Buying a Wheel (Patreon)

A story from my life circa 2013.

My house is hard on office chairs. I don’t find this surprising. We have people over 2-3 times a week every week, sometimes for 12-hour gaming marathons. We laugh, we flail, we lean sideways to pick dice up off the ground, and a lot of us are big folk. Our chair breakage rate is much higher than average.

So, when we buy new office chairs, we get a warranty. Because there's about a 75% chance that a wheel will break within 12 months. And unlike most people, my wife can keep track of these things, so we can actually make claims.

We bought two new chairs in January, and the three-year warranty that was offered with them. A few months ago a wheel broke, we made a claim, and they sent us a box of 5 wheels. No fuss, no muss. The wheels have continued to break (in both chairs), and we've just slapped in new ones out of the box without bothering to make a claim. The chairs are otherwise very comfortable and well-made.

But we ran out of wheels, so we called to make a second claim. And the warranty people insisted on paying us for the cost of the chair and the warranty, then cancelling. Now let me be clear, we're getting a 100% refund of the full price of chair, taxes, and warranty. I really can't complain. But we're not getting a new wheel. We like these chairs, but the warranty people were flat unwilling to send another wheel. Only the money for the whole thing.

So, we went to the website of the store we bought the chair from,to order a replacement wheel. And we can DO that… but only in sets of 2 wheels, at the cost of 35% of the cost of the whole chair. To get 6 wheels would be as much as the cost of the whole chair and warranty. Which would break even… but I expect in 10 more months we'd run out of wheels.

Since I had the chair upside down, I saw the manufacturer had a customer service number, so we called it. I explained I wanted to buy new wheels. The nice lady got the information on when and where I had bought the chair, and assured me it was still covered by the manufacturer's warranty. All I needed to do was photocopy my receipt, write a letter explaining the issue, fax it to their office, wait 5-7 business days…

"Can I just buy a box of wheels?"

"Well, yes…. But you won’t be able to make a claim on the warranty to cover it. It's FREE with the warranty."

"How much is a box?"

"$10, plus shipping, for a box of five."

"So let me get this right. I can buy a box of five wheels for just $10."

"Plus shipping!" She wanted to make SURE I understood that additional cost.

"Okay. I'd like to do that, if I may."

"Oh. Ah, okay. I… I can do that."

So, I have been paid back for the full price of the chair, and gotten five more wheels for $10, plus shipping. I can do this ten times before it equals what I paid for the chair. And I'm happy to keep paying $10 for a comfortable chair.

Plus shipping.