Lesson Learned

Lately my washing machine hasn't been draining the water after the rinse cycle. So I've had to turn the knob back and re-run the rinse cycle to get it to drain. Well Monday morning it finally completely stopped draining and left me with a big wet mess and lots of water. So I broke down and called around for a repair man. (P.S. usually the repair man @ our house is Shane, but he's been elk hunting and I needed a washer, with 3 kids you can only go so long without clean clothes!!!) Well come to find out, my drain pump died on me and it was going to cost $266 to repair! I was thinking maybe $100 to fix it! I told the guy, "My word! That's half the price I paid for the machine!" He gave me his sob story how the economy is bad, and business has been slow, and he's just trying to make it like everybody else. He was sorry it was going to cost so much... Well I had to fork out half the bill for him to order the part. The next day, I am still sick about how much it's going to cost to fix it and decided to research it a little. So I check out the kenmore website and look up my part I need, and guess what, it only costs $57. So that means I am paying the guy $209 for installation and labor. Seems pretty high to me. Well I called his office and asked for a price brake down on my bill. They were charging me double the price for the part, I told the lady I found the part for half the price, gave her the number she could call to verify it etc... In the meantime my repair man calls me, says his receptionist contacted him about my call. Basically he gave me another run around speech how if I didn't use this part he ordered for me I had to pay a 20% restocking fee, and that Sears(the company that I found the part for $57)wasn't a reliable source, and I would have to pay a fee for not using him to install the part. What a rip off!! So I had to brake down and tell the guy to go ahead with the repair, cause it was going to cost me more to cancel the repair. So I learned a lesson, do more research next time.