In this age of planned obsolescence and outrageous corporate greed, fixing a microwave that costs under 500 dollars is basically an exercise in futility. The parts cost more than buying another piece of junk from any of the cesspool that sell this crap.
I was a radar tech in the military and civilian trade and the stuff I see foisted on the public would garner jail time in most of the world but not here in the "land of the free".
At the moment, I have two microwaves wanting repair. I will not fix the Oster. It is pure junk, requiring an extended running of the internal fan to cool off the substandard wiring/cheap transformers that make up this waste of money. The engineer that signed off on this needs to go back demand a refund on the degree .
He or she should know this is junk and should never have made it past the design stage. Sadly, I am fairly certain greed dictated the final product. The only decent thing I've found inside any part of this was the glass used for the revolving tray and as I am not a glass maker in any sense, I have doubts about the integrity of it, judging by the rest of it. From what I've seen, Oster is a brand which should not exist. Blenders are junk. Mixers, same. And their microwaves...DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!
This is indicative of the many issues appliances today have and nothing short of jail for the boards/ceo's/etc. will stop it. Corporations have learned it is cheaper to knowingly allow people die than to correctly manufacture a product. Sad.

--
For full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/maintenance/oster-microwave-problems-424255-.htm

On 6/23/23 6:15 PM, sodamntiredofrichwhims wrote:
> In this age of planned obsolescence and outrageous corporate greed,
>
<SNIP>

I just love the liberal notion of "corporate greed" when referring to
the profit motive.

After all, that's what business is all about isn't it eh- making money?
From little Jimmy's lemonade stand to the neighborhood shoe repair shop
to Apple and General Motors. It's the basis of our capitalistic society.

And since you probably have a lot of common stock or mutual funds in
your 401k or retirement account, I guess you don't you want the stock
companies to do as well as possible so your stock prices and account
values rise....

Or do you want the compnies to make only a little bit of money and reap
only a tiny profit so the stock stays the same or goes down..or maybe
the libby's preference of them overpaying their employees and turning in
a loss for the year? Hellooooo bankruptcy ;-)

--
Sometimes you wonder...how do they fit all that stupid into one head?

On Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 7:58:39 AM UTC-4, Wade Garrett wrote:
> On 6/23/23 6:15 PM, sodamntiredofrichwhims wrote:
> > In this age of planned obsolescence and outrageous corporate greed,
> >
> <SNIP>
>
> I just love the liberal notion of "corporate greed" when referring to
> the profit motive.

Especially when it comes to microwave ovens. The typical countertop ones
start at ~$70 and a nice one is $150. That's less than they cost in the 70s and
that's not even adjusting for inflation. My Panasonic stopped working, I'm 99% that
it's a door switch connector or the door switch. I haven't opened it up yet, but
same happened before and that's what it was. It's only worth fixing because
last time it was just the connector had heated and failed, I was able to replace
it without any parts. If it needs a switch, I would buy that and DIY. But 99% of
consumers aren't DIY and if anything like this stops working, it's nuts to take in
anywhere for repair with labor and shop rates what they are. Consumers should
be celebrating that corporate greed has made this possible.

On 2023-06-24, Wade Garrett <wade@cooler.net> wrote:
> On 6/23/23 6:15 PM, sodamntiredofrichwhims wrote:
>> In this age of planned obsolescence and outrageous corporate greed,
>>
><SNIP>
>
> I just love the liberal notion of "corporate greed" when referring to
> the profit motive.

Nothing wrong with profits. I don't see why CEOs have to make 236 times
their workers when it was 44:1 in 1989 and 15:1 in 1965.

> After all, that's what business is all about isn't it eh- making money?

The Gospel According to Milton Friedman. Companies can make money
while doing good in the world. Costco made $27.572 billion in profits,
and their employees are paid well and receive a generous benefits
package.

> From little Jimmy's lemonade stand to the neighborhood shoe repair shop
> to Apple and General Motors. It's the basis of our capitalistic society.
>
> And since you probably have a lot of common stock or mutual funds in
> your 401k or retirement account, I guess you don't you want the stock
> companies to do as well as possible so your stock prices and account
> values rise....
>
> Or do you want the compnies to make only a little bit of money and reap
> only a tiny profit so the stock stays the same or goes down..or maybe
> the libby's preference of them overpaying their employees and turning in
> a loss for the year? Hellooooo bankruptcy ;-)

They don't need to overpay their employees. They could stop overpaying
their executives. At that level, money is a way of keeping score,
rather than compensation for value added to the company.

--
Cindy Hamilton

On 2023-06-24, trader_4 <trader4@optonline.net> wrote:
> On Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 7:58:39 AM UTC-4, Wade Garrett wrote:
>> On 6/23/23 6:15 PM, sodamntiredofrichwhims wrote:
>> > In this age of planned obsolescence and outrageous corporate greed,
>> >
>> <SNIP>
>>
>> I just love the liberal notion of "corporate greed" when referring to
>> the profit motive.
>
> Especially when it comes to microwave ovens. The typical countertop ones
> start at ~$70 and a nice one is $150. That's less than they cost in the 70s and

That's the case for everything with a computer in it. Offshoring
manufacturing has brought prices way down, relative to inflation.
Pity about all those American jobs.

--
Cindy Hamilton

On 6/23/2023 6:15 PM, sodamntiredofrichwhims wrote:
> In this age of planned obsolescence and outrageous corporate greed,
> fixing a microwave that costs under 500 dollars is basically an exercise
> in futility. The parts cost more than buying another piece of junk from
> any of the cesspool that sell this crap.
> I was a radar tech in the military and civilian trade and the stuff I
> see foisted on the public would garner jail time in most of the world
> but not here in the "land of the free".
> At the moment, I have two microwaves wanting repair. I will not fix the
> Oster. It is pure junk, requiring an extended running of the internal
> fan to cool off the substandard wiring/cheap transformers that make up
> this waste of money. The engineer that signed off on this needs to go
> back demand a refund on the degree .
> He or she should know this is junk and should never have made it past
> the design stage. Sadly, I am fairly certain greed dictated the final
> product. The only decent thing I've found inside any part of this was
> the glass used for the revolving tray and as I am not a glass maker in
> any sense, I have doubts about the integrity of it, judging by the rest
> of it. From what I've seen, Oster is a brand which should not exist.
> Blenders are junk. Mixers, same. And their microwaves...DO NOT WASTE
> YOUR MONEY!
> This is indicative of the many issues appliances today have and nothing
> short of jail for the boards/ceo's/etc. will stop it. Corporations have
> learned it is cheaper to knowingly allow people die than to correctly
> manufacture a product. Sad.
>

As far as their currently manufactured blenders, I can't comment because
my Oster blender from 1972 is still working as good as new, with all its
original parts, including the blade and the gasket. I use it at least
2x/wk.

Most electronic devices today are very well engineered - for planned
obsolescence. My old stereo receiver, which cost about $80, lasted 25
years without any repairs required. I got rid of it because I wanted
something with digital vs. analog tuning, higher output power, and an
amplifier section that accommodated digital audio inputs and had better
distortion ratings. I got my replacement 5 years ago, spending $600.
Two weeks after going out of its 3 yr warranty, it just "died" overnight
while turned off. Repair shop found several failed components,
including a fuse that was supposedly protecting that part of the
circuitry. Paid $125 for repair. One year later, dead again, this time
just that same fuse. Repairman replaced the fuse and refused to charge
me (said, "it's just a $0.75 fuse"). Eight months after that, once
again, dead again! This time repairman replaced the fuse with one rated
only slightly higher, bench stress-tested it for 24 hrs continuous
service at higher output than I ever drive it and said nothing seemed to
overheat or fail. He again refused to charge me. (So far, so good.)
Repairman said he rarely sees newer equipment these days that doesn't
have similar problems even when they are more expensive than my unit.
He said almost everything today, regardless of brand or price uses cheap
components from PRK that have no quality control. He said the best
stuff for reliability is the high end used equipment from about 15 years
ago that wasn't abused.

On Sat, 24 Jun 2023 13:12:53 GMT, Cindy Hamilton
<hamilton@invalid.com> wrote:

>On 2023-06-24, trader_4 <trader4@optonline.net> wrote:
>> On Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 7:58:39?AM UTC-4, Wade Garrett wrote:
>>> On 6/23/23 6:15 PM, sodamntiredofrichwhims wrote:
>>> > In this age of planned obsolescence and outrageous corporate greed,
>>> >
>>> <SNIP>
>>>
>>> I just love the liberal notion of "corporate greed" when referring to
>>> the profit motive.
>>
>> Especially when it comes to microwave ovens. The typical countertop ones
>> start at ~$70 and a nice one is $150. That's less than they cost in the 70s and
>
>That's the case for everything with a computer in it. Offshoring
>manufacturing has brought prices way down, relative to inflation.
>Pity about all those American jobs.

This recent news item warmed my cockles :

https://stirlingmarathon.com/news/news.php

" Made in Canada: Elora firm looks to bring overseas appliance
manufacturing back home.
Stirling Marathon hopes to begin refrigerator production in new
60,000-square-foot addition this fall. "

I wanted to immediately put in my order for a clone of the
40 - 50 year old appliances that lasted 25 - 30 years.
- no computers please !

... wishful thinking.
John T.

On Sat, 24 Jun 2023 13:11:23 GMT, Cindy Hamilton
<hamilton@invalid.com> wrote:

>On 2023-06-24, Wade Garrett <wade@cooler.net> wrote:
>> On 6/23/23 6:15 PM, sodamntiredofrichwhims wrote:
>>> In this age of planned obsolescence and outrageous corporate greed,
>>>
>><SNIP>
>>
>> I just love the liberal notion of "corporate greed" when referring to
>> the profit motive.
>
>Nothing wrong with profits. I don't see why CEOs have to make 236 times
>their workers when it was 44:1 in 1989 and 15:1 in 1965.
>
>

This article is almost 10 years old - things might have changed -

" Through his company's 35-year history, Leonard Lee, founder of Lee
Valley Tools, has ensured that the highest-paid worker never makes
more than 10 times the wage of the lowest-paid worker. By contrast,
that ratio averaged 122-to-one last year at Canada's biggest
companies, up from 84-to-one a decade earlier, "

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/how-one-company-levels-the-pay-slope-of-executives-and-workers/article15472738/

Their annual profit-sharing is not based on salary -
it's years of service - a 20 year janitor gets the same
as a 20 year manager.

John T.

In alt.home.repair, on Sat, 24 Jun 2023 10:18:41 -0400, Retirednoguilt
<HapilyRetired@fakeaddress.com> wrote:

>On 6/23/2023 6:15 PM, sodamntiredofrichwhims wrote:
>> In this age of planned obsolescence and outrageous corporate greed,
>> fixing a microwave that costs under 500 dollars is basically an exercise
>> in futility. The parts cost more than buying another piece of junk from
>> any of the cesspool that sell this crap.
>> I was a radar tech in the military and civilian trade and the stuff I
>> see foisted on the public would garner jail time in most of the world
>> but not here in the "land of the free".
>> At the moment, I have two microwaves wanting repair. I will not fix the
>> Oster. It is pure junk, requiring an extended running of the internal
>> fan to cool off the substandard wiring/cheap transformers that make up
>> this waste of money. The engineer that signed off on this needs to go
>> back demand a refund on the degree .
>> He or she should know this is junk and should never have made it past
>> the design stage. Sadly, I am fairly certain greed dictated the final
>> product. The only decent thing I've found inside any part of this was
>> the glass used for the revolving tray and as I am not a glass maker in
>> any sense, I have doubts about the integrity of it, judging by the rest
>> of it. From what I've seen, Oster is a brand which should not exist.
>> Blenders are junk. Mixers, same. And their microwaves...DO NOT WASTE
>> YOUR MONEY!
>> This is indicative of the many issues appliances today have and nothing
>> short of jail for the boards/ceo's/etc. will stop it. Corporations have
>> learned it is cheaper to knowingly allow people die than to correctly
>> manufacture a product. Sad.
>>
>
>As far as their currently manufactured blenders, I can't comment because
>my Oster blender from 1972 is still working as good as new, with all its
>original parts, including the blade and the gasket. I use it at least
>2x/wk.
>
>Most electronic devices today are very well engineered - for planned
>obsolescence. My old stereo receiver, which cost about $80, lasted 25
>years without any repairs required. I got rid of it because I wanted
>something with digital vs. analog tuning, higher output power, and an
>amplifier section that accommodated digital audio inputs and had better
>distortion ratings. I got my replacement 5 years ago, spending $600.
>Two weeks after going out of its 3 yr warranty, it just "died" overnight
>while turned off. Repair shop found several failed components,
>including a fuse that was supposedly protecting that part of the
>circuitry. Paid $125 for repair. One year later, dead again, this time
>just that same fuse. Repairman replaced the fuse and refused to charge
>me (said, "it's just a $0.75 fuse"). Eight months after that, once
>again, dead again! This time repairman replaced the fuse with one rated
>only slightly higher, bench stress-tested it for 24 hrs continuous
>service at higher output than I ever drive it and said nothing seemed to
>overheat or fail. He again refused to charge me. (So far, so good.)
>Repairman said he rarely sees newer equipment these days that doesn't
>have similar problems even when they are more expensive than my unit.
>He said almost everything today, regardless of brand or price uses cheap
>components from PRK that have no quality control. He said the best
>stuff for reliability is the high end used equipment from about 15 years
>ago that wasn't abused.

A sad tale, with a noble repairman and perhaps a happy ending. But what
brand is the receiver we're talking about?

With what you've stated, you're either "well-to-do", blindly stupid or an ignorant troll or quite possibly, all of the above.
Liberal notion?
Clearly your blinders have you following along like some paid shill and missing the real picture. Shrinkflation as a detriment to ordinary people aside, the record profits posted by the few businesses which happen to own all of the known subsidiaries we must suffer today (with one being Blackrock with 59 TRILLION in managed assets) and which coincidentally have basically the same board members in different positions at the various subsidiaries, have come right out and stated their motives are greed driven. "Inflation has been kind of our friend" and it goes down from there. There's used to be a sort of standard in all industry of a "fair product for a fair price". I don't know if other countries are enduring the same lack of ethics and personal honor as this country is currently being undermined with but that treatise went by the wayside about 50 years ago. Who, one might ask? Let's start with Eisenhower (find out why he gave the go-ahead to ramp up the war in Viet Nam and for the record, I'm a Viet Vet) and you'll see how it gets progressively worse until it gets to Reagan. Then it takes a giant leap downward...and no, it didn't trickle down.
So, do you only do as you're told to and ignore the slap in the face every time you purchase something, be it overpriced petrol, shoddy appliances or perhaps even chemically-patented basic groceries(you know, where simple farmers are sued because their genetically-modified crud was growing wild on an unsanctioned farm)? Or do you choose to go along with what you're told because you lack original thought and do not have sufficient fortitude to be on your own? Doesn't matter as you prove what you're worth.
I'm going with "Troll" especially with the last truly ignorant statement about "make only a little bit of money...", "or maybe the libby's preference of overpaying their employees..." A ststement so stupid and narrow-minded which means it surely points to troll.
If this isn't a troll, I really feel sorry for those who must cope with you on a regular basis.

--
For full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/maintenance/oster-microwave-problems-424255-.htm

On 6/24/2023 1:59 PM, micky wrote:
> In alt.home.repair, on Sat, 24 Jun 2023 10:18:41 -0400, Retirednoguilt
> <HapilyRetired@fakeaddress.com> wrote:
>
>> On 6/23/2023 6:15 PM, sodamntiredofrichwhims wrote:
>>> In this age of planned obsolescence and outrageous corporate greed,
>>> fixing a microwave that costs under 500 dollars is basically an exercise
>>> in futility. The parts cost more than buying another piece of junk from
>>> any of the cesspool that sell this crap.
>>> I was a radar tech in the military and civilian trade and the stuff I
>>> see foisted on the public would garner jail time in most of the world
>>> but not here in the "land of the free".
>>> At the moment, I have two microwaves wanting repair. I will not fix the
>>> Oster. It is pure junk, requiring an extended running of the internal
>>> fan to cool off the substandard wiring/cheap transformers that make up
>>> this waste of money. The engineer that signed off on this needs to go
>>> back demand a refund on the degree .
>>> He or she should know this is junk and should never have made it past
>>> the design stage. Sadly, I am fairly certain greed dictated the final
>>> product. The only decent thing I've found inside any part of this was
>>> the glass used for the revolving tray and as I am not a glass maker in
>>> any sense, I have doubts about the integrity of it, judging by the rest
>>> of it. From what I've seen, Oster is a brand which should not exist.
>>> Blenders are junk. Mixers, same. And their microwaves...DO NOT WASTE
>>> YOUR MONEY!
>>> This is indicative of the many issues appliances today have and nothing
>>> short of jail for the boards/ceo's/etc. will stop it. Corporations have
>>> learned it is cheaper to knowingly allow people die than to correctly
>>> manufacture a product. Sad.
>>>
>>
>> As far as their currently manufactured blenders, I can't comment because
>> my Oster blender from 1972 is still working as good as new, with all its
>> original parts, including the blade and the gasket. I use it at least
>> 2x/wk.
>>
>> Most electronic devices today are very well engineered - for planned
>> obsolescence. My old stereo receiver, which cost about $80, lasted 25
>> years without any repairs required. I got rid of it because I wanted
>> something with digital vs. analog tuning, higher output power, and an
>> amplifier section that accommodated digital audio inputs and had better
>> distortion ratings. I got my replacement 5 years ago, spending $600.
>> Two weeks after going out of its 3 yr warranty, it just "died" overnight
>> while turned off. Repair shop found several failed components,
>> including a fuse that was supposedly protecting that part of the
>> circuitry. Paid $125 for repair. One year later, dead again, this time
>> just that same fuse. Repairman replaced the fuse and refused to charge
>> me (said, "it's just a $0.75 fuse"). Eight months after that, once
>> again, dead again! This time repairman replaced the fuse with one rated
>> only slightly higher, bench stress-tested it for 24 hrs continuous
>> service at higher output than I ever drive it and said nothing seemed to
>> overheat or fail. He again refused to charge me. (So far, so good.)
>> Repairman said he rarely sees newer equipment these days that doesn't
>> have similar problems even when they are more expensive than my unit.
>> He said almost everything today, regardless of brand or price uses cheap
>> components from PRK that have no quality control. He said the best
>> stuff for reliability is the high end used equipment from about 15 years
>> ago that wasn't abused.
>
> A sad tale, with a noble repairman and perhaps a happy ending. But what
> brand is the receiver we're talking about?

The old one was a Kenwood. The new one is Cambridge Audio. And yes,
the repairman is a gem! I tried to convince him to let me pay him for
his time, even if the fuse was the only part that needed replacement
twice after the initial repair. He strenuously refused.

In <u79tgo$hrb3$1@dont-email.me> Retirednoguilt <HapilyRetired@fakeaddress.com> writes:

[snip]

>> A sad tale, with a noble repairman and perhaps a happy ending. But what
>> brand is the receiver we're talking about?

>The old one was a Kenwood. The new one is Cambridge Audio. And yes,
>the repairman is a gem! I tried to convince him to let me pay him for
>his time, even if the fuse was the only part that needed replacement
>twice after the initial repair. He strenuously refused.

My usual response in these cases is to ask the service rep,
or anyone else who's done a favour... if they have a charity
they like I could contribute to. Or if they're having trouble
coming up with one... I suggest the local food bank.

(If it's a techie I'll mention the EFF...)

--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 25 Jun 2023 13:28:54 -0400, Retirednoguilt
<HapilyRetired@fakeaddress.com> wrote:

>On 6/24/2023 1:59 PM, micky wrote:
>> In alt.home.repair, on Sat, 24 Jun 2023 10:18:41 -0400, Retirednoguilt
>> <HapilyRetired@fakeaddress.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 6/23/2023 6:15 PM, sodamntiredofrichwhims wrote:
>>>> In this age of planned obsolescence and outrageous corporate greed,
>>>> fixing a microwave that costs under 500 dollars is basically an exercise
>>>> in futility. The parts cost more than buying another piece of junk from
>>>> any of the cesspool that sell this crap.
>>>> I was a radar tech in the military and civilian trade and the stuff I
>>>> see foisted on the public would garner jail time in most of the world
>>>> but not here in the "land of the free".
>>>> At the moment, I have two microwaves wanting repair. I will not fix the
>>>> Oster. It is pure junk, requiring an extended running of the internal
>>>> fan to cool off the substandard wiring/cheap transformers that make up
>>>> this waste of money. The engineer that signed off on this needs to go
>>>> back demand a refund on the degree .
>>>> He or she should know this is junk and should never have made it past
>>>> the design stage. Sadly, I am fairly certain greed dictated the final
>>>> product. The only decent thing I've found inside any part of this was
>>>> the glass used for the revolving tray and as I am not a glass maker in
>>>> any sense, I have doubts about the integrity of it, judging by the rest
>>>> of it. From what I've seen, Oster is a brand which should not exist.
>>>> Blenders are junk. Mixers, same. And their microwaves...DO NOT WASTE
>>>> YOUR MONEY!
>>>> This is indicative of the many issues appliances today have and nothing
>>>> short of jail for the boards/ceo's/etc. will stop it. Corporations have
>>>> learned it is cheaper to knowingly allow people die than to correctly
>>>> manufacture a product. Sad.
>>>>
>>>
>>> As far as their currently manufactured blenders, I can't comment because
>>> my Oster blender from 1972 is still working as good as new, with all its
>>> original parts, including the blade and the gasket. I use it at least
>>> 2x/wk.
>>>
>>> Most electronic devices today are very well engineered - for planned
>>> obsolescence. My old stereo receiver, which cost about $80, lasted 25
>>> years without any repairs required. I got rid of it because I wanted
>>> something with digital vs. analog tuning, higher output power, and an
>>> amplifier section that accommodated digital audio inputs and had better
>>> distortion ratings. I got my replacement 5 years ago, spending $600.
>>> Two weeks after going out of its 3 yr warranty, it just "died" overnight
>>> while turned off. Repair shop found several failed components,
>>> including a fuse that was supposedly protecting that part of the
>>> circuitry. Paid $125 for repair. One year later, dead again, this time
>>> just that same fuse. Repairman replaced the fuse and refused to charge
>>> me (said, "it's just a $0.75 fuse"). Eight months after that, once
>>> again, dead again! This time repairman replaced the fuse with one rated
>>> only slightly higher, bench stress-tested it for 24 hrs continuous
>>> service at higher output than I ever drive it and said nothing seemed to
>>> overheat or fail. He again refused to charge me. (So far, so good.)
>>> Repairman said he rarely sees newer equipment these days that doesn't
>>> have similar problems even when they are more expensive than my unit.
>>> He said almost everything today, regardless of brand or price uses cheap
>>> components from PRK that have no quality control. He said the best
>>> stuff for reliability is the high end used equipment from about 15 years
>>> ago that wasn't abused.
>>
>> A sad tale, with a noble repairman and perhaps a happy ending. But what
>> brand is the receiver we're talking about?
>
>The old one was a Kenwood.

I'm 90% sure I had a Kenwood VCR, a top of the line in 1986 or so, with
lots of good features, like the ability to record for 2:27 if you chose.

Eventually it broke, and a guy told me it was the motor that drove the
big chrome wheel (name?). So it gave a picture but with distortion, from
wobble I guess. And he was going to continue looking for one that fit
in his big box of motors (I guess removed from machines he scrapped) But
then he started making racist and antisemitic remarks and I lost
interest. I had a long term plan to find a motor on my own.

I'm sure I took the VCR with me and put it in the trunk of my car, 20+
years ago. I'm sure when I got rid of the car, it wasn't in the trunk.
Maybe it's in my house, but I have no idea where. When I move, I'm
going to find all these things, and I'll only have 2 weeks or so to fix
them or throw them out.

Mine was older than yours, or was made by a different subcontractor.

>The new one is Cambridge Audio.

Good to know both the bad and good brands.

And yes,
>the repairman is a gem! I tried to convince him to let me pay him for
>his time, even if the fuse was the only part that needed replacement
>twice after the initial repair. He strenuously refused.

Impressive.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 25 Jun 2023 17:39:02 -0000 (UTC), danny
burstein <dannyb@panix.com> wrote:

>In <u79tgo$hrb3$1@dont-email.me> Retirednoguilt <HapilyRetired@fakeaddress.com> writes:
>
>[snip]
>
>>> A sad tale, with a noble repairman and perhaps a happy ending. But what
>>> brand is the receiver we're talking about?
>
>>The old one was a Kenwood. The new one is Cambridge Audio. And yes,
>>the repairman is a gem! I tried to convince him to let me pay him for
>>his time, even if the fuse was the only part that needed replacement
>>twice after the initial repair. He strenuously refused.
>
>My usual response in these cases is to ask the service rep,
>or anyone else who's done a favour... if they have a charity
>they like I could contribute to. Or if they're having trouble
>coming up with one... I suggest the local food bank.
>
>(If it's a techie I'll mention the EFF...)

Good idea. I've done that but didn't think about it here.

When my wallet and credit/debit cards were stolen from my rentacar, a
man with whom I had the most distant relationship lent me about $200, so
I could buy food and gas etc. until I left. He didn't ask my last name
or email address or phone number. I thought I'd be able to pay him back
when I got back to my laptop computer, which had most of my passwords in
it but for some reason the Paypal password was not there (or it didn't
work because I wasn't using my US phone number, or something like that),
so I wrote him and said I needed 2 more weeks. When I got back to the
US I sent him the money right away and about $35 to a charity I know he
liked, and I told him about that. (The problem with that is that the
charity writes you every week until you die. But I got around that
somehow, maybe by saying Don't write me anymore.)

EFF... Ethiopian Football Federation? A very good group.

On 6/25/2023 10:39 AM, danny burstein wrote:
> In <u79tgo$hrb3$1@dont-email.me> Retirednoguilt <HapilyRetired@fakeaddress.com> writes:
>
> [snip]
>
>>> A sad tale, with a noble repairman and perhaps a happy ending. But what
>>> brand is the receiver we're talking about?
>
>> The old one was a Kenwood. The new one is Cambridge Audio. And yes,
>> the repairman is a gem! I tried to convince him to let me pay him for
>> his time, even if the fuse was the only part that needed replacement
>> twice after the initial repair. He strenuously refused.
>
> My usual response in these cases is to ask the service rep,
> or anyone else who's done a favour... if they have a charity
> they like I could contribute to. Or if they're having trouble
> coming up with one... I suggest the local food bank.
>
> (If it's a techie I'll mention the EFF...)
>
>

If it was a warranty call, the repair guy could be already paid by the
manufacturer.

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 25 Jun 2023 13:05:43 -0700, Bob F
<bobnospam@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 6/25/2023 10:39 AM, danny burstein wrote:
>> In <u79tgo$hrb3$1@dont-email.me> Retirednoguilt <HapilyRetired@fakeaddress.com> writes:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>>> A sad tale, with a noble repairman and perhaps a happy ending. But what
>>>> brand is the receiver we're talking about?
>>
>>> The old one was a Kenwood. The new one is Cambridge Audio. And yes,
>>> the repairman is a gem! I tried to convince him to let me pay him for
>>> his time, even if the fuse was the only part that needed replacement
>>> twice after the initial repair. He strenuously refused.
>>
>> My usual response in these cases is to ask the service rep,
>> or anyone else who's done a favour... if they have a charity
>> they like I could contribute to. Or if they're having trouble
>> coming up with one... I suggest the local food bank.
>>
>> (If it's a techie I'll mention the EFF...)
>>
>>
>
>If it was a warranty call, the repair guy could be already paid by the
>manufacturer.

I didn't get a haircut for about a year at the start of Covid. (I've
been going every 6 months when there is no epidemic, because I want to
always look nice.) When I finally went, I tried to pay the barber for 3
haircuts, tried hard, and he wouldn't take it. Later my friend and I
came up with the idea that he had gotten some of that covid relief small
business money so he didn't want to be paid twice, but still later, the
web address listing everyone who got paid showed up, and I looked
thoroughly and he wasn't there. (Father and son barbershop.)

On 6/25/2023 4:05 PM, Bob F wrote:
> On 6/25/2023 10:39 AM, danny burstein wrote:
>> In <u79tgo$hrb3$1@dont-email.me> Retirednoguilt
>> <HapilyRetired@fakeaddress.com> writes:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>>> A sad tale, with a noble repairman and perhaps a happy ending.  But
>>>> what
>>>> brand is the receiver we're talking about?
>>
>>> The old one was a Kenwood.  The new one is Cambridge Audio.  And yes,
>>> the repairman is a gem!  I tried to convince him to let me pay him for
>>> his time, even if the fuse was the only part that needed replacement
>>> twice after the initial repair.  He strenuously refused.
>>
>> My usual response in these cases is to ask the service rep,
>> or anyone else who's done a favour... if they have a charity
>> they like I could contribute to.  Or if they're having trouble
>> coming up with one... I suggest the local food bank.
>>
>> (If it's a techie I'll mention the EFF...)
>>
>>
>
> If it was a warranty call, the repair guy could be already paid by the
> manufacturer.
>
First time failure was 2 weeks after warranty expired. Subsequent
failures were 1 year and more out of warranty. Getting warranty service
would have cost me almost as much as my initial warranty as there's only
1 warranty repair facility in the entire U.S. and I would have had to
ship and insure the 25 lb receiver there or drive a full day round trip
plus toll roads both ways to drive there. Plus, believe it or not,
there was a "service and handling" charge of about $75!

Lesson learned. In the future, I'll carefully research the locations of
warranty repair shops and the details of getting warranty service for
any brand of home electronics I consider buying. Even though my
receiver was out of warranty at time of 1st failure, it could have
happened while still under warranty.