The Ashimmy Blog: A study in what is wrong in America

Here is a perfect example of our throw away society, where shoddy quality is what we expect and it is easier to throw away than fix. Last Wednesday our 8 year old dryer gave up the ghost.The motor burnt out and it was done. Thursday morning Bonnie and I went to the Home Depot to by a new dryer. The had models from under 400 dollars all the way up to about 1200 dollars. Really just 4 manufacturers though. There is Maytag, who also makes Whirlpool and Ammana. There is GE and the Korean brands LG and Samsung. In actuality I think all of them are made in Korea anyway (what is made in America anymore?). Bonnie and I picked out a nice Ammana model for 700 dollars. It wasn’t the top of the line, but had enough bells, whistles and buttons to give us what we needed. The salesman in Home Depot was the nicest guy we ever dealt with at the store and we were very satisfied. Delivery was scheduled for Saturday and we were getting a 65 dollar rebate to cover the cost of delivery and installation.

Today the dryer was delivered and that is when the fun started. The delivery people took our old dryer out in about 2 minutes. Part of buying the dryer is they charge you for a new vent tube. They took out my old one and put the new one and attached to the dryer. The way they did it the dryer was half way out in the middle of the wash room. I told them that was not acceptable. The delivery guy said that is the best they could do. I could do it myself. Great I paid 65 dollars for delivery and install and they want me to do it myself. I cut the vent tube while the guy was there and re-attached. He watched and inspected it and said everything was good and left. We put clothes in the dryer and immediately started getting water on the floor. I called the delivery service and they said I cut the vent they are not responsible, call Matyag. I called Home Depot and they said they don’t hire the install people and could only call Maytag, They would call me right back.

Ten minutes later Home Depot called back. Great news, Maytag is sending out a new dryer to replace this one and it will be here Wednesday. I told the guy, I don’t need a new dryer, I think just the vent tube is no good. He said he can’t help with the vent tube, easier to just replace the whole dryer. Are you kidding me? Take the brand new machine, mark it defective and put a new one in, just for a 5 dollar vent tube and wait till Wed? What a bass akwards way of doing things. Maybe that is why the Maytag repair man was so bored. They never fix these things, they just put new ones in.

I hung up, took my old vent from the old dryer, hooked it up to the new dryer and everything works fine! No need for another new dryer and throw out this brand new perfectly good dryer. I called the Depot and told them forget it. The sales guy explained that it is easier for them to have a new dryer sent then it is to send back the install people and redo the vent. That is a real problem and sums up much of what is wrong about the way many companies do business today.