Sex sells and I've been screwed

It's probably not best to write a blog when you are totally frustrated. But then again, most people can get a good laugh at another's expense. And expense is what we're talking about here. Today's blog is about warrantees, protection and other marketing strategies that add money to the retailer's pocket and remove it from your own. Now, as a general rule, I NEVER buy extended warrantees. I worked in furniture too long. I know that extended warrantees rarely cover much more than the regular manufacturers warrantee and I also know that salespeople get perks for selling them. Therefore, they make it seem like a must have. I usually say, "Nah" I'll just replace it if it goes two years from now. Of course it will go after the warrantee runs out anyway regarless of the timeframe.

Here's where I make an exception. Electricity. Surge protection. This truly IS a must-have. See, if you live in Florida, chances are great that lightening will strike somewhere near your house eliminating every valuable piece of equipment that you own. For $4/month, my investment has paid off in dividends. Last year, they paid me the money it would have taken to replace my 4 year old computer. Of course, I ended up buying an additional surge protector, an additional laptop and tons of back up software just to make sure it didn't happen again. It did. Last Thursday, God threw a humongous fireball in the vicinity of my house and zappo. There goes the equipment again. Thankfully, Microware - run by technogeek extraordinaire Darius Joseph - was able to save my data and is getting me a new motherboard. I don't anticipate any screwing from Darius as I've done business with him before and know he is an upstanding guy.

The screwing comes from Sears. That's right. You recognize the name right? You probably also recognize the name Craftsman, right? Your dad had Craftsman screwdrivers and hammers. If one of those suckers broke, Sears replaced it with no questions asked and no paperwork to fill out. Guaranteed for life! Therefore, I bought a Craftsman Garage Door Opener. Fine piece of equipment. Works great. Until said fireball was dropped in the vicinity. So I call Sears confident that Craftsman would cover this. Uh, no. "You didn't buy the extended warrantee and it's now 2 years old. Manufacturer's warrantee is only a year." No problem, I thought. FPL, my trusted Surge protector will pay for it. So we set up a service call.

The cost of the service call is $65. Well, $65 is better than the $150 it would take to replace it. The sensors appear to be bad, so how expensive can it really be? Uh, really expensive. See, the sensors are $50 and the labor is $104. Um, I could have bought a new unit by now. BUT if I buy a new unit, I STILL have to pay the $65 for the service call. Oh well, FPL will pay for it anyway, right. Go ahead, put the sensors in. I'll take the hit and get reimbursed. OK, sensors are in. Uh, bad news. The motherboard is also fried. Couldn't tell that until the sensors were in. That'll be 80 additional bucks maam and the piece is on order. Could be two weeks...or less of course. If I don't get the motherboard, I STILL have to pay the $150 it cost to install the worthless sensors...AND a new unit. That would be $300 for a garage door opener that cost $150. For the bargain basement price of $244 I will someday have a garage door that opens and closes again with the touch of a button. Could be three or four days. Could be two weeks. Who knows?

Luckily, this story should still have a happy ending. Last time we submitted a claim to FPL, we received a check from Assurant Solutions just as they promised. Both pieces of equipment were damaged as a result of a power surge which is covered by $4 a month. Assuming I get reimbursed as last time, I may be singing the praises of FPL in a future blog. In the meantime, for all my Florida readers - GET THAT SURGE PROTECTION TODAY!!! Don't wait. A migraine headache that lasts for at least a couple of weeks is just a thunderstorm away.

And my other piece of advice, make sure you have a good computer geek on call 24/7. Darius of Microware is my hero. You can shop his prices and may find something cheaper. BUT there is a peace of mind cost that can't be compared. I know Darius will retrieve all of my data. I know he will get the motherboard, harddrive and whatever other computer intestines he removed back into that tower within the week. He was even going to lend me a laptop when mine froze the next day, but instead, he fixed the laptop. I probably would have had a nervous breakdown this week if it wasn't for him. He has the perfect personality for the job too. When he was retrieving my Quickbooks, he was so calm.
"What did you name your QB file?"
"uhhh, I don't know. Is that important"
"Let me keep looking for it"
"Is it this?"
"No"
"How about this one?"
"No"
This conversation went on for about 20 minutes. My stomach was in knots. He was calm as a cucumber. He never once said, "You idiot, why don't you know the name of your QB file?"

I know it's all on my external harddrive, but it would have been a pain to get it extracted. Instead, Darius patiently went through the process and found my file. There's something about a good computer geek. They just don't get riled up. They are masters at putting freaked out business owners at ease.

Today's lessons: Get warrantee protection against electricity surges; DON'T call Sears for customer service repairs; GET a good computer geek (like Darius at Microware 239-936-4535); Do invest in a bottle of valium in the event of a power outage. It also helps to have some computer geeks as friends in case Darius is busy and can't get back to you for 5 minutes. Steve Bedford was instrumental in talking me off the ledge and I thank him for that.