Felt bad for elderly lady replacing her 55 year old Maytag...

[mattl]

I was working today and approached an older couple in the appliance section.  She was looking for a new washer and dryer.  I showed her the standard agitator models, of which there were only 4, the wash plate toploaders and the front loaders.  I steered her away from the washplate models, one reason was she was so short odds are she could not reach the bottom, plus I know what poor performers they are.  She did not want a front loader, so we were down to a few toploaders, a Roper,  Ge and a Whirlpool.

 

I asked her what was wrong with her machine, she said she had it for a while and it started leaking.  I told here a few things about the new washers and  tried to warn her that the new machines, even with an agitator would not be like her old machine.  I asked her how old her washer was, she said it was a Maytag she had for 55 years!  The dryer still worked but she wanted a matched set.  I gave her the info she wanted but was going to look a bit more.

 

I wish I could have turned her over to a decent repair-person, odds are it was just a leaky hose, but there are none in the area that I'm aware of that would even look at a machine that age.  I'm guessing this was a '58 or '59 Maytag set that they bought when they first got married.  Really hate to see them go to the crusher, and I know that nothing today will perform like they did.  Made me sad the rest of the day.

 

[petek]

What a shame

I happened into the new Menards superstore near Mt.Clemens yesterday and saw one of those GE conventional toploaders,can't remember what it was called now. Looked nice anyways, ss tub, compared to the Amana beside it plus it had a much deeper tub. I don't think a short old lady could reach down into it either.

 

[d-jones]

I hope you explained to her that the old machines she has have value and shouldn't be scrapped. You had a golden opportunity there to nip a potential tragedy in the bud.

 

[mattl]

I would have like to but my job is to sell.....  I did try to leave enough hints that she needed to do more research.  Told her about the dumbed down hot water selection, and the lower water levels.

 

[rp2813]

Too bad there was no way around this situation for you.  Surely you'd risk getting written up if not fired for suggesting to a customer that they fix what they have and hooking them up with a repairman.

 

No doubt your customer's matched pair has been well cared-for and you're probably right that correcting the leak would be an easy fix.  It sounds like those two beautiful machines are destined for a new life of polluting instead of cleaning.  So much for good karma.

 

[jetcone]

Sad

tale.

 

 

[whirlykenmore78]

OUCH!

That has to be almost unbearable.
WK78