Shipping and Receiving

OK, not the most scintillating stuff, but it's good to know which companies actually stand behind their products.  I got my bus powered OTG hard drive back from Other World Computing after a week or so.  It had a defective bridge card, which they replaced, and then sent it back to me.  In the end, getting the drive made whole cost me nothing more than a trip to the UPS store. It also made me happy that they repaired the drive rather than tossing the whole thing and shipping a new package to me, less e-waste.  Very pleased how that played out, however, if I had needed the drive during this time period for work I would have been out of luck.  That is always something to think about when considering whether to buy locally or over the Internet.

What my living is starting to look like......

My Streamlight Scorpion flashlight also went haywire after a recent job.  Happily, I had purchased it from an authorized reseller (meaning it was covered by the lifetime warranty and also meaning it was more expensive).  I shipped it back to them, at my expense, they replaced pretty much most of the flashlight except for the shell and shipped it back to me with new lithium batteries.  Again, they replaced what needed to be fixed/upgraded rather than throwing the whole thing away and sending a whole new package.  In the end, it cost me about $5.00 to ship it to them, which was offset by the cost the new batteries.

The whole idea of buying junk that you throw away after a short time drives me crazy.  I guess this post really isn't about warranties, rather it's about thinking of how much waste you generate in your professional life and trying to minimize it.  I upgrade my computers rather than buying new and generally wait to buy something until I absolutely need it.  It makes good business and environmental sense.