Necessity Makes Strange Bedfellows

There is never an opportune moment for a refrigerator to break down. When it does a wholesale scramble begins to find a cool place to store all of your chilled goods. We are fortunate in that we have a small auxiliary freezer, so the frozen goods were stuffed in there. We also had, earlier this year, also bought the high dollar Igloo equivalent of the Yeti cooler. That gave us a place to put the refrigerated goods. We also used the opportunity to thin out the refrigerator. The technician that came over to diagnose the fridge, did not engender a lot of confidence. However, the evidence of ammonia leakage was readily apparent and the unit was declared unrepairable. We managed to get the technicians fee cut in half-he wasn't there long enough to merit any more-and got a rough quote of $1200 plus installation. Before he was out the door I had a business on the phone willing to sell me a refrigerator for $300. It turns out the salesman that sold us our 5th wheel was willing to help us out. I didn't care for him as a salesperson and my judgment was right on; he now runs the parts department for them. Missy and others have made fun of my hours spent poring over the internet. Let me tell you something folks, I have saved thousands of dollars (if not more) and learned a PhD's worth of free information doing it. Part of our problem with RV techs (besides the trouble of finding a knowledgeable one that will come out) is that we possess more than enough knowledge to tell when the guy knows what he is doing; or doesn't. It's frustrating; pure and simple. Another thing that I refuse to do is to pay the original quote; unless it is reasonable and fair. Anyway, every deal comes at a cost, and the cost of this one involved a trip to Houston to pick it up. Even so, with a quote of $1200 for the refrigerator and another $300 to install it, I believe we are money ahead. We had to get a little help manhandling the fridge; but then it was simply four wires, a propane line and a few screws. Add a tank of diesel for the truck and a few hours of our time and the $1500 fridge was in at less than half the quoted price.