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So, this is my Blog, my thoughts / feelings / ideas. You may comment if you like. If you attack me, I come back at you with reckless / racist / suicidal abandon. If you compliment me, I thank you. If you don't ever visit again I don't care. Other than that, just enjoy what I write, or not.
Salagatle!


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Monday, August 30, 2010

Domestics and appliances

So, one thing that's a given in South Africa is that no matter how well trained, or how long they have been doing the same work, your domestic maid will, on a regular basis, break stuff. No, not the occasional glass or plate, more like the occasional iron, or vacuum cleaner!

Yup, irons last on average 6 months. Sometimes it's just a matter of sorting out the electrical lead and / or plug. Usually the thing is just completely fucked. So the Princess has now resorted to buying them at the local Pick and Pay, where they are relatively cheap, and last as long as the more expensive one's do.

Ironing boards, maybe a year. How they manage to break them to the extent that they do is beyond me. Completely and utterly stuffed. The last one you could not even recognise for what it was! What the hell do they do with this stuff?

Then there's the more expensive stuff, like vacuum cleaners. The last one was incredible. We had inherited it
from a friend who passed in 2000. Not too sure how long he had it, but it was a while. We used it for 4 yrs in out previous home, and then this maid used it in our current home for the past 6 yrs. Oh, but that's a long time overall I hear you say. Maybe so, but the one in my garage, which is used for industrial purposes still works, and its more than 15 years old!

Given, it does not get used twice a week, but it does suck up wood chips, nails, dust, spider webs, pop rivets, etc. The one upstairs didn't have any wheels anymore? What the F? Where are they? How the hell did they come off? Do you drag it up the stairway? The cord retraction system didn't work anymore. The piping was fucked, more duct tape keeping it together than original piping material. And then it just gave up.

When I took it downstairs to see if I could resuscitate it, I realized that it had reached the end of it's useful life. There were parts of the motor falling around in the housing. There were bolts and nuts in there that didn't even belong to the unit! That's leads me to think that maybe a certain level of sabotage was involved here!!!! My garage unit still has all it's parts, no duct tape holding the piping together, all it's wheels...... eish!

Anyway, so on Saturday me and the Princess pop down to Clearwater Mall (LIU) to do a spot of shopping. Finished there, I said lets pop into Makro and see what they have in vacuum cleaners. We looked, but decided to shop cheap, as it's going to get broken quickly anyway. The one we found looked fine, and robust, and of course, they had no stock.

Now the Game group is linked to the Makro group. They carry similar stock, but not similar pricing. But they do advocate to meet or better any price for same goods! So, Sunday morning, after having done my newspaper and bread rolls purchase, I drove down to our local Game store.

Looked around, and I found the identical vacuum cleaner. Only problem was it was ZAR200 more!!

This is the Makro Price - ZAR 499.00
And this is the price at Game - ZAR699.99
No problem. I find a salesman, show him the photo f the price tag I took at Makro, point to their boards advertising the fact that they will match any price, and tell him to go make a call. He comes back and says that Makro is cheaper, but they don't have to match the price as Makro has no stock! Issit!!?!!?! I said. Did you call every single Makro in the country to check? No. Good, call me a manager. Someone with grey matter. So we wander down to the managers station, call her on the intercom, and she coms over. From there it was easy. Makro has no stock. I can either put my name on a list with them, and wait for the product to arrive, and get it at the currently advertised price, or you can phone every single Makro in the country till you confirm they have none, or you can discount this unit for me.
The new vacuum cleaner - smaller, lighter, more robust, and cheaper....

Needless to say, she wasn't in the mood to argue, and I got the vacuum cleaner at the Makro price. Nice. So, the Princess has a new vacuum cleaner, I'm ZAR499 out of pocket, and the bets are on for how long this thing gonna take to break!

Salagatle!

4 comments:

Jayne said...

I had a slave, just for one day a week, or should I say R80 for 3hrs on the day, then thought bollocks, I'll just do the work myself *sigh, with a hint of martyrdom - gotta make it authentic right?*

If there was a 12-step programme for vacuum cleaner abusers, I'd be in it like a shot! No matter what kind I have, I always abuse the bastard things - they can do their job perfectly or whatever, but they still get kicked & sworn at!

I'm a sad case ;-)

Jayne said...

BTW, bloody well done for sticking out on the price!!!

Fishman said...

Uhm did you see what bags cost for those models!?

Wreckless Euroafrican said...

Fishman, Yes I did. Bought a pack of 5 for ZAR59.95. As we have limited carpet in the house (3 x mall bedrooms, 1 x Main bedroom, they will last quite long.

Jayne, I am a service providers best customer and worst nightmare. In similar situations I have escalated to the top. In one instance I caused so much kak that the store manager of Game Westgate was sent to my offices bearing a power saw for me - Free!!! Give me good service, I will spend my money with you, give me bad service, you will regret the day I walked through your door.... Salagatle!