I
was confused the other day (what else is new?) because someone told me I’d had
good luck when I was pretty certain I’d had bad luck. But let me start at the beginning.
Two
years ago, I finally invested in something I felt was a necessity where I currently
live – an automatic built-in generator system.
I made the decision after suffering through seemingly endless power
failures and spending the price of a new car on candles, flashlights,
battery-operated lanterns and oil lamps. I also bought so many batteries, I
owned stock in the Energizer Bunny.
The
most difficult part about setting up the generator was choosing which 12 things
in my house I wanted to hook up to it. The first few were pretty easy: the
refrigerator, furnace, well pump, stove, TV, water heater and a couple overhead
lights. The remaining choices were more difficult. Did I want to hook up the
automatic garage-door openers or the porch light? Was the washing machine more important than the dishwasher? Would
I rather have clean underwear than sparkling clean dishes? Should I connect a
light in the basement so in case I had to go down there, I wouldn’t trip on the
stairs and land on my head on the concrete? I spent days deliberating until I
finally was satisfied with my choices.
The
first year I had the generator, there were at least four power failures. If
someone walked by the power lines and coughed, the power went out. If a bird
flapped its wings too hard near the lines, the power went out. And every time
it did, my generator kicked right on and kept everything running smoothly. I
was thrilled.
Less
than a year later, however, I received a call from an electrical service in
Manchester telling me the manufacturer of my generator had issued a recall on
the transfer switch and it had to be replaced. They said it wouldn’t cost me
anything and they even would extend the warranty on my generator for an
additional year.
So
I had the part replaced and continued to enjoy the generator…until two weeks
ago.
The
wind was so bad that day, when I walked my dog, I had to hold her leash with
both hands or risk having her turn into a kite and go airborne. When I came home from my walk and was
heading up the driveway, I could hear the generator running, so I knew I’d lost
power. But it didn’t concern me, not
with my trusty system taking care of everything. The moment I entered the
house, however, I immediately sensed something wasn’t right.
For
some reason, the generator was powering only a fraction of what it was supposed
to. Even worse, it was powering things that were the lowest on my priority list
– the basement light, the bathroom light and the laundry room. No refrigerator,
no stove, no well pump, no TV. Just as
I was trying to remember where I’d stored the extension cords so I at least
could run one from a room that did have power and plug in the refrigerator, the
power came back on.
The
next day, I contacted an electrician. He came right over and spent a few
minutes testing the generator. He then
told me the transfer switch had to be replaced. He explained that 240 volts were coming out of the generator, but
the contactor mechanism in the transfer switch was outputting only 120, which
was too weak to run everything.
“You
mean the part that was recalled last year and replaced with a new one has to be
replaced?” I asked, shocked. “They removed a supposedly defective part and gave
me one that was even worse? I sure hope it’s still under warranty!”
The
electrician decided to check, and then spent the next hour on the phone, making
calls about my warranty.
“Yep,
the part is covered,” he finally said. “But I’ll have to order it from the
manufacturer. I’ll let you know when it
comes in.”
He
left and went out to truck, but he didn’t drive away. A few minutes later, he
came back inside and handed me a bill. “So for today, that will be $187 for
labor,” he said.
I
just stared at the bill. Labor? If he
considered talking on the phone to be labor, then I figured I’d spent most of
my life working as hard as a lumberjack.
After
he left, I decided to call the generator manufacturer to double check on the
warranty.
“We
won’t honor the warranty unless one of our authorized technicians determines
that a part is defective,” the woman who answered explained.
When
I told her what the electrician had said, she asked for the name of his
company.
“Well,
he’s not one of our authorized technicians,” she said. “So it doesn’t matter
what he said. One of our technicians will have to check your system. It won’t
cost you anything, and if he does determine that a part is defective, you’re
covered for both the replacement and labor.”
The
next day, the manufacturer’s authorized technician arrived to examine my
generator.
“Everything
looks fine to me,” he said after he did a thorough check. “I didn’t find
anything wrong with it.”
To
prove his point, he shut off the power. The generator sprang into action and
ran everything it was supposed to run. I felt like giving it a kick. It
reminded me of all the times my car had made terrible noises, but the minute my
husband took it for a drive to listen to what I was complaining about, it
purred like a kitten and he’d accuse me of hallucinating.
“Can
you try the generator just one more time?” I asked the technician. “I swear, it
hasn’t been working right.”
“Well,
maybe the electrician who checked it over managed to fix it by jiggling
something, and he didn’t even realize it,” he said.
“I
doubt it,” I said, frowning. “Not unless he did it by phone.”
So
the technician shut off the power once again. The generator popped on and this
time, powered only a portion of the house.
“Hmmm,
that’s weird,” he said, checking out the electrical panel once again with some
kind of testing device. Looking surprised, he finally said, “He was right –
it’s the transfer switch. It’s burned out. I have one out in the truck. I’ll go
get it.”
I
wasn’t about to argue with him, even though I found myself wondering how I was
going to gently break the news to the electrician who’d already ordered the
same part for me.
Once
the repairs were finished, the technician looked at me and said, “You know,
during the recall last year, we replaced about a thousand of these switches and
yours is the only one that’s had a problem. I think you should go buy a lottery
ticket.”
I
frowned at him. “Why? Doesn’t this prove I’m really unlucky?”
“No,
it proves you beat the odds.”
I
shook my head, not understanding his perception of good luck. “No,” I said.
“All it proves is that if only 500 tickets were being sold at a raffle and I
bought 499 tickets, the guy who bought the other ticket would win!”
He
laughed. “I still think you should go buy a lottery ticket.”
Well,
I didn’t buy one, mainly because I was too broke after paying $187 to the first
electrician for his labor.
Now
I’ll just have to wait until the next power failure to find out if my generator
truly is working at 100-percent capacity again.
I
shouldn’t have to wait too long. I think I saw a chickadee flying around near
the power lines yesterday.
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