Joined the frenzy
Today was the first day of the long anticipated Florida appliance rebate program. It is in the same vein as the hugely successful cash for clunkers program that gave people an incentive to get out of their old piece of shit vehicle and into something newer and more fuel efficient. Well this program offers people cash to ditch older, inefficient appliances for new, efficient Energy Star rated models. It’s all part of the program to conserve resources which is a good thing in my book.
Each state was allocated funds for this program over the past year or so and each state decided on their own how to implement the funds. Florida decided to go the rebate on appliance route. The state didn’t do a real good job preparing for the program, they kept changing the rules. Initially they said that they were going to have a web site up and running two weeks before the program start date so consumers could register for a “priority number” which would give them preferential processing of their rebate. Basically if one rebate has a priority number and another one doesn’t, the priority number submission will get handled first. Well that site never launched. Instead they later said that you could only get the priority numbers today after 11 am, the launch day of the program.
I had talked to Ali about the program a few days ago. She seemed lukewarm to the idea of spending the money on new appliances since even though ours that are approaching 10 years old, still work. At the time I said fine, after all I can’t drive a dishwasher around the block.
Well today the program launched and I caught the fever. The 17 million that was allocated started dropping like a rock, just like they said it would. They expected all of the money to be used up the first day even though the program is supposed to run until May 10th. Well I decided I wanted to go look at appliances over lunch. My thought process was if it was a freaking zoo I would just say screw it. To my surprise, it wasn’t.
The appliance department at Home Depot wasn’t that full at all. There was only one other older couple there. I looked over the appliances and got excited about the prospect of saving money on the purchase price as well as saving money on energy costs. I figured the things we used the most were the best candidates for upgrades, the washer and dishwasher. Now of course there is no way Ali could stand having a washer without a MATCHING dryer so I knew a dryer would have to part of the equation.
I called up Ali and told her my plans. She was still at home so she hurried up and met me at Home Depot. Despite her initial rejection of the idea she was ok with us doing it, what woman wouldn’t want upgraded appliances? I showed her the models I thought would be a good fit, a LG front loading washer dryer set and a GE high tub dishwasher. She seemed to like the units and we agreed to move ahead.
There is one thing about the front loading washers/dryers that I HATE. They intentionally construct them in a way that puts their openings in an uncomfortably low position. To address the problem they will happily sell you a pedestal with a drawer in it to raise the unit for ANOTHER $200 + EACH. It’s a blatant rip off. Once again, if this was just Shawn’s world I would have said f the pedestals. Well Ali wanted them so we got them.
We wound up saving between 40-50% on the cost of the washer and dishwasher when you add in the 10% Home Depot was throwing in as well as the $75 you get for recycling the old stuff. However when you factor in paying for the pedestals that devours those savings pretty quickly. Eh the bottom line is we upgraded some of our most used appliances and saved over $600 compared to if we made this purchase outside of the rebate program.
HD wanted to charge $100 if they installed the dishwasher. I told them they could haul the old one out and I would handle installing the new one. $100 to connect a hose, some screws and a couple wires, f that, I’ll do it myself.
When I was waiting for Ali to show up I was mulling around the appliance area. Another old couple was there complaining about the rebate site being confusing and how the guidelines kept changing. The old guy that was missing half of his lower teeth used it as an opportunity to Obama-bash. “Yea it’s just like Obama, his mouth is always moving….” whatever that means. I tuned out the rest of his speech and told the wife what I knew about how the rebates were supposed to work. Sit there and complain about Obama while you are in there trying to take advantage of one of his programs. Old hypocritical turd.