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Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

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Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#101

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

hunter2_ wrote: post #78
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me how, in USA, it’s the only civilized nation I’ve been to where you must have a prescription to purchase contacts and glasses. Everywhere else I’ve been will just sell you whatever magnification you need at the pharmacy. Obviously there is some acceptable line here, but I think the States handles this decently well enough. In Austin where I live you can get what is called a “homeowners permit” in a lot of c…

There's an easy hack for the contact lens (and maybe glasses?) situation. There is a consumer protection law meant to ensure eye doctors can't stop you from using any retailer you want (otherwise they'd essentially make themselves your retailer), and it works like this: You place an order with the retailer (online retailers typically allow you to simply type in your prescription values when adding lenses to your onli…

Yeah my beef isn’t around the actual requirement of determining your prescription. Obviously you should wear eyeglasses/contacts that match your vision requirements. I think this is especially relevant when we are talking about usage with a drivers license. The ridiculous part is the arbitrary 1 year renewal. As you imply it is really only necessary to recheck that often when your vision is changing a lot which is usually not something that happens after some period in your 20’s.

Neat trick though. I got lasik a few years ago but I would do this if I hadnt

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#103

Post by kmoser »

irjustin wrote: post #7
lelandfe wrote: post #4

> For whatever reason (I suspect some sort of storage failure) everyone’s tablets die around the same time. What a fun, completely coincidental quirk that that time appears to fall outside the warranty window, hey?

knowing a lot of these companies. it wouldn't really matter if it fell inside of the warranty. they would simply screw a lot of people over until there's a class action lawsuit (or whatever equivalent is in that country) where they get a slap on the wrist for not honoring warranty claims.

My A/C unit is fairly new but there are signs the condenser unit fan is starting to go. Since it is still under warranty for parts (not labor) I thought I would be able to just get a replacement fan and install it myself. But no, the manufacturer will only deal with a "certified technician," who of course charges an outrageous amount of money (many hundreds of dollars) to replace the fan. When I asked the technician why the labor cost so much, they gave me some song and dance about how the prices were set by their central office (true) and that the cost also included filing the paperwork to make a warranty claim (seriously?).

At the end of the day, I could probably buy an aftermarket fan off the Internet and install it myself, spending far less than the certified technician would charge to install the "free" OEM replacement part.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#104

Post by wincy »

johnobrien1010 wrote: post #91

My fridge stopped working last year. We called a repair technician, who swapped out the whole PCB and charged us a few hundred dollars. In retrospect, I think it was one bad relay on the board... Next time it dies I plan to try to find the defective relay, desolder and resolder it myself. Imagine how much better it would be if there was a read out with an error code on a fridge with easily removable relays you could…

I’ve had a fan die TWICE now in my fan. It blows the cold air from the bottom freezer up to the top refrigerated portion, so it’s catastrophic when it happens. At this point I just have a third fan in the garage in a box in reserve so I don’t lose $100+ in groceries. It’s ridiculous how poorly made these “durable goods” are. And how expensive these repairs would have been if I wasn’t the smallest bit handy.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#105

Post by dbetteridge »

antisthenes wrote: post #87

A nice solution to a completely self-inflicted problem. Next time just get a dumb thermostat, or perhaps, if you're so inclined, something cheap off-the-shelf like an ecobee.

It's funny because if that was an option people would do it, but most installers have their control system included when the install and setup the system.

You don't get asked what you want or a choice in changing it to a different device...

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#106

Post by juanani »

irjustin wrote: post #7
lelandfe wrote: post #4

> For whatever reason (I suspect some sort of storage failure) everyone’s tablets die around the same time. What a fun, completely coincidental quirk that that time appears to fall outside the warranty window, hey?

knowing a lot of these companies. it wouldn't really matter if it fell inside of the warranty. they would simply screw a lot of people over until there's a class action lawsuit (or whatever equivalent is in that country) where they get a slap on the wrist for not honoring warranty claims.

[dead]

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#107

Post by cruffle_duffle »

hunter2_ wrote: post #78
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me how, in USA, it’s the only civilized nation I’ve been to where you must have a prescription to purchase contacts and glasses. Everywhere else I’ve been will just sell you whatever magnification you need at the pharmacy. Obviously there is some acceptable line here, but I think the States handles this decently well enough. In Austin where I live you can get what is called a “homeowners permit” in a lot of c…

There's an easy hack for the contact lens (and maybe glasses?) situation. There is a consumer protection law meant to ensure eye doctors can't stop you from using any retailer you want (otherwise they'd essentially make themselves your retailer), and it works like this: You place an order with the retailer (online retailers typically allow you to simply type in your prescription values when adding lenses to your onli…

This sounds too good to be true. Having to get a prescription to get contacts is insane…

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#108

Post by paranoidrobot »

I installed AC in my home in the last year.

I specifically went for units that were IR controlled rather than any proprietary smart B.S.

For the smarts, I used cheap IR blasters from AliExpress and hooked them up to HomeAssistant.

I just mounted cheap Lenovo tablets to the wall to do the room-dashboard thing to allow controlling lights/AC without a phone.

These kind of horror stories only serve to reinforce my decision.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#110

Post by anfilt »

ranebo wrote: post #45
redact207 wrote: post #6

I love that this man resurrected his blog after 10 years just to write this. Anger and spite are strong motivators.

You have no idea how true this is :). I had to upgrade everything, the old site didn't even have SSL. But this annoyed me so much I wanted others to know how to fix it.

Glad you did! Nice read as well.
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