Appliance Woes

Do you ever have one of those periods where every appliance in your house starts to break down? I had one of those this month and am just recovering from the bill handed to me by the Sears repair guy for my a href=”http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_02647087000P?vName=cName=sName=”front loader washing machine./a Last month, it was the dishwasher, prior to that, the stove and refrigerator. I remember one of my colleagues muttering to me once about his appliance woes, saying that his strategy is that when the refrigerator breaks and/or needs to be cleaned out, it’s time to move. I laughed at the time but I’m starting to see the wisdom of his words. I could really kick myself for not buying the warranty with all of these appliances but I have never had good luck with doing so. It seems like I never use them, there is a deductible that is equivalent to the service charge, or they are just too expensive to make purchasing them worth it. br /br /And it’s not just about the money, the time it takes to wait around for the service people is insane. “We’ll be there Tuesday between 1 and 5.” Great, I love being trapped at home for hours on end. It could be worse, it’s often 8 to 5, as if none of us have anything better to do then sit at home all day, hoping that the call is closer to 8 than 5 and knowing that whatever time it is, it will be the most inconvenient, i.e. when you dash out for five minutes at 3:15 to pick up a kid or go to the store. When I lived in NYC, I did my wash in a dirty laundry mat at the end of the street, it was sort of fun, and at least I didn’t have to wait for the repairman, just for the next empty washing machine.br /br /Update: Megan McArdle a href=”http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/01/should_you_buy_a_warranty.php”says that warranties /aare a bad deal for consumers–that makes me feel a little better.