Categories
Home Appliances

What to do if your appliance breaks down after the warranty expired?

Living in a home with new modern appliances is so nice, because the appliances look great, work great and you should have a good warranty. However, most warranties on new appliances only last a year to five years if you’re lucky. So, one question we often get at the Robson and Associates Blog is what to do if the warranty on your appliance is void or expires after the appliance breaks down.

This can be frustrating, but don’t panic because there’s an easy solution. By the end of this, you should not only have your appliance working again but a new warranty on it. So let’s get started.

what to do if my appliance warranty expired

You may have a Samsung appliance with a warranty from Samsung, or you could have a Maytag appliance with a warranty from the store that sold you the appliance. Or, you could simply have a used appliance that never had a warranty. In either case, the first thing you want to do to fix your appliance that doesn’t have a warranty in place is to search local directories for an appliance repair company near you. But, here’s the trick: make sure to search only for appliance repair companies that offer warranties. Of course, if you had a warranty in place, you’d simply need to call the phone number on the warranty and submit a case. But sadly if you’re warranty is expired or void then you’ll have to pay up front for the repair yourself.

It’s unfortunate, but by paying an appliance repair company that offers warranties, you’ll be hitting two birds with one stone: your appliance will be repaired and you’ll have a new warranty again! Now, some companies offer free warranties, but mostly only for a year or two. Other companies make you pay for the warranty but it can last much longer. A good example is this appliance repair Victoria BC company which I found easily, because they often mention on their website that they offer “free 1 year warranties.”

If you decide to go with a company that doesn’t offer a warranty, you may find yourself exactly where you started before your appliance stopped working the first time. Say, if you’re fridge starts making a loud groaning sound or your washer stops spinning a few months after you got it repaired, you’ll be so glad you got the warranty again. The warranty also gives you peace of mind knowing you’ll be in good hands if you’re oven stops working or your freezer starts leaking, because all you have to do is make a call and you’ll get a free repair service.

I’ve met some people who can afford to get a new appliance every 5 years so they always have the best warranties in place, but not everyone can do that. The only time I’d recommend getting a new appliance to replace your broken one is if the repair cost is more than than the cost of buying a new appliance, which is rarely the case. Appliance repair technicians who offer warranties on their repair is your best bet, and now you know!

We hope your appliance gets up and running again, and that this blog article helped you make the wisest choice. Once again, thanks for visiting and we hope to see you soon.

Categories
Automotive

How the price of gas affects auto towing costs

With rises in prices of gas, labor and vehicles I often wonder how other aspects of society are impacted. For example, does a rise in gas prices suddenly make everything from taxis and food delivery more expensive, because these service providers must now pay more expenses to provide their services? The short answer is that, yes, rises in gas prices will eventually raise the cost of auto towing and other services in the automotive sector; however this will take time and and the price rise of auto towing will increase gradually rather than suddenly overnight.

We’ve already seen how people working for companies like Skip the Dishes are sharing a petition around the internet to raise their pay wages due to rising gas prices. The same goes for the auto towing industry, although we may not see the rises in auto towing costs immediately. Smaller towing companies, in order to keep their levels of profit from shrinking gradually, must in turn gradually raise the cost of their services.

So what’s the long answer? No one likes to pay more than usual for their service, but we must understand towing companies must adapt to stay afloat like everyone else. The hope is, as gas prices increase and cost of auto towing service increases as a result, wages will also increase. But this, too, will take time and not be seen overnight.

According to the blog post “How much does a tow truck cost in Victoria, BC?”, from a top-rated tow truck Victoria BC website, there’s “a minimum fee of $80” for towing service. Most companies will have this, precisely because it costs not just time and money but also gasoline for a towing company to come and provide service. Even if a tow truck only has to tow your car a few blocks, they may have to drive across the city to get to your location, hence the minimum fee. So, as gas prices rise even higher, we can expect to see this minimum fee rise over time.

What do you think about the rising gas prices? Feel free to contact us and share your thoughts. We’d love to read your comments.

Categories
Focus & Hardwork

A Tip for Working Hard

There’s never enough advice on the Internet for motivation. We all need inspiration sometimes. I have a special tip for doing hard work that isn’t talked about as much as some of the obvious tips, so I though it fun to share it today.

My special tip for working hard is quite simple. To motivate myself, I imagine two alternative scenarios. One scenario is what my future will look like if I work hard, and the other is what my future will look like if I slack off. I usually try to project my imagination at least 5 years into the future. I see the hard working version of myself and smile, then I see the slacking off version of myself and frown.

I’m known for being indecisive, but this tip really works for people with my personality type, because once I see a better option is available I’ll overturn anything in my way to achieve it. I couldn’t possibly live with myself knowing I chose the worse option for myself. Seeing what my life might be like in 5 years if I slack off is terrifying! I usually see me overweight on the couch, divorced with kids that hate me.

On the other hand, I see my life in 5 years after working hard and it’s all the inspiration I need to get up and work hard today. I see myself smiling around the dinner table with a healthy family. All the house chores are done and despite my hard work I get to enjoy a weekend with my wife.

Try this tip and see how it works for you!

Categories
Architecture Focus & Hardwork

Hiring the right window cleaners: It’s so hard to choose!

Herein lies my tale of my indecisiveness, something I’m glad to get off my chest. So enjoy!

For huge buildings with many giant windows it can be expensive to clean all those windows every year. High wise window cleaners for skyscrapers typically draw up contracts with the building owners or managers, and one of the reason why their fees must be so expensive is because they have to pay a lot for insurance considering the dangers of cleaning high rise windows. I could talk about this for ages, considering I always kept ease of window cleaning in mind when designing buildings with lots of windows during my career as an architect. But today I want to talk about something much less extraordinary in the world of window cleaning – I’m talking about washing the windows on your residential homes and my indecisiveness to choose the right company, to illustrate why I find it hard to make easy choices in life. Lastly, I want to share my solution to treat my indecisiveness.

Many of my friends prefer to clean their own windows, not to save money or to do a better job (because their whole family knows they couldn’t possibly do a better job than the professionals) but rather they clean their own windows because they find the work relaxing and it gives them a sense of accomplishment when completed. But I’m different. I always spend hours online finding who I think might be the best window cleaning company near me. I always tend to choose a different company each year, just for variety like how you never want to get the same cologne every single year, unless you’re that guy. Then again, if I found a company I really like for a certain location, then I might stick to using them indefinitely like I would for a cologne if I found one that was absolutely perfect for me.

For my summer cottage on Vancouver Island I typically choose this window cleaning Victoria company. I like how fun they are and they provide fair costs considering the highness of their quality. But for my other properties throughout North America I haven’t been so lucky to find my favorite window cleaners yet. In Ontario I might have found a company I can call again, but not with the same certainty as the services I found in Victoria that satisfy me so much. Hiring window cleaners, in other words, is hard for people with my personality type. I tend to do this with everything of importance. I can never watch the same movie twice, for example, and must always spend more time choosing a new movie to watch, usually more time choosing than the length of the actual movie! It means I rarely ever go to the same restaurant twice either, and when I do I never order the same thing as before. It’s so hard to choose! I’m always suffering from what you can call indecisiveness.

And so here, in everything I just told you, lies my solution to my inability to make easy choices. To practice making faster choices, and to be less picky, to spend less time choosing and to erase my fear of maybe choosing the wrong thing, I made this plan: for all of my properties in North America, I’m going to choose my next window cleaning company by pure randomness. Instead of taking what usually costs me several hours of browsing websites, I’m going to just pick the first window cleaning company that draws my attention. After doing this many times, and seeing the window cleaners come out to my properties to do the work, my hope is that I will have trained myself a little to get comfortable with easy decisions.

Of course, some things in life should never be easy decisions, like whether to take out a loan or get married, but with something as simple as hiring window cleaners I think my habit of taking too long to choose doesn’t serve me. So I ask you to wish me luck on my adventure to get better at making easy choices, and my well wishes go out to any of you reading this who also suffers from indecisiveness.

Categories
Architecture Engineering

Architecture vs. Engineering – What’s the Difference?

Often lay people confuse the terms “architecture” and “engineering, or mistake an architect for an engineer and vise versa. But what’s the difference? Today, we’ll answer that.

Architecture is the art of designing and constructing a structure, typically buildings, whereas engineering is the science of constructing sound structures and the use of machinery to do so. This means that an architect might design how a building looks and lay out the floorplan, but its the engineer’s job to make sure the building is constructed in a way that it’s structurally sound and won’t topple over after an earthquake.

An engineer’s job is not to care about how beautiful a building is, that’s what the architect does. And it’s not the architect’s job to to plan out the best materials and structures used for the construction, that’s the engineer’s job.

Because these professions are so similar and they both work on constructing buildings it makes sense why they might be often confused with each other. But now we know! I hope that clears up your question.

If you have more related questions don’t hesitate to contact us.

Categories
Focus & Hardwork

How classical music helps me work

I’m an old man now, listening to classical music like Bach and Mozart on a daily basis, but the habit didn’t just spring from the ether. Since I was 16-years-old, I’ve been listening to classical music to help me work.

Perhaps you’d be shocked to learn my parents hated classical and I picked up the habit all on my own. It all started while reading in the library at my high school one day. I usually found it hard to focus, as other students chatted loudly around me. But one day the school band was doing practice in the gymnasium next door, and I could hear them playing Mozart through the wall. At first I found the music even more annoying than the chatty students. Then, after reading in my booth for a half an hour I was shocked to realized I had blazed through my reading material an hour ahead of schedule. I thought, how could this be?

The next day was as usual, chatty students and no band practice. I compared it to the last day and began to miss the classical music. Back then even a Walkman that played cassette tapes were a new thing, so I used my dishwashing job to save up for one, which took about three weeks, then another week to buy a cassette tape of Mozart. Ever since then, even though AA batteries were expensive, my life had changed as I played Mozart in my headphones every day. To this day I blame Mozart for my straight A’s in school!

I carried the habit on to university where I majored in engineering and got an architectural degree. Now, whether I’m pressure washing my car or driving my wife to the store, I always have classical music playing. It helps me focus in a way that nothing else can. That’s the story of how classical music helps me work, and I hope it inspires you to give it a try.

Categories
Architecture Engineering

Introducing Mike George

An associate of Robson, Mike George is a prolific writer. Mike George is an alias for a business partner and dear friend of mine. Perhaps you’ve read his writing before, and you’d recognize his real name. For the sake of this blog you’ll know him as Mike George. Before I let him take the stage, let me say a few things about him. He writes mostly on topics pertaining to engineering and architecture, educated at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He’s volunteered to write for the Robson & Associate’s Blog about many topics. We’re excited to see what this blog can turn into in upcoming years thanks to his hard work. Now, Mike George, introduce yourself to our readers.

Greetings. My pen name is Mike George. It’s an honor to be a writer for the Robson & Associate’s Blog. I plan to bring educational and entertaining content to you all, using my knowledge in architecture and engineering to provide well-rounded arguments and opinion pieces on these topics. Thanks for having me, Robson. I, too, can’t wait to see what the future holds for this blog.

Thank you, Mike. The reader can look forward to seeing much of his writing on this blog. Thanks for being here.