It's been awhile.
And it's official, Rebekah and I are heading back to the midwest. I start a new job in mid-March in La Crosse, WI. It's close to both of our families (at least driving distance now), and it'll be a bit of a smaller town, which we are looking forward to. That's not to say we won't miss San Diego -- we've made lots of friends we will miss, and have grown accustomed to the wonderful weather.
Every once and awhile an item breaks within a year or so of you buying it. These aren't electronics, which if having issues seem a bit more commonplace, but hard line items like furniture. In the last year I've had a few things that have broken before their time. I'm always amazed that by calling up the manufacturer you can have a replacement part within a few days.
My desk chair assembly was one of the first things that broke, and it broke about three times. Since there was a 7 year warranty on it, I simply kept calling them up and getting a new one sent out. Granted this was a $50 'leather' chair from a big box store, but I still wanted my money's worth. The third item they sent out was re-engineered, and I never had a problem again.
The next item that broke was the step on my stainless steel trash can. Now you'd probably think just to replace the whole thing, but I had bought it about 6 months prior, and it wasn't cheap. I emailed Simple Human (manufacturer), and had a part (again re-eingeered) in two days. Most recently Rebekah's desk broke, I had to get ahold of Target to find out who the manufacturer was. I called them and they sent our a replacement part with no hassle.
Some would say when you pay more money (in the case of the Simple Human trash can anyways) you should get a better product that doesn't break. I believe this, but things are going to happen, and it's how you stand behind your product that actually matters. It seems like most people would just live with the broken product, or throw it out, without even realizing you can get it fixed for free. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.