“To be or not to be, that is the question”, I think of that famous quotation sometimes when I get a quote. I question internally if the person supplying the quote should be allowed to ‘be’ or not as it’s usually ridiculous.  A few weeks ago I went down to the technical fix it shop, a strange place with a sliding door entrance. I knew it was twenty dollars just to breathe in the front office so took a big mouthful of  polluted commercial road atmosphere in with me – not much use as there were a couple of folks before  me. An Asian lady was trying to escape from the shop with a huge mixing console but she needed assistance – she looked like she was wrestling the proverbial gorilla. 

My turn, I plonk down the silver face of the Pre-amplifier, and explain that it is dead. Could they have a look at it.
  “our minimum service charge for a quote on fixing this will be $120″
my head bows and stays bowed in resignation. One twenty just for a look! – what if there’s some major fixit job needed? – dollar signs fly in my mind like pigs with wings- satan sits at my left shoulder saying ‘abandon’
“OK”. I reply.
She taps at the computer while fluros hum and my feet taps on the boring linoleum.
  “been here before”
“Yep. Penton , Greville Street, “
she finds my details and shaves ten dollars of the ‘quotation’ for being a prior customer.

Days pass – a week – ten working days in fact before I get a call from a committed fixit surgeon who delivers the bad news- cancer- so bad that it’s inoperable. The cost of replacement almost as much as the unit. My thoughts turn to E-bay, how can  I recoup that hundred bucks…..?