What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Molpet]

I would agree with that.

Back in the 1990's, I was in Los Angeles for some training. I met some guys that were retail business bankruptcy liquidators. They told me that WalMart would go into an area, mark down their products just enough to kill all the local competition, and then jack up prices higher than before. WalMart was the reason why so many small towns lost all their retail stores, leaving death and destruction behind, and then when nobody had any jobs or money to spend anymore, they would close that Walmart store and just leave the town dead.

When a company gets big enough to sustain short term loss on items, they can wipe out the other local small businesses and then recoup their losses with higher prices when the community has nowhere else to go.

Yes and this is one of the reasons I avoid wallymart.

 

[saysfaa]

Me too. I didn't notice the leaving the town afterwards part but sure did notice the take a loss (or sometime, take a razor thin profit) until the little guys were gone part.

Not just Walmart, either. Or just Amazon.

I also think Amazon is trying to do it Fed Ex and UPS now.

 

[NanaK]

My head hurts.

Me too. Our heat pump starting failing. We were expecting our coldest night so far. Called a company Monday morning. He came out Mon afternoon. While he was checking it out, it started snowing. Expensive to repair. It has given us problems ever since it was installed in 2017. Still had some warranty but only some of the parts were covered. None of the labor. We opted to get a new one, better made and more energy efficient.
WOW! Things have gone up. My checkbook said ouch! Merry Christmas to us! Thankful we had a little back up heat in the mean time and it was only a dusting of snow.

I had fewer problems and continuing issues back in the day when I talked to real, live people. I miss that personal customer service I grew up with.

I agree. I just don't like when you call a customer service center and you get someone who has such a strong accent you can't understand them. It is difficult to communicate with them.
That did not use to happen so often. It seems to happen a lot now.

When a company gets big enough to sustain short term loss on items, they can wipe out the other local small businesses and then recoup their losses with higher prices when the community has nowhere else to go.

This is exactly what happen in my small home town. I try to avoid wally world but choices here are slim without a long drive.

 

[saysfaa]

Me too. Our heat pump starting failing. We were expecting our coldest night so far. Called a company Monday morning. He came out Mon afternoon. While he was checking it out, it started snowing. Expensive to repair. It has given us problems ever since it was installed in 2017. Still had some warranty but only some of the parts were covered. None of the labor. We opted to get a new one, better made and more energy efficient.
WOW! Things have gone up. My checkbook said ouch! Merry Christmas to us! Thankful we had a little back up heat in the mean time and it was only a dusting of snow.

I agree. I just don't like when you call a customer service center and you get someone who has such a strong accent you can't understand them. It is difficult to communicate with them.
That did not use to happen so often. It seems to happen a lot now.

This is exactly what happen in my small home town. I try to avoid wally world but choices here are slim without a long drive.

My heartfelt sympathies.

The tech from the second HVAC company just left. We are into this $650 paid to the first company (they say we need another $1270 to replace all the drain stuff too) and $950 paid to the second company.

The furnace is still not working, some of the time.... just like it has been doing for 4 weeks.

The second company says they think the problem is the part that the first company replaced. I didn't call the second company back because the odds of two gas valves in a row failing in the same "nearly never happens that way" way is just too astronomical.

On a furnace that is less than three years old.

What I'm most worried about, now, is the manufacturer will notice how many parts they replaced. So will test the parts and find out all of them are fine so not covered after all.

 

[saysfaa]

Fyi. If the people that sold you a house did not register a Lenox furnace they replaced, it still has a warranty for the parts for five years. Just not for ten years.

The first company missed that, which combined with two or three other things led to getting a second opinion and going with the second company.

One of the other things is that we do not need the drain stuff redone. It may or may not be quite up to the book but if it were going to fail it would have failed much sooner than two years. And in a way that would not cause the current symptoms.

In case you are interested, the other two things were: he thought it was either the motor or the controller. He said he couldn't tell which so we should replace the motor. If it wasn't that, then we may have to replace the controller. I know he should be able to tell which by testing. Also, the motor can be replaced without the controller but the controller can't be replaced without the motor. That's because the manufacturer won't sell the controller without the motor, not that it is hard to disconnect/reconnect the controller. So if we went with him, we would have replaced the motor twice.

And he didn't know which way to spin the wrenches to get the nuts off and on. At least, not without getting it wrong or visibly working out some form of righty tighty lefty loosey.

 

[saysfaa]

There is some good news, I guess. Only about $20 more for some wiring and we will have a new furnace for all practical purposes.

 

[fuzzi]

Me too. Our heat pump starting failing. We were expecting our coldest night so far. Called a company Monday morning. He came out Mon afternoon. While he was checking it out, it started snowing. Expensive to repair. It has given us problems ever since it was installed in 2017. Still had some warranty but only some of the parts were covered. None of the labor. We opted to get a new one, better made and more energy efficient.
WOW! Things have gone up. My checkbook said ouch! Merry Christmas to us! Thankful we had a little back up heat in the mean time and it was only a dusting of snow.

I agree. I just don't like when you call a customer service center and you get someone who has such a strong accent you can't understand them. It is difficult to communicate with them.
That did not use to happen so often. It seems to happen a lot now.

This is exactly what happen in my small home town. I try to avoid wally world but choices here are slim without a long drive.

Ouch on the new furnace. Good that you were able to afford it.

 

[gtaus]

New Credit Offer - 33.99% APR!

Just received a new offer for the Bread Cashback American Express Credit Card. No Annual Fee, 2% Unlimited cash back, and a $200 Cash Back bonus if you spend $1,500.00 in the first 90 days.

What's not to love about that? Oh yeah, up to a 33.99% APR! If you can only afford the minimum monthly payment, you not only never pay off that debt, but your unpaid balance grows every month.

Fortunately, I don't need another credit card. Like many things, the devil was in the details where you find the interest rate up to 33.99% APR. I can see people getting into a lot of credit trouble really fast with those terms.

 

[NanaK]

What I'm most worried about, now, is the manufacturer will notice how many parts they replaced. So will test the parts and find out all of them are fine so not covered after all.

In the past when we had warranty work on the previous unit none of the old parts had to be returned to the company. The tech called and verified with the company the parts were covered. We only paid for labor on those parts. The part cost was paid directly to the tech.

I hope your issue is resolved soon. It can be so frustrating. I think the main problem is things are just not made as well as in the past but costs have gone up tremendously.

Ouch on the new furnace. Good that you were able to afford it.

That's what I told dh. It is done and paid for. We did not have to finance or use the credit card.
I still did not like it. New heat pump (central heat and a/c combined),better warranty, replaced duct work that was 25 years old. Now everything is new. $9800. Thankful but it's exhausting.
Also, local owned company, works on weekends, owner gives clients his personal cell number. They were respectful to me and my home. Cleaned up well.

Like many things, the devil was in the details where you find the interest rate up to 33.99% APR. I can see people getting into a lot of credit trouble really fast with those terms.

I miss the days when as long as you had good credit you could get a fixed rate credit card. I had one that was a fixed 7%. Still didn't carry a balance but it was nice to know it was there.

Now all are variable rates with crazy high penalties, etc. I have one visa but still always pay out in 30 days.
I wonder how many people accept those cards but don't read that fine print. I shred those offers as quickly as I get them. Those high rates should be illegal. They get some people in trouble.