A long and rambling tale, so sit ye down by the fireside and pour yourself
a cup of cocoa. :-)
It were back in '05...or was it '06? Don't rightly remember but in them
days there was 12 months in a year and the weather was unreliable. Men
were men and smelt like it. That should help pin it down....
I was living on my own at the time - new job in another part of the
country - so I bought a washing machine and a tumble drier. Worked well
for me - come home after work, put on a load of washing and then dry it,
sorted for next day.
As time passed full domestic harmony was resumed and time was found to
hang the washing out and so the tumble drier was placed on "standby".
The tumble drier remained on "standby", more recently stored in the Mother
of All Sheds, and was finally scheduled to be sold.
To try and place a value on it I used Google.
This led me to https://safety.indesit.eu/.
Also much indignation in the press, for instance:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/con...dryer-scandal-
now-whirlpool-charging-99-for-faulty-replac/
Other newspapers are (thankfully) available.
On reading, you see the words "customers are being charged up to £99"
which didn't make me keen to pay for a replacement as it was being lined
up to be sold anyway.
I went through the process and registered for a repair. Got an email today
telling me the repair was scheduled for May 2017, or I could opt for a new
machine. Hmmm....new machine? As in brand spanking new?
The email does say
"A brand new tumble dryer
You can opt for a brand new tumble dryer for a contribution to the total
cost."
Pah! I thought, you don't catch me like that! Why would I pay....hang
on...how much????
The offer was for a TVFM70BGP 7kg vented drier. As in
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2874825.htm
Other retailers charge more.
So (subject to it really being a new machine and not a refurbished
machine) I seem to be getting a brand new tumble drier worth at least £190
for £19 plus my old one.
I could have just decided to scrap it because it was old, or sell it on
Gumtree (for example) for a notional sum.
However, Google started me on a trail which looks remarkably like the Good
Fairy waving her wand in unexpected directions.
Footnotes
(1) on thinking about it, an individual visit by an engineer to fix the
fault is likely to cost a fair bit, especially as this is no doubt sub-
contracted because of the sheer volume of the recall.
(2) The long delay is not good publicity (see press comments above) if you
are relying on your tumble dryer every day.
(3) The cost to Whirlpool of the replacement is nowhere near the retail
value.
Therefore supplying new lamps for old may well be inspired marketing
coupled with realistic cost control. At least you are preventing a sale to
a competitor.
(4) On the selling front: I am having a major clear out of years worth of
accumulated "stuff" and donating the proceeds to my chosen charity
Diabetes UK. Looks like a nice windfall for them.
However I am finding it difficult to provide a single source of a list of
all the small items I want to sell along with details of why I am selling
and a running total of money collected. Apart from an eBay store (with the
10% levy on all sales AIUI) is there any other way to list what is
effectively an on line garage sale in a vendor and purchaser friendly
manner?
Cheers
Dave R
--
Windows 8.1 on PCSpecialist box