The trials and tribulations of a life of leisure...

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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Extension Part 40 - The End?

So it is our fourth anniversary of moving up here today and you may have thought with the lack of posts wrt the extension that it was all done and dusted.

Well, it almost is.

It was finally signed off by building control a couple of weeks ago. Most of the minor niggles we had (a list had been compiled) have been fixed. We still have a small leak in heavy rain through the bottom of the patio doors and rendering around the bottom of the utility room to be completed. And the lock on the utility room door is to be replaced. We have had the final bill but have a couple of outstanding queries on it to be clarified. But we are now using the sun room, having moved in the three piece suite we brought up with us. And the washing pulley in the utility room has been well tested.

So last week we moved our aging washer dryer from the kitchen to the utility room. And on testing it we found that it tripped the circuit breaker every time it got to the spin cycle. To be fair it had started doing that on occasions before we moved it and it was 13 years old...

Then we moved the dishwasher from its storage in one of our garden sheds in to the kitchen. On testing that it made the most horrendous noise. I guess the dishwasher was about the same age as the washing machine and four years in a shed haven't done it any favours...

So we spent some time on the web looking at kitchen appliances as we also want another freezer for the utility room.The one I had earmarked when we were planning the utility room is no longer available. Appliancesonline seemed to have a good selection of choices at reasonable prices.

Armed with a list we went to Curry's yesterday. They had none of what we had selected. However, they did have a dishwasher that I preferred to the one on our list albeit more expensive.

Unlike my previous experiences in such stores there wasn't a sales person in sight. Eventually a lady appeared. Paul asked her if their promise to beat any price found elsewhere by 10% applied to online sites. No. He ventured that we were looking to buy several appliances, giving her an opportunity to engage us in a sales negotiation. She didn't rise to the challenge so we left.

Back home we set about finding an on-line site for the new dishwasher. Pixmania came up trumps, and it was 50 quid cheaper than Curry's and 10 quid cheaper than our original choice from the web. With that extra tenner I have upgraded the washer dryer to a much better one - it was on special offer, reduced from 480 to 360 quid. They didn't have the freezer we had chosen but we decided that we could live with a smaller (and significantly cheaper) freezer that we had looked at in Curry's - there are just the two of us after all and it really is only needed to cope with the excess of gooseberries/strawberries etc. and for when we have people staying.

So the order went in yesterday afternoon. And, in a bizarre twist, we find that pixmania is a 'partner' of and it will all be delivered by - Curry's!

3 comments:

Paul Gipson said...

What the Curry's lady actually said was, "we will never beat the prices of an online retailer".

I expected her to continue with the benefits that having a real shop, with real people to help, brings, together with Curry's free recycling scheme, and could we see how close to the online price we could get.

But clearly Curry's money is going on TV adverts and not on staff training. And you wonder how long it will survive on that?

Anonymous said...

If you pay peanuts you get Monkeys .and no doubt their managers are gorillas.

Appliances Online said...

Glad you found an appliance at a good price that you were happy with. If you need anything else, we are happy to help and advise you on your purchase!

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