Microwaving Goodbye To Your Business

(My husband and I move into a house that has a 23-year-old wall-mount unit which has a microwave and an oven. The oven works fine, but the microwave doesn’t work at all. Husband opens the microwave up, finds the schematics, and determines the problem part. It’s made by [Company], and that is the only place he can hope to find the part, so he calls them.)

Husband: “Hi, I need [part]. Do you have that in stock?”

Rep: “A what? Why do you think you need that?”

Husband: “We have a wall-mount microwave and oven unit, and the microwave doesn’t work. I looked at the schematics and I think that part is bad. Do you have it? How much is it?”

Rep: “Those schematics aren’t for you to look at. They’re for our repairmen.”

Husband: “…so, do you have the part?”

Rep: “You can’t determine what you need. We have to send one of our repairmen out to look at it.”

Husband: “And how much does that cost?”

Rep: “Seventy-five dollars. If he can fix it, that goes toward the repair.”

Husband: “Seventy-five dollars? I could buy two new microwaves for that price!”

Rep: “If he can’t fix it, then that goes toward a new unit.”

Husband: “But it’s just the microwave that’s broken. I could buy a new microwave, for less, and use the broken one as a bread box!”

(And so we did. This company is on the brink of bankruptcy, and I no longer wonder why.)