Today’s question is:  Why don’t manufacturers of household appliances stick by their products and admit mistakes?

Background:  After having a lemon of a dishwasher for 6 years I really have a low tolerance for appliances that aren’t built to last, which brings me to today’s story.

My cousin (husband’s side) bought a new GE Monogram Professional Range five years ago.  This is GE’s top of the line model and she spent a boat load of money purchasing it.  It developed a problem, it made a noise, it clicked, she finally called to have service come to fix a sparking burner.  A sparking burner, that, for the record, sparked a minute at a time, for hours on end.  Clearly some sort of defect.  So they came, they tried to fix and instead they broke the entire unit.  The whole thing.  The gas line, the burners, the oven, the half oven, all of it.  So they left her a message about it…..here it is verbatim from the GE customer service rep:

 ”We were actually rejected simply because – and this is the way my supervisor explained it to me – the tech did damage the appliance during the repair. But he would not have been able to repair the appliance at all without attempting what he did attempt. He also said that often happens when you are attempting that particular repair. Had we not attempted that repair, we would not have been able to fix the unit at all. It does happen when they do attempt the repair.”

What they are saying is that it is not their fault that the unit is broken, or it’s not their fault they broke it.  I guess they are saying, every time they try to fix this problem they break the whole thing and they are sick of replacing them so now they have decided it’s not their fault.  However, they are ever so happy to offer a discount on a new appliance.  They broke a 5 year old, defective, $8500 professional range and they say it’s not their fault, but they are happy to offer a discount for a new one?  They must be kidding.  Is this all we can expect out of our appliances these days?  If that is the case there is no point in spending more than the minimum.

How about integrity?  Does GE have any?  How could they go in to fix the unit, that was running perfectly fine except for the sparking burner, and come out breaking the whole unit and think offering a discount on a new (did I mention they cost about $8500?) one is in any way a good deal.  Who spends that much money and thinks they would be spending another cent on a range for at least 15-20 years?

I give my cousin credit, she is standing her ground and trying ever so hard to make GE see that they are the ones at fault here.  Let’s hope it works.  In the mean time, my cousin has resorted to using her GE Monogram professional range as a stand for her indoor grill.  She is currently requesting suggestions for Christmas dinner on the little grill, please leave one in the comments.

I simply don’t understand why companies do not stick by their products these days.  Shame on them.

Today’s question is:  Why can’t people make change?

Background:  I spent a night at The Abbey Resort in Wisconsin the other day.  While I was there I needed some water so I went the small cafe to get myself a bottle.  The young woman rang up my purchase and told me the water would cost me $2.64, I handed her a $20.  The next thing I know she steps over to a drawer, pulls out a calculator, punches in a bunch of numbers, walks back over to the register and hands me $17.36.  I thanked her and left.

I can’t get the transaction out of my head.  Did she really need the calculator to figure out my change?  Do people not count up any more?

This certainly isn’t the first time I’ve run across someone that didn’t seem to be able to make change, but being the most recent it’s definitely the one that stuck in my head.

As a kid I worked in many a store, mainly my dad’s convenience store and you better believe I knew (still know) how to make change.  It’s really not that hard, seriously!