Around my house, my husband Charlie is called “60 Day Man.”
He’ll purchase a mattress that has a 10-year warranty, keep it for 9 years and 11 months, then return it during the last month to get a new one. He doesn’t just do it with mattresses though. He does it with vacuum cleaners, washers, dryers, blenders, air conditioners, heaters, DVD players and stereo equipment. (How he is able to keep track of all those deadlines, I’ll never know.)
Last January, after the really bad rainstorms, our house and our neighbors’ homes got flooded. We needed to purchase a wet/dry vacuum to clean all the floors.
We shopped around, but a high-powered one cost more than $500. Renting one would be too expensive as well.
Charlie just happened to see one advertised in an infomercial, which was guaranteed risk-free, in a “try it for 60 days, return if not completely satisfied” promotion.
He ordered it, got it three days later, used it to clean our entire house, which took two days, then he rented it out to our neighbors to clean their houses as well.
After all the neighbors had cleaned their carpets with it, he called the company and told he didn’t like the vacuum. The company took the machine back and refunded his money. On top of getting free use of the wet/dry cleaner, he earned an extra $300 by renting it to all the neighbors on our block.
What a freakin’ cheap bastard. – Cindy, Huntington Beach CA
