Helloooooooo! Anyone there?

LOL- on both topics . Too true about the olives. It was just lovely sitting on the deck and smelling the wood ovens going.

I hated spending the $$ on that class, but I can honestly say, a worthy investment. If it didn't require all the up-front effort from the instructors, I would have let you join in for the half-class, but it's not possible.

Sincerely - if you're thinking of doing the seminar in Philly - do their class. Especially as it's taught with Tony & Meredith. When they do it at seminar, that is the absolute happiest class all week. However, it does rob you of the opportunity to do anything else for several days. Thought that PANG is going to try and get them to do it in another year or so??? We may get them to do an encore in 2014, and they'll do something commercial though it will be more costly if thru a shop.

Oh, well....we just got back from the day of pincushion - DH had to take me as I'm not supposed to drive today with the combo medicine., so of course I'm not risking stitching 'cause that would mean more ripping than sittchin'. Now....where to get dinner.......

Ellice

My microwave died last month, also a GE. However, we bought it Dec

I can't believe I was so silly, but I replaced it with the identical machine (however, it was "built" last October). Hopefully the dead one was just a lemon.

Gill

Entirely possible. When I was looking for a new laptop, I asked a geeky friend for recommendations, and bought the identical one to his. We use and abuse them in similar fashion; his is still running fine, while mine made its first trip back for warranty service within a few months.

I will give them this, when I sent it back one last time a week before the warranty expired, they literally replaced everything except the case (I have a sticker on it, so I know the same case was returned).

Since his hasn't given him a lick of trouble, we have to assume that mine was just a lemon. Nonetheless, I'm going back to Toshiba from now on.

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On 4/5/12 2:52 PM, in article jlkpl2$6fl$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, "Gillian Murray" wrote:

Ouch. Hopefully this one will do better.

We just got the "re-up your appliance warranty" offer. I'm having the big discussion with DH about this, and am definitely not doing the micro, or I think the dishwasher, but I think we are doing the others. Not sure. Comparing the cost of replacement vs the warranty - which covers in house service or 45% of new one or replacement with likely refurbished..... DH thinks we should continue with the warranty. But mostly because our fabulous dryer with the top part that has the mesh shelves for sweaters, etc is no longer made. We have a couple of months - the warranty is in effect until July. We'll see - though they say that you can't use the new (renewal) for the first 60 days or some such crap) after it comes in effect

- but I think that means if it lapses.

The other thing - in my family we don't buy GE stuff - because of an old, old thing which had to do with my father & his old partner when I was a very young child, and perhaps before I was born. DH just shakes his head. My dad was an electronics engineer, and the founding partner in his company (there were 3 founding guys total Crosby Electronics) - who later went to a different company - a brilliant guy. Anyhow - they had a some patents on early Hi-Fidelity (Stereo) stuff and were producing Hi-Fi Receivers, back in the day when the tuners (radio) were separate, etc. Started doing quite well, selling in the NY area, and lower NE. Long story short - big time patent infringement - with....GE. GE sent some spies into the manufacturing plant, got some guy off the line, yada yada, lawsuits, company dissolved - people to other jobs. Won suit. GE appealed. Little guys lose. New appeal. Little guys win. New appeal - thru state supreme court then into Federal by which time it didn't matter anymore because GE has much, more money than the little guys. There was a settlement eventually - but......lets just say the brilliant guy ended up working Harmon Kardon & then Bose & died not long after, my dad finally went to Fischer Stereo after some side trips, and would freak if anyone ever suggested buying anything from GE! I don't think the settlement really ever made up for the massive years and how it aged Bob, the frustration, and all those gazillion of lawyer fees. Everytime they'd win - then the GE counsel office about a month later would notify them of some obscure reason to go appeal to a higher court.

Ellice

Essentially, anyone that knows about QC in the days of modern electronics will tell you that it follows what is known as a bathtub curve. Imagine a curve that looks like an old-fashioned bathtub, sort of a U with a very wide bottom. Meaning things either will fail very early in their lifetime, or very late in their lifetime, with a low probabiltiy in the middle. But you have to combine this with the overall reliability of solid state electronics.

It's just like any normal distribution curve, the same as saying some people are accident prone. There will always be some things out there in the "failing right away" or "having more accidents than the median" - and indeed

- that is normal. By definition - that's just how it goes. It's just luck of the draw - someone is always going to get that 1 of 1000 that has the early failure.

The bathtub curve thing is why the extended warranty isn't a good deal for most electronics. Unless you're someone who puts a lot of wear and tear on your computer, or who needs a lot of hand-holding, or it's a machine with lots of moving parts - like front-loading washers (I know - we've used the service calls). Etc.

Ellice

I hadn't heard the "bathtub" description. However DH...another electronics engineer, says that if electronics are going to break, they will do it very early in their life. Consequently, he doesn't buy extended warranties.

I did buy one fro a frig in a house I owned, and was renting out in Maryland. Also, when we bought my last washer and dryer (Whirlpool Cabrios, I LOVE them), I decided I wanted the extended. You never know when something will break, and Jim was sick, or something, and I needed the service guy to fix it. Probably, just because I did this, I will never need it...but it is an insurance policy, so to speak. I am older than DH...but in much better health (keeping fingers crossed).

Gill

In the 80s as statistical anal for QC was being standardized on solid state electronics, that's the shape of the curve - hence the name. Just like the "bell curve" for a normal distribution, or what is talked about for most grade distributions in a class in school. Since your DH is a bit older than me, I'd suspect this came about a while after he was in school...so he'd know about this early in life failure from work experience.

We have likely the same thinking about the warranties - we bought them here because there are more than just the electronics involved - all these latches, etc. And it's bizarre the things that break, and ridiculous how pricey some of them are. I've been sitting here browsing the pricing of replacements for our major appliances to decide about the warranty stuff. Uck. Eventually we'll decide.

We joined a buying service (not Costco) several months ago - after visiting their showroom. DH decided though it's a pricey membership - we have enough stuff still to do with the house, that it is worth it - because it is a very good deal, and we liked their ethics - we had to sign a lot of confidentiality don't abuse the system, stores, etc things. But the also carry home building supplies things. So, I'm checking thru them to see the replacement costs, etc - and then we'll make some decisions. Good thing - this service - the local franchise also has installers, support for various things. And the warranties for what you buy are normally extended for some nominal fee - not a ridiculous sum.

Well, back to resting again.

Ellice