Thursday, February 6, 2014

ONE OF THOSE DAYS

For the last few weeks, Doug was having trouble starting our 4 month old Ryobi generator.  I know, I know, we both did a lot of bragging about the deal we got and how quiet it was! Our tails are between our legs now.

Off we go first thing in the morning. First stop was Home Depot.  Doug was sure it was the spark plug.  Ah ha, they don't even stock Ryobi anymore, not generators, not parts. That was the first clue.

 So off we go to Oreilly


 for a spark plug.  They had one but still it doesn't start.  Doug was livid.  I was confident that I could get our money back.  On the way back to Home Depot we checked Harbor Freight (our first visit).  They had a suitable generator for $339.00.  

At Home Depot the customer service person first said, no! there is only a 90 day guarantee from Home Depot and the manufacture's guarantee is 2 years but you must pay to ship it to them and it would take 2 - 3 weeks for repair and return.  What??? what are we to do for power for that 3 weeks.  They would not give me the money back.  I argued, asked to speak to the manager (there apparently isn't one in the store) and talked about LOYAL CUSTOMERS.  After an hour - I got all the money back.  $499.66!



We go over to Harbor Freight and a nice man from Texas gives us a $40.00 off coupon.  Yippee!  Then the cashier (such great staff) offers us a year total replacement policy for $25.00.  Total cost $376.00 with warrantee and taxes.  Whoppie, we made $123.00.

Yes this generator is quite a bit noisier (not as noisy as our Champion) but it also is 3200 watts as opposed to 2200 watts on the Ryobi.  It will run everything now.  

We left home at 10:00, we got back at 5:00.  

We have made a decision though.  Next year, solar for sure!

8 comments:

Jim and Sandie said...

So glad to hear you got your money back. With all the boondocking you guys do, I think solar would be a good thing. Since we only really boondock for the month of January it's not really worth it for us. And we'll park next to you even with a noisy generator. You won't bother us.

Paul and Marsha Weaver OCT. 17, 2009 said...

WOW...that was one long day but ended on a good note!

Paul and Marsha Weaver OCT. 17, 2009 said...

WOW...that was one long day but ended on a good note!

Peter said...

With a HONDA 2000EUi you would not have had any problem. Ours has served us well since 2006. And it burns extremely little gas. But it does cost around 900bucks. Cheap, if you can have for 10 years.

Wanderin' said...

Glad you got your money back. Terry saved a bundle by installing our own solar in the lot of the dealer who sold it to us. Then, the dealer inspected everything to make sure it was right. It didn't cost that much at all.

billandjanrvingtheusa.blogspot.com said...

Don't worry about the noise, with Bill's hearing he couldn't hear it anyway. Did you notice that it would match our truck?

Sue and Doug said...

squeaky wheel gets the grease! way to go on sticking to your guns!! I would have done the very same thing!

Linda Sand said...

You make me glad I decided to skip the generator and go right to solar. I hope it all works out for you.