prohibited by law.
And Quebec.