Skip to main content

They just don't make things like they used to.

About 14 months ago, as I blogged about, my neighborhood had yet another power surge, which resulted in my trusty, but not exactly spry, 26" TV (among many other things) meeting its demise. I was willing to go back to our even older 19" TV, which we had kept in our storage shed, but Brian insisted it was time for a new TV, hoping that Duquesne Light would help cover the cost.

We found one we liked, a Westinghouse 32" LED HDTV, and it worked just fine until two nights ago, when all of a sudden the screen turned green and everything froze. I tried turning the TV off and on, and I unplugged it, but the TV would not come back on. Brian tested the power supply, which was fine. We tested it again the next day, but still no life.

Of course, our TV is no longer under warranty, and apparently not a lot of companies fix Westinghouse TVs. Right now, I am waiting for two companies to call me back (does no one answer the phone anymore?!); one may not even service that brand. I called Westinghouse directly to let someone know how dismayed I am that my young TV stopped working. I told the customer service rep that I retrieved our over 15-year-old 19" TV from our storage shed, and that baby, despite being exposed to cold temps over the winter, still works like a champ. Yet this 14-month-old TV is dead.

The funny (not funny "ha-ha") thing is, just a few days ago, I was thinking how fortunate we have been that we have not had any unexpected expenses come up. It seems as if at least once a year, something in our house needs to be repaired or replaced, and I thought we managed to get through an entire year without that expense. I thought wrong.

Who knows? Maybe it will be an easy, relatively inexpensive fix. But I am not counting on it.

Grr.

Oh, and for the record, when we finally got our settlement from Duquesne Light, the company decided our 11-year-old TV, which had been working just fine before the power surge, was worth only $57. Which is sadly probably what our current 14-months-young TV is worth now.
Labels:

Comments

Facie said…
Well, the two places did call me back. The one affiliated with Westinghouse, which called me back about 8 hours after I had left a message, will charge a flat rate of $225 plus shipping to and from. I think I will pass. I just cannot see spending about 60 percent of what my TV originally cost and then waiting for the next thing to go wrong.

The only other option, which is local, charges $75 for the diagnostic. Of course, they cannot tell me what the repair will cost until they diagnose it, and I might be in the same boat as the other place. Ugh. I will be sending a strongly worded letter to Westinghouse, expecting nothing in return. But I have to try.
November 15, 2011 at 9:32 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What a year 2021 has been (Day 7)

I have almost no words for what happened yesterday at the Capitol. Protesting is one thing (though I truly think it is and has been time to move on). But to storm the Capitol? A friend on Facebook said, quite simply, " Almost 20 years ago a group of people on an airplane sacrificed themselves to protect the Capitol. How far we have fallen!" Indeed. And, yes, it IS storming the Capitol. I have seen numerous videos of people knocking down barricades/fences, pushing police officers, and breaking windows and climbing through them. That is beyond protesting. And even if a protestor did not do those things, if they followed those seditionists past those barricades and into the building, they are just as guilty. I did not support the violent protests this summer that resulted in damages to businesses and public property (I was in full support of the actual protests). But I also acknowledged as a white person, I cannot truly put myself in the position of a black person who is angry a
Post a Comment
Read more

Why do they stand up there and say that when they are just lying?

That extra-long title is courtesy of my nine-year-old and was something she uttered during "Say Yes to the Dress" on Friday evening. I watch very little reality TV, but I make an exception for this show because I like to look at the dresses. And sometimes, the stories are heart-warming. Typically at the end of the show, a snippet of a wedding is aired. In this particular show, a woman who was confined to a wheelchair was exchanging vows with her fiance. After the two of them finished, J made her comment. I asked her what she meant as I must have been on the computer while the TV was on, and she explained that because so many people just get divorced, why do they even say "as long as we both shall live"? That is tough one, kid. I tried with what I thought was a sound explanation: Most of the people who get married truly believe they will be together the rest of their lives, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. But if you don't think that you will be
10 comments
Read more

Wearing my heart on my sleeve

Four years and two weeks ago, I wrote a blog post that contained the good-bye email I wrote to my coworkers on the occasion of my last day of work. I was pretty proud of that note, which was quite hard to write as it reflected almost 13 years of being with one company, which is pretty rare in this century. I reread that note this morning to remind myself of what I had said, as that time feels like a lifetime ago. One sentence struck me: I am not sure where I will go from here or what I will do (although I fear cooking will be part of my immediate future), but I like to think onward and upward. I really had no idea what it was I was going to do or how long I would be without steady employment. Never did I suspect I would more or less be a SAHM who subbed and freelanced on occasion (sometimes the subbing and freelancing were often; other times I could go weeks without working). But here I am, just over four years later, getting ready to head back to steady employment.
10 comments
Read more