Make Good Use of Warranties. You can save a lot of money by claiming warranties!

Product warranties are pretty common place these days. Usually products will have a warranty of a year or more that guarantees they will be good throughout that time. If it breaks or does not meet expectations, you can usually make a claim and get reimbursed or get a replacement item.

While warranties are common, it seems many people do not claim them even in situations where they could. This could be because they forget the product is covered under warranty so they just buy a new item. Or they may want to claim a warranty but they do not have the paperwork needed to do it. Or they are just lazy and don't want to do the work it takes to make the claim.

For most warranty claims, you usually have to have your original receipt that shows when and where you purchased the item. This is why it is important to save paperwork and receipts especially for larger purchases. The receipts often have the warranty details, but sometimes you may have to look them up on a company website to see how to make a claim.

It can take some work if you do decide to make a claim. You might have to fill out a form or mail something in. Despite the work involved, it is usually worth it if it means being able to save money either by getting a free replacement or by getting a discount on an identical item.

I have a couple examples recently where I was able to claim warranties and save quite a bit of money:

Years ago my car was hit by another car so I had taken it into a collision repair shop to have the body work fixed and painted. Then recently I noticed that the paint was starting to peel off. Just for the heck of it I looked up the receipt and saw it had a warranty that covered the paint for as long as you own the vehicle. So I made a few calls to the collision center and brought my car in to get checked out.

They looked it over and agreed to cover it under the warranty so I ended up getting my car repainted for free! This normally would cost a lot of money. I was able to claim this warranty because I saved the paperwork and followed through on the steps to make the claim.

Another car related warranty that I recently dealt with was for my tires. I purchased a set that had a tread wear warranty of 50,000 miles. Well after about 20,000 miles a couple of the tires were worn down to the bottom. I looked up the details of the warranty and saw that they should be eligible since they were rotated as recommended and I had the paperwork. So I was able to get a big discount on replacement tires based on the mileage that had yet to be fulfilled.

In situations like these, you could imagine that many people don't even think about the possibility of a warranty and they end up just paying full price to have a service done or have a product replaced when in many cases the warranty would cover it.

Next time you have a product that breaks or does not last very long, make sure to see if it is still under warranty and make sure to save your receipts so you can make those claims!

Loud Car Horns Should Be Illegal - Ban the use of train horns on vehicles

As the title states, loud car horns also known as train horns should be illegal. Chances are you have heard one of these horns out on the roads. They are extremely loud and startling. Given the fact that loud noises can cause serious damage to your ears, it does not make sense that a product such as a train horn that produces dangerous levels of sound is allowed to be sold and installed on passenger vehicles.

These kinds of horns are known to produce honks at 150 decibels. An impulse noise at that level can cause injury and pain to the ear and is unsafe to be exposed to it for any duration of time. So how is it legal that something like this is being sold to consumers to put on their vehicles?

Laws can be different depending on the location but most areas have a law prohibiting the use of an excessively loud warning device such as these horns. So if a police officer were to hear someone use a horn like this, they could very well pull them over and give them a ticket.

But this does not stop people from installing them on their vehicles and using them maliciously. Often there are warnings from the manufacturers stating that hearing protection must be worn when using these horns. Do you think anyone is following that warning? Unsuspecting people outside or out on the road certainly do not have that warning before they are assaulted by a horn like this.

A ticket or a fine is not enough for something that could cause permanent hearing damage to an innocent bystander who happens to be nearby one of these horns. Personally I have been lucky not to have this happen to me, but I have been exposed to other loud noises in the past which did have a lasting negative affect on my hearing so I take this topic very seriously.

Once your hearing is damaged, it is irreversible. So knowing that these kinds of horns are being freely sold to anyone who wants to put them on their car and go around blasting it at people is very troubling. Anyone doing this should understand these repercussions and know they could get themselves in additional legal trouble should any victim of their recklessness decide to press charges.  

I'm guessing this will be a very polarizing topic between those who are against loud horns like this, and those who think they should be free put them on their vehicles. Feel free to share your thoughts on this issue in the comments.

To everyone out there, please be careful with your hearing. If you are someone who has one of these horns, please be responsible and reconsider what you are doing.

Show Recommendation - Born This Way

 

I recently found a great series to watch so I wanted to share it here. It's called Born This Way and it is a documentary style show that follows the lives of several young adults who have Down Syndrome. The series originally aired on A&E and is available now streaming online on the Roku channel.

The show is centered around a main group of of about 7 individuals who are friends. It explores who each of them are, what their life is like, what their interests are, how they deal with relationships, what their family life is like etc.

As with most reality style shows, there is plenty of drama mostly when it comes to relationships. As each episode goes by we learn more an more about the cast members and see the challenges they face with their disabilities. All of them are wonderful and interesting people which makes the show a delight to watch.

One of the main themes is showing how individuals with Down Syndrome have the same kinds of feelings and dreams as those without disabilities. We see how they set goals and work to achieve them with the help and support around them. They are able to accomplish dreams such as starting a business, giving motivational speeches, being successful at a job, and even getting married.

The show spans 4 seasons and having watched the whole series, I highly recommend it! If you like feel good shows in a documentary style, you are sure to enjoy Born This Way.