Wednesday, October 01, 2008

The Washer


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The faithful washing machine had seen better days. Ma wanted to go to the appliance store where she's bought all her appliances for the past 56 years. So I loaded up the bus, and we went. It's only a couple of miles down the road. On the way I prepared Ma for what she could expect to pay. $400-$550 for a top loader.

The store was filled with high-end front loaders. Bosch, Whirlpool Duet, LG. All equipped with steam cleaning and from the looks of them, your wash would not only come out clean, but neatly folded. Just like Maureen Robinson's wash from Lost in Space.

A salesman came around to help. He started to talk to me and I pointed to Ma. I was not going to miss an opportunity to keep my mouth shut.

"I want a Maytag."

The salesman started moving towards the Maytag Neptune.

"She wants a top-loader."

"This is what I have in a Maytag," He showed her a washer with a price tag of $519.00

Ma frowned.

"I have a Whirlpool for $419.00"

"I want a Maytag."

"Whirlpool owns Maytag."

"What kind do you have?" Ma asked me.

"I have a Whirlpool."

"I've had my Maytag for 56 years," Ma told the salesman.

Ma's had the washer for a long time, but there was another machine in between the 56 years.

"Is that a fact."

"I've bought all my appliances here."

Ma was angling for a discount.

The salesman smiled.

"I'm 90 years old."

She played the hole card.

"Isn't that wonderful."

"We've been married 65 years," chimed in Dad.

Double teamed.

"You didn't say 65 happy years."

Don't go there.

The Weebles began backpedaling.

"There were happy years."

"He just had an operation."

The sympathy route.

"I had lots of gallstones removed."

I tried shooing the Weebles to the door.

"C'mon, kids, the man doesn't want to hear about your operations."

In the car on the way home, Ma sniffed.

"Those machines were too expensive. I want to go to the big orange store."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"You didn't say 65 happy years."

Poor Ma... Sticker shock like the rest of us. Course, I think she knows she's going to live forever! She wants a washer for the long run again!

Anonymous said...

Poor Ma! They don't make them like they used to and at the price they used to. But when they do makes a machine that actually dries and folds, I'll be the first in line, lol!

Jo-Ann

Linda said...

So there will be another field trip to another appliance store-hang in there!

Erica Vetsch said...

That salesman had a great line in "oh, wow." :D

Anonymous said...

Wait? Do I have to think of something unique and witty to say with each daily submission? Hmmm.... let's see???? Maybe Ma could have your washer and you could get a new one? OR encourage her to get the model you'd really like and one day it might be yours? Probably not... Ma's gonna live forever... *grin* (Hopefully! Your life would be so boring!)

Jeff said...

The older Neptunes, such as the 2000 Stackers, MAH3000, MAH4000 and the MAH5500A series had some issues which I am sure Maytag has corrected these issues in the newer machines...

There are thousands who have been burnt by the door latch wax motor failure. What happens is the machine will stop spinning because the door latch will fail to lock. Deep inside it is caused by the mechanism that locks the door. The wax motor will draw too much current and damage the control board by burning a resistor (R11) and a triac (Q6).

However, if Neptune owners know to replace the door latch wax motor they can prevent the control board failure from happening. Please tell everyone you know about this important fact.

The older Neptune’s also have a couple additional issues such as the moldy door boot and the reliability of the motor / motor control board. All three of these issues were involved in the class action lawsuit a couple of years ago. See http://www.neptunewaxmotor.com for more Neptune information.

In addition, I just now started offering a bearing and seal kit for the Neptunes because when the bearings fail Maytag wants you to replace the whole outer tub for a service quote of around $900 or so. Why replace the whole outer tub? Just replace the worn bearings and 12002022 seal… See http://www.neptunebearing.com for the Neptune bearing kit information.

The older Maytag Neptunes run great once you take care of some small details...