One of my common sayings is, “You get what you pay for.”  But sometimes you don’t actually get what you pay for, and that’s when you need to advocate for yourself.

People think about warranties when it comes to a new car (ok…not me…my last brand new car was purchased in 2002…but that’s a conversation for another day).  But a lot of people don’t think about warranties for smaller purchases.  But we all should.  For example, when I bought my camping cot, it failed after 11 months.  It wasn’t a terribly expensive purchase…only about $50.  But it lasted less than a year.  I looked into the warranty and found that it was covered for a full year.  I contacted the company and they sent me a new cot free of charge.  I bought my husband a tablet computer for Christmas this past year.  And when the display started failing, I looked into the warranty on that.  It was a year long warranty.  We had to send the tablet off for repair.  But at no additional charge to us, we have a fully functional tablet again thanks to the warranty.  Warranty coverage is not something I typically look into before I make a purchase.  But I probably should.  And it’s absolutely something I’m happy to take advantage of if something I own fails during its warranty period.

This past Saturday I was visiting my parents and my dad was complaining about how their internet connection at their house was really slow and disconnects a lot.  I checked in with a friend of mine down the street from them who uses the same company and learned that her connection is strong and fast.  So I sat down with my dad and the cable company on speakerphone.  I talked with the customer service rep through all of the various testing and modem resetting.  And the end result is that a technician will be visiting my parents tomorrow to fix their connection.  And why?  Because my folks were NOT getting what they have been paying for.  And I advocated for them so it would be fixed.

You get what you pay for.  Except when you don’t.  And that’s when you need to fight for what you deserve.  So you can actually get what you pay for.