Back in 2006 when I attended Cisco Networkers (or NotWorkers as it’s often referred).
I purchased a Cisco branded Skagen watch. The price was right, and I was in a mood for a watch and had been looking at Skagen for a while since they are so light and ‘thin’.
On the way home I noticed it wasn’t keeping time and that bothered me. It wasn’t until a couple weeks later that I noticed if you bumped it at all, the minute hand would just ‘move’. It would keep time just fine sitting on the desk, just don’t subject it to any movement.
I called Cisco Marketing to see if they’d swap me out. Turns out they were the last batch and since Cisco was in the process of changing logo’s there wouldn’t be anymore.
They suggested I send it to Skagen since it had a limited lifetime warranty.
Well I never did, that was until about a month ago. I printed out the RMA form, included Credit card info fully expecting to be dinged $30 bucks or so for the repair.
A couple of weeks passed and I noticed that Skagen had only dinged me $8.95 (plus the cost of shipping it to them). Which appears is the standard fee for warranty repair. (yes a fee for warranty work, go figure).
I was giddy, looking forward to getting a nice and relatively new watch back.
It arrived today.
I tore open the envelope, pulled out the slip and read it. Work performed Reseal Case & Attached Minute Hand!.
Then I pulled out the box congaing the watch. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Where was the minute hand? Floating around the number 1 and 2 on the dial, completely detached from the movement. Pfffft.
See:
(in the photo it’s floating over the #3)
So I turned it over to my wife to handle. She’s good with stuff like that. At first they wanted me to ship it to them again (at my cost) and that wasn’t going to fly.
But in the end they are supposed to take care of me. They are going to build me a watch. (sans the Cisco Logo) and ship it to me and pick up the bumb fix.
I’ll update if that doesn’t happen.













VS. 

_self
The Ohio Salvage Title Process
December 11, 2008 in Commentary, Just Ramblings, Vehicles by MAD | No comments
What a pain.
In June we purchased a nice/reasonable teenager car (1998 Escort ZX2). Fairly low miles, good tires, with heat and AC for $1500.
Last week it was wrecked, or rather run into in a parking lot incident. The damage wasn’t all that bad, but the suspension was broken.
The person was covered by Progressive. All in all the claim service has been decent. The problem is they won’t use any used/remanufactured/aftermarket suspension parts. So the cost of fixing the suspension pushed passed the value of the vehicle.
Hence, it’s "Totaled".
It’s still a decent car given it’s purpose. Good gas mileage, working AC, etc.
So we’re taking the settlement, minus the buy back ($250) and we’re going to fix it. Cost to fix: ~$1200-ish. that does not include a new bumper, but does include beating out the dent in the fender so it’s not so bad. Remember, teenage driver, to/from school and work is it’s primary purpose.
So, the Salvage process goes like this.
To get the settlement from Progressive I have to convert the Title to salvage. Cost: $5.00.
I then have to bounce next door and buy a Salvage Inspection Certificate. Cost: $53.00.
The car is now Salvage and as such is not licensed to be on the road. (We can’t drive it). It will be fixed tomorrow or Saturday, but we’re stuck. We can’t drive it until our inspection date which generally runs 30 days out. The body shop had an inspection certificate which they claim is transferable so they made the inspection appointment for us for Dec 22nd. So we’re without wheels until then.
We now wait for the car to be repaired, and for Dec 22nd to roll around. We are permitted to drive it to the inspection location (on the certificate).
Once it passes, we then have to go back to the Title agency and convert the title to rebuilt salvage. (Another $6.00). Then again bounce next door to the registrar and pay to have the plate put back on it (Another $4.50).
The little costs add up, but it’s more the time and running around that’s a big pain in the butt.
It seems to me that this whole process could be streamlined for instant rebuilds like ours. I recognize that most of them don’t go this way, but the typical 30 day lag for the inspection for instant rebuilds is a big inconvenience.
Another fine example of how efficient our governments are.