MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
First the boiler needed replacing (£2k).
Then my wife's car DSC system packed in (£400 after I got Mazda to pay half).
Then the washing machine goosed (got a repairman to repair it even though we were recommended a replacement as it is old and past it).
That same night we had the washing machine fixed the microwave packed in.
Now my wife has called to say her car is making really loud grating noises (sounds like it might be bearings or something).
Absolutely sick of it 🙁
John Lewis are about to replace my washer dryer for the 4th time in 18 months. They are shonky as **** these days. The one we had before that was over a decade old
In fairness to the OP, that lot happening in such a short period of time is a shitter!
Just one o'dem tings.
It is, I agree, but we are broke at the moment (16 months of a wife working part time with 21 month old twins using up all our spare cash finally caught right up with us).
And every month I think to myself 'next month we'll be right'.
And every month I think to myself 'next month we'll be right'.
Is what I've been telling myself for the last 3 years or so!
Every time I think I'm just about ok, a massive bill has come out of somewhere (forgotten council tax, extortionate leccy bill, car insurance, car tax etc.), or even better, I've been made redundant (4 times now in little more than 2 years!).
I love life! 😀
Couldn't agree with you more. You're unlucky to have such a run of things - I've had that too and life's like that sometimes. However, I agree that many things are just not designed to last these days. I like the idea of buying a durable product and repairing it, but it seems to me that the mantra (and the economy) is to keep buying new all the time. The classics in our house are kettles and irons. Rarely last longer than a year. I went to buy yet another replacement kettle the other week and I was struck at the amount of shared parts (all the cordless base sockets looked the same, irrespective of brand) and they were all designed with fiddly plastic switches to open the lid that are inevitably going to fail soon. I hate the concept of "uneconomical to repair" too.
A wealthy friend of mine has given up buying top of the range microwaves and has settled for getting the cheapest in Tescos on the grounds that she only uses it for warming cups of milk and convenience foods and will simply replace it with another cheapie if and when it goes "kaput". I can see her reasoning, but must be terrible for the environment.
Uhuh, I hear you.
This year alone...
Boiler broke as usual, fixed it myself with a hacksaw.
Washing machine broke, finally got a warranty repair
Roof started leaking, still not fixed so there's a heath robinson style capture device in the attic with a tube running into my son's bedroom and a thence a bucket.
I rode into a car so had to pay for new forks and front wheel (admittedly this one is my fault), the guy has said his insurance company will be in touch shortly with an enormous bill.
My pompino snapped
My ipod screen broke
My broadband connection was terrible/non-existant for the all of January
My wife has needed an enormous amount of dental work done, thousands of pounds worth!
And then this....
[url= http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5213/5454600810_8dc31cd2d8.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/53067724@N00/5454600810/ ]crack[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/53067724@N00/ ]Jon Wyatt[/url], on Flickr
get lost world, you're rubbish!
You've all got my sympathies. My car cost me £555 today 🙁
That sucks.
WI? Get a Middleburn - less of the price goes into marketing.
£555
Bah!
Mine cost me £840 last week! I laugh at £555 and thumb my nose at broken microwaves.
We're all in this together, but I'm suprised that the Tories have taken to breaking our domestic appliances.
Sadly, we live in a disposable society. Something breaks, get a new one. Stuff seems to be built to last for a year and then die.
I'm waiting for Hotpoint to come out and repair my expensive washer-dryer, bought 18 months ago. On the other side of the kitchen is the fridge (again Hotpoint), which used to belong to my gran. It must be at least 30 years old by now, and it's never skipped a beat.
It's not only me then.
You have my sympathy.
Our boiler sprang a leak about 8 weeks ago. Heating company had various attempts at it before getting the manufacturers in (ie with a van of spares onboard), *possibly* fixed but the rest of the system's gummed up - powerflush and filter fitted this week.
Hopefully it'll be sorted, but it wouldn't surprise me if we'll be due another round with the manufacturer.
We've been relying on fan heaters etc and nipping down the gym for a shower all that time 🙁
The (Topfield) PVR also died a month or so ago - I was gonna open it up over Christmas and replace some components in the power supply (known problem after about 4-5 years) - didn't get around to it 🙁 Repaired the supply but something's still goosed.
Still, we've now got a shiney new humax which is really quite good (at a price..) - we watch very little when it's actually broadcast..
About a 2 weeks ago one of the drives in the home pc looked like it'd crashed. Fiddled around, swapped the power connector - it's back again..so I'm a bit suspicious. Already had a spare drive - well overdue a reinstall of XP - then found the DVD drive was knackered too ! I've replaced the DVD drive (at least that was cheap !), just the HDD to go (and probably buy a NAS box at some point, since the spare removeable drive's groaning..)
There's also a dark patch of plaster behind the washing machine - there *was* a slight leak a while back wrt the washer hose and a neighbouring washbasic, that's now sorted but its still looks dark.
If it *is* damp I'm blowed if I know where it's coming from.
Oh, and we wound up having to splash out on a new flat room on a building in the garden towards the end of last year - that was a week's worth of builders time.
Just today I've had a full on argument from some pillock at Baxi; my combi has yet again given up, and shows fault code E168; there's absolutely thousands of threads about this on the web, and is considered a common fault.
Anyway, apparently nobody has thought to mention this to Baxi (despite mine failing a year ago with same fault). It's only 3 years old and had 2 year warranty. The same part (PCB) has failed again, and they won't entertain a repair for free or reduced. Bizarrely, the same part is part of a different boiler and enjoys 5 year warranty on this one so how can they **** me off like this?
Anyway, im now faced with a bill of over £270 or a repar contract for £24.99 per month. Great - the thing is only just 3 years old and cost a grand!!! Absolute crap.
Oddly, my last one lasted over 15 years without even a service.
Boiler Insurance! We've had it since we moved in about 4 years ago - our combi is a pretty clapped out old Heatline (for which NOBODY ever stocks parts). We pay about £16 a month for insurance, but by God have we rinsed it. We've had heat exchangers pack up, PCBs, filters, valves, the lot.
It's so frigging crap that nobody seems to be able to manufacture a modern efficient combi that doesn't fail at the 1st sign of being used.
More sympathy from me too - if only because we've also recently had a spate of electronic failures - washing machine, kettle, microwave all went in the space of a month. The hoover has been an ongoing warranty failure for months now. I was beginning to wonder if I'd borked the electrics somehow whilst fitting a new ceiling light.... Oh, and just remembered the set-top-box stopped working last week!
A wealthy friend of mine has given up buying top of the range microwaves and has settled for getting the cheapest in Tescos on the grounds that she only uses it for warming cups of milk and convenience foods and will simply replace it with another cheapie if and when it goes "kaput". I can see her reasoning, but must be terrible for the environment.
We've done exactly this ^^^ That last microwave was a top-of-the-range Sharp thing. We've replaced it with an Asda £30 job and will continue replacing everything else with cheap, disposable shit as it falls apart - I hate the concept but really, have we been left with any choice? If top end gear is only built to last 2-3 years, might as well buy the cheap rubbish which will match it in longevity (or lack of).
Hahaha! I hear you as well, my mobile went at new year I still don't have a new one 😀 peace and quiet.
My oven has just packed in 😥 but my grill still works 😀 For the first time that I can remember in months I'm not over my arranged over draft, so I only owe out £31 in arranged over draft fee's this month.
The forks on my bike are winding down through the tavel so I need to replace them, I've been tidying up my flat for two days and tomorrow I have an inspection by my housing association. All that's left is to hide the workshop I've got set up in my living room 😯
Two benches including a bench mounted grinder, three vices one is a record 112, two shelves full of oil and bearings and other stuff, a shit loads of tools and partridge in a pair tree! 😆
Ohh and two more that barely registered - the extractor in the bathroom stopped working yesterday (I can live without that for a bit) and the kettle lid snapped off - currently held on with superglue and a cable tie 🙂
Ohh and two more that barely registered - the extractor in the bathroom stopped working yesterday (I can live without that for a bit) and the kettle lid snapped off - currently held on with superglue and a cable tie 🙂
And look - now this site is broken 😉
Truth be told that's the tip of the iceberg, when you have a way of life and assholes in charge, you better get used to the fact that shit is gonna happen.
ooh, I remembered another too. I was just driving up to the Coop last night and as I pulled into the carpark a load of lights went on on my dash and the brakes made a horrible tingling noise. The noise stopped after a couple of seconds but the lights have stayed on, ABS, stability control and that exclamation one.
Then when I came out of the carpark, Kirk from Coronation Street was driving in in his range rover and he gave me a dirty look.
That's going to cost me, the brakes, not the look.
Truth be told that's the tip of the iceberg, when you have a way of life and assholes in charge, you better get used to the fact that shit is gonna happen.
I don't even know what that means.
To put a pisser on things, I got the exit of Barn wrong at a Cadwell park trackday yesterday and now concussed. l feel quite bad for mates who chucked in on crappy car that's now written off!!! One of which hasn't even driven it yet. Still, plus side is that alcohol is working a treat at mo'!!
Yay - the car is okay - they think it was just something like a stone in the brakes and it has worked loose 🙂
We're all in this together, but I'm suprised that the Tories have taken to breaking our domestic appliances.
Oh, but they have.
Everything has a built-in lifespan. Then when it breaks you need to take it back to an evil socialist shop, which fortunately will have probably been bought out by a major chain owned by a Toryfriend (TM).
Only problem is that it will be out of its three day warranty (what? Do you mean to say that you didn't take out the incredibly expensive insurance, regulated by a public-bailed bank that has found £1.3bn to pay its staff in bonuses?) and because the small socialist independent has been bought, your previous rights cannot be honoured.
However, you can buy a new spangly one made from the finest monkey metal found on the shop floor. Step right this way sir...
So now the alarm is goosed too and the alarm fixy man can't even fix it.
Really - FFS.
to be fair, the alarm's working.
you're trying to stop it working.
LOL - good point.
Sort of.
[i]Yay - the car is okay - they think it was just something like a stone in the brakes and it has worked loose[/i]
Lucky bugger. My rear disks and pads needed replacing and they reckon the sensors were on their way out on the back. Only a sensor? I hear you ask, well that'll be about 20 quid a piece, no?
No. Try 200 quid a piece.
PS3 yellow light of death, van gearbox bother and work tools stolen all in one week here. Ah well, at least its pay day now.
No. Try 200 quid a piece.
What TF car is it????
PS3 - call Sony - they are good at helping and will do a good deal on a reconditioned unit. (Fortunately mine worked after a full system reset or that would have been another thing).
MF, cheers but i'm going to try and fix it myself, its an old 60gb fat which has been opened before so Sony won't be interested.
Well if you call them they will go through the hard reset steps with you - I had the same issue and it worked (I just lost all my saved data).
Okay this is just getting silly now! The toaster has just packed in (and no it wasn't just the fuse). ARGHH!
No idea wtf you people are doing with your applicances...
The classics in our house are kettles and irons. Rarely last longer than a year
I must've bought one or two in my entire life. You might consider not filling them with water that comes brandishing a flick knife.
Oh and you can by stuff that's dependable and repairable, but it costs loads. Like things used to - remember?
Was thinking the same thing the other night.
Washer dryer (2 years old)
Toaster no longer stays down (1 year old)
Kettle no longer clips on properly (1.5 years old)
Microwave door button doesn't work (1 year old)
I think the cunning [s]bastards[/s] manufacturers have finally worked out how to get appliances to break precisely as the warranty ends.
It's a honda accord MF, apparently all sensors cost a lot.
Car's got it's MOT today, hope that doesn't cost me even more. I can't believe how much money I have spent this month repairing teeth, cars, shoes and bikes. My ipod has had to be placed on a shelf to be repaired once we get a bit more money.
MF - I notice you mention leaving the extractor fan in the bathroom broken as you can live with it for the moment.
I'd get it fixed sooner, rather than later (depending if you have other options like a window for ventilation,I guess).
Ours packed in at our old house and I procrastinated about getting it fixed. It wasn't long before there was mould on the ceiling (where there had never been any) as it was constantly damp in there.
We had a long length of ducting in the loft so had to get another centrifugal fan to replace it (~£40), but you can get an axial one for not much money if that'll do the job.
I hate these times when everything seems to financially conspire against you. Hope things stop breaking soon....
Have you considered some kind of earthing strap system in your house? You don't all wear shell suits do you, and shuffle your feet across nylon carpets?? 😉
Sharing the pain here, too - car wouldn't start this morning. Please, please, PLEASE let it be the battery.
Stumpy - thanks for your comment - we are leaving the window open to vent and we do already have a dehumidifier in the house anyway (old house/gable end/exposed location based problems) so that [i]should [/i]stop mould from forming though. Should...
Re earthing - the house was recently rewired and has the latest code RCD device so it shouldn't be that.
So - time for me to ditch the shell suit...
To put a pisser on things, I got the exit of Barn wrong at a Cadwell park trackday yesterday and now concussed.
To be fair, Barn is probably the scariest corner I can think of - I had an almost-highside on a Firestorm there which still makes me shudder when I think about it. Half off the bike, with feet bounced out of the pegs and my tackle splayed on the tank.....I thought I was definitely off and probably about to get seriously injured.
Slightly damp summer conditions plus whatever comes out of the trees that overhang the corner made the grip levels exiting Barn totally variable. Later on the same trackday a guy got killed about 300m down the track (just by the start-finish line), which was the final straw for me. I've not been on a bike trackday since, and if I were to go back to them I'd avoid Cadwell - I'm not good enough and the consequences of crashing are much higher than at most other circuits.
Oh, and the front parking sensors on my car just started playing up, to bring this back on topic.
Took my Civic off the road last December to save money, started it up weekly to keep it running, last night ABS and Power steering warning light come on. I took it for a quick spin round the local streets to see if it was damp in the brakes etc, EPS is definately not working over 2500 rpm which makes cornering interesting and the ABS if off... Boiler at the house we rent out is playing up, the electrics went last week but were a cheap fix, our own house alarm is down, wedding in May this year and associated costs, other half is still on maternity leave until April!
Still trying not to use my credit cards which are clear for the first time in 10 years.
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH FFS
Car in for its service today (expected cost, I can deal with that).
One tyre badly worn on inside edge (inexplicably) so another £125 on top.
Then get back in the car and it has developed a fault where it assumes the doors are open and therefore won't lock. I am hoping the garage did something silly which they can repair - going back in tomorrow so they can have a look.
SICKSICKSICK of this.
if youre electrical appendices keep breaking, get a surge protector, and they will last much longer!
We have a current code RCD in the house - I wouldn't expect surges really.
I think the surge we have is one of bad luck.