New England B.S. Thread

We had windshields replaced on both my wife's Highlander and this Tacoma. Both were well done by Safelite. Mine was done after the initial repair failed and because of the collision avoidance camera it had to be done in the shop. Same shop that did this repair. They came out for the Highlander and did it in the driveway. Again, no issues.

 

I had Safelite replace the windshield in my F250, no front impact cameras or fancy BS. When they fed the wire cutter thing around the windshield, they accidentally got the wiring harness that connects to the OH console. Finished product looked great, but then I realized my microphone no longer worked. I called and they did fix the issue, they ordered a new harness and sent some guys to my house to pull the liner down and replace the wiring. In the end, they fixed their mistake without any pushback. I had them use OEM glass, never could tell a difference.

My current truck had the glass replaced at some point. It's not OEM and I don't know as if you'd ever know the difference. The only visual difference is the OEM glass had the Ford emblem whereas mine does not.

 

I have consistently had the worst experiences with windshield repairs. I've lost track how many times the one has been replaced in my truck, but I'm miserable to do with it.

Since we were speaking logistics awhile back, I have a real gripe with Musician's Friend. They share a parent company with Guitar Center. They were offering a 0% for 48 mo deal and 8% back in rewards on their guitar amps so I figured I'd snag one to match my cabinet. It's way more amp than I'll ever need, but it's a bit of a trophy and will look and sound awesome.

MF had the amp listed in stock, so after a fiasco trying to work with a chat rep (long story) I simply threw in an order from the website. I set up the financing and was happy. I then started reading some stories about how MF will have Guitar Center send items if it's quicker. The problem is that it doesn't matter if they're new in box, a demo unit, anything but actually "used", you run the risk of getting it. So when my amp arrived it was clearly a floor demo.

I called customer service and got a super nice rep who explained that is MF's policy and she thinks it's terrible (it truly is). Apparently the store is supposed to contact me if they plan to send me a floor demo unit and give me the option to cancel. She set me up to pick from MF warehouse stock for a new unit and took mine back without drama.

I cannot see how this policy does anything but damage their reputation. Apparently it's super common on guitars and people purchase one brand's guitar and end up getting in in another brand's gig bag and no paperwork, etc. I would be heartbroken, especially if it was a limited run piece. I don't necessarily have a gripe buying a floor model if I'm there to see and inspect it, but when it's effectively bait and switch, that's a whole other animal.

 

That's shit, I have no gripes with floor or demo units but you better damn well tell me and no way am I paying full price for it.

 

Hey, we still get snow, not as much as Maine/New Hampshire/Vermont/New York, but we can still get quite a bit!

 

This is more where I was thrown for a loop:

Then again, I left Maine/Southern NH to come here to get away from snow and cold. (and for any sort of industry other than BIW).

edit: I think I've posted this before.

 

If you look at a map or globe you'll see that southern New England are at roughly the same latitude as Spain and Portugal. Most of Europe is at the latitude of Maine, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. No wonder they don't need AC in much of Europe.

Of course through the generosity of our Canadian Cousins we get those cold fronts and winds that travel all the way down here from Hudson Bay to freeze our butts of for most of January and February.

The odds say that we are due for an especially cold and snow winter. I need to get the maintenance done on my snow blower over the next couple of weeks so I'm ready. Time to pull the roof rake out of the shed, make sure that I have sand and rock salt, my winter clothes are ready.

I effing hate winter.

 

Those states know how to take care of the snow. RI is always a mess after a storm.

 

Ugh, my neighbor had a snow blower out front by the road the other day when I drove by and I even thought to myself "I should swing back by with the truck later and see if it's up for grabs!" - chances are it just needed a shear pin (let's not get back into THAT conversation ) or a carb clean or something.

Yeah - Europe gets the Atlantic jet stream too, so even though UK is pretty far up there, it's a lot more mild.

We got a blizzard last year, but otherwise it was pretty mild except for a couple weeks in Jan/Feb, but it's been that way since I moved down here in 2016. So

We're not that bad at dealing with the snow, at least near Providence (I'm in EP). The problem comes in the off season, where Maine, NH, VT, etc know they have to rebuild their roads. RI is like "No, we're far enough south, we don't have that stuff, so we don't need to touch our roads!"

Some of them 'round these parts are bad, and I spent 4 years in Orono, Maine!

 

While what you say is true, the most important determination of temperature in Europe is not the latitude but the warm North Sea. I spent part of my youth growing up in Germany and because of the Alps in the south and the North Sea in the north the climate is the opposite of what you would expect. We lived two thirds of the way north in Germany and we rarely received snow that stuck and accumulated. In the Alps, well.....

 

Snow blowers are not that hard to repair. I kept two different friends three MTD built snow blowers going for several years. Cub Cadet, Murray, Yard Machines, Troy Bilt, some Craftsman, and other brands are made by MTD. There is a lot of parts interchange on those machines and one of the main differences is the colors. In theory you could make a multi color snow blower just using MTD parts. Kind of like that "One Piece at a Time" Johnny Cash song.

Ariens used to make a lower price line, Snow Tek I think.

There are lots of parts for Ariens and lots of good videos on YouTube on how to fix them. There are some not so good videos as well, so watch them carefully. People using lots of hammer to install or remove parts might not be the most skilled craftsman out there.

 

Yeah - I have a 3 car driveway and that's pretty much it. Other than the blizzard it usually takes me like 20 minutes to clear the snow.

 

How much do you charge? I have a four car driveway, a walkway, and some steps. Oh, and I like to have the roof edges done too. I'll get my wife to make you some hot chocolate, but I don't pay for travel. E. Providence is only about 45 minutes away from me.

Yeah, we had that one MF snow storm late January last winter. That was the storm that the idler pulley tensioner spring decided to crap out and kill the drive wheels on my Ariens. After 11 years, I guess I can't complain. As it happened there was a snowblower dealer that opened the next morning early. Since it was Sunday they were the only one open. That was about an hour each way, but I got the part and had the machine back on line that day.

Smart business people, other shops would have been smart to do that as the first big storm of the year always breaks machines. As I left with my spring, a line of cars started pulling into the parking lot.

 

Yeah, you have posted that picture before. I still don't want to believe it, but are summers are usually very warm and humid.
I am not saying we need to get 12'+ of snow every year, but a couple storms over 12" of snow are nice!
(I am one of the weird ones that likes driving in snow, it is the only time I can have fun in my truck on the roads.)

 

I like the snow only because if it's gonna be cold we might as well have something to show for it.

I like driving in the snow too.

 

Yup, if it only got to 34° during the winter, and all we had was rain, it would be miserable!

I am just tired of hearing people bitch that we get snow, yet they do not want to move to a place that is warmer/doesn't get any snow. I know there are alot of reasons people don't move (family, jobs, etc.), but if you have lived in New England all of your life, winter and snow should not be a big suprise every year!

 

Talk about snow in September


Not the biggest fan of kobalt in general but I picked up a few of these compressors today and am getting some others crap for some work rigs. Free shipping and cheaper than lowes. Just thought I'd pass it on.


https://www.kobaltusa.com/kobalt-ai...table-corded-electric-hot-dog-air-compressor/

 

Right? We're taking the ac out this weekend and I'm lamenting it lol

 

Surprise, no. Enjoyable, also no..

 

We tried. I joke I hate the cold but all things considered RI is great. I never bitch about the heat though. I will never complain about heat. That's my commitment. I will complain about cold, but in doing so I give up the chance to complain about heat

We tried. We started down the road to move to Austin but the cost of living is just bananaland. We'd both have to be working well into six figure jobs to afford a damn condo.

A move south is still within question but we have to take a step back and reassess. Now that Austin is struck, we have to find some more places to check out. NC SC is within reach too. Wife has struck Florida but we'll see.

How big are you damn window units? When we had one in our old apartment it was manageable.