Speculation, Fact and Fiction

The washing machine died. Joy. And in doing so, the damn thing covered my allegedly white aikido kit in black splodges of gunk. So that was a fun session kneeling by a bath full of hot soapy water with a scrubbing brush. It's a good thing martial arts gi are nigh on indestructible.

I initially rang our local and very good repairer and supplier of electricals, who've mended sundry stuff for us in the past. Their diagnosis over the phone was that it was terminal, and as it happens, their diagnosis was identical to engineer-husband's when he got in from work and took a look. Didn't seem worth calling a repair man out to confirm it - though, please note, this particular local outfit don't charge any kind of call-out fee if they come to look at something and it turns out not be repairable or even just uneconomic to repair.

As it happens, I read a piece in the paper some time in the last fortnight about reliability of white goods etc, and so knew what machine I'd be wanting to buy to replace it.

So I went and looked online today and got a range of prices, which actually were not nearly so different when one checks to see what the cheapest might also charge for delivery, installation and disposal of the old one. Delivery times varied from sometime towards the end of next week and onwards.

So I rang the local electricals shop again. They'll deliver the specified machine tomorrow afternoon, install it, take away the dead one and for only a tenner more than the best online total price, where I'd be lucky to see a delivery within the week.

Applying the "money = time + convenience" equation, that's what we're doing.

Oh and they don't need my credit card number or anything. They'll invoice me and I can drop a cheque in the next time I'm passing the shop.

Now, all told, that's what I call customer service. Unsuprisingly, they have an excellent reputation locally and a very loyal customer base who recommend them readily.

So, if you're in the market for white goods within striking distance of Witney, Oxon, think Busby and Lucas!