Preferred Shipping Method: Overnight, Ground or Pony Express?

I don't often purchase big ticket items. This is even true when I am in really good shape financially. The biggest exception to this rule was my car that I bought almost 8 years ago and to a lesser extent the 42 inch lcd hdtv I bought two years ago this Thanksgiving. It was (price omitted by editor) at the time which for the quality of television I was buying was a great deal. It is easy to forget now but hdtvs were extremely expensive in the not so distant past. When I bought the television all of my finances were in order and I have to say although it may be difficult for some to believe I really feel like it has been well worth the money.

Recently my television fell ill so I brought it to the local electronics hospital. They are the only place that repairs electronics anywhere near where I live so I didn't really have a choice. Everyone I know who has ever brought anything to them to fix has told me horrific tales of their service. Again I didn't have a choice to go somewhere else so I begrudgingly brought my beautiful wounded television to them in hopes they could resurrect it. I had to leave them a deposit of (dollar amount omitted by editor) to get them to look at and they said if it was going to cost over (dollar amount omitted by editor) to fix it they would call and ask if I wanted to fix it. If it was under (dollar amount omitted by editor) they would fix it without calling. As much as I didn't want to pay more than (dollar amount omitted by editor) dollars to fix it I knew that even with the recent price drops for the holidays I would not be able to get a comparable television for anywhere near that price so I would be willing to fix it for more than that price.

I waited for them to call, but they never did. I dropped it off on October 30th. When I called a few weeks later they said they had not looked at it yet. I called back a week later and was told it was going to cost approximately (dollar amount omitted by editor) to fix it. They did not call me as they said they would if it was going to cost more than (dollar amount omitted by editor) and it was just expensive enough that I really couldn't justify spending that much to fix it, but I reluctantly told them to do it. They told me it was going to take two weeks to get the part and another week to fix it. If what they told me is actually accurate, which is highly unlikely because it would be the first thing they told me that they followed through on, that means I dropped the television off on the day before Halloween and got it back a week before Christmas. I can't imagine a company being less efficient.

Imagine if you went to the hospital and they told you they you they were going to have to give you a kidney transplant. You would surely be upset and assume that you would be on a waiting list. Imagine then after two weeks they said no there is no waiting list they actually have the part we are going to order it tomorrow and it will be here in two weeks. It will take us a week to fix it. Now I know it can take a long time to get organs due to having to find a match and it is just a metaphor I realize my television being repaired is not as important as someone receiving a kidney, but in the time it took them to diagnose and fix my television I could have taken a course on fixing televisions traveled to wherever it is they are ordering their parts from and fixed the damn thing myself. Of course they haven't actually fixed it yet so I am probably being too optimistic in my assessment of their service.

I referenced the Pony Express in the title of this post, but I think I was not harsh enough in my criticism. If someone was living in Massachusetts in the year 1770 they would have expected to receive goods from the Dutch East India Company quicker than my television will likely be fixed. They would have been shipped from Europe by boat and the parts from my television were likely shipped from New Jersey or possibly from the far off land of California. If it was California I humbly apologize to the noble television smith who fixed my television as it is a great journey by pony from the land of California. I should be grateful that by some wonderful Providence the part ever made it. Oh wait I haven't actually confirmed that they received the part yet. So in the meantime I pray for the health of the pony and the courageous carrier who has traversed the difficult terrain all the way from California to attempt to deliver the part to the local television smith in hopes that he can use his skills learned in his years of apprenticeship in the Television Smith Guild of America to fix whatever ails that magic box I have given him.