180 days = 3 months

Perhaps in dog years? I'm not really sure.

We bought a used stackable washer/dryer unit for our condo (did you even know we have a condo? more on that later, then) about six months ago (five months, two weeks, and two days--to be precise), when our tenant first moved in. The w/d came with a six month warranty, or "180 days warranty" as is scribbled across the handwritten receipt. This warranty being the main reason we bought this unit and the main reason we bought it from this store.

Sigh.

When I called them last weekend to report that the dryer cycle setting knob had fallen off, they said I needed my receipt. So I dug through all our paperwork and produced the receipt. I called them back and give them the number printed on it. They say they can't find the original copy. Ask if I can fax it to them because they have a receipt with that number but it doesn't have our name on it. Are we sure we bought it there? (Yes, we are.) I tell them I can bring it personally, and ask when they might be able to replace the part.

Then the drama begins.

She hems and haws and finally says, "Well, really...if it had broken in the first month, then yeah, we would fix it, but this close to the end of the warranty? You'll probably have to pay for the repair. If it broke, it's probably your fault...you know, because you've been using it and all."

What?!

Later I call back (after having tracked down a replacement part--$11) and ask for an owner. She (same she) asks if she can help me. I say, obviously not. A man comes to the phone, defensive from the time he says hello. We argue, he says I am not listening, he doesn't care anything about any Better Business Bureau (I filed a complaint), he doesn't care anything about any "attorneties" (I complained to a friend whose husband is a soon-to-be "attornety"), he's been in business for years, and none of that means anything to him. Then...THEN...he tells me that it's my fault again, for ripping that knob off AND had it broken in the first THREE months, then he would probably fix it, but five months and two weeks? Nope. Not gonna' happen.

I generally like people, but I (only somewhat guiltily) hoped that some awful misfortune struck this man on the way home from work that day.