[Electronics-Talk] My Microwave Shopping Experience

Wed Nov 9 23:58:03 UTC 2016

Hello,
Unfortunately, I've also observed instances of price gouging. Thanks for 
telling everyone Gerald. This shows me that sometimes its better to buy a 
conventional product from a store and modify it yourself if possible.

This microwave example is not the first or last instance of such practices. 
buyer beware.
Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Gerald Levy via Electronics-Talk
Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2016 8:32 AM
To: Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances
Cc: Gerald Levy
Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] My Microwave Shopping Experience

I discovered yet another example of price gouging by a blindness products
merchant. Maxi-Aids currently sells a conventional compact 0.7 cubic foot
microwave that comes with tactile markings already on the touchpad keys for
$119.99 plus $15 for shipping.  Wow, you might think.  This is a pretty good
deal!  But upon further investigation, it turns out that this model is
essentially equivalent to the Magic Chef MCM770W 0.7 cubic foot compact
microwave that is currently selling at Home Depot for $39.88. Of course, the
latter does not come with tactile markings on the touchpad, and must be
labeled by the customer with the help of a sighted assistant.  So how can
Maxi-Aids justify charging three times as much for its compact microwave as
Home Depot just for placing tactile markers on the keys?  Is Maxi-Aids
really doing its blind customers a favor by charging them a premium of$80
for this additional convenience?    I don't think so.  The blindness
products merchants are notorious for deliberately omitting specific brand
names and model numbers from their product descriptions to make comparison
shopping difficult. But I am almost certain that the compact tactile
microwave that Maxi-Aids sells is made by Magic Chef, just like the talking
model they sell for the outrageous price of $370. Caveat emptor!!!!

Gerald

-----Original Message----- 
From: Andy Baracco via Electronics-Talk
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2016 9:51 PM
To: Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances
Cc: Andy Baracco
Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] My Microwave Shopping Experience

You can buy 5 or 6 of the standard model for the price of the talkie.
Andy

-----Original Message----- 
From: Gerald Levy via Electronics-Talk
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2016 12:14 PM
To: Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances
Cc: Gerald Levy
Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] My Microwave Shopping Experience

Well, for your information, the conventional Magic Chef microwave that I
purchased at Home Depot for $59.88 is made by the same company that makes
the $370talking model, and so it most likely shares some of the same
components and may even be manufactured in the same Chinese factory.  So
just because the talking model costs six times as much as the comparable
conventional model does not necessarily mean that it will ultimately prove
to be more reliable or last longer.    If you shell out $370 for the talking
model and it bites the dust, you're totally screwed, even if it's still
covered by the warranty.  That's because in order to get warranty repair,
you have to carry the unit into an authorized repair shop.  Good luck
finding one nearby.  This means that you will need someone to drive you
there to drop it off and again to pick it up once it's fixed.  At least if
my cheapo microwave dies prematurely, I haven't thrown out a lot of money,
and I can just buy another one, which would ultimately be less expensive and
more hassle-free than having it fixed.

Gerald

-----Original Message----- 
From: James Aldrich via Electronics-Talk
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2016 12:47 PM
To: Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances
Cc: James Aldrich
Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] My Microwave Shopping Experience

Hi Gerald and all,

I'd rather not have all those features!  My wife is diabetic and she would
have problems distinguishng markings by touch!  Our talking microwave  has
lasted us for some time!  Tell us a year from now whether your microwave for
$59 is working a year or two from now!

Jim

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 5, 2016, at 5:38 AM, Gerald Levy via Electronics-Talk
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

A few days ago, I posted an announcement on this list that BlindMiceMart had
the Magic Chef talking microwave oven on sale for $314.49.  By some amazing
coincidence or maybe just bad luck, that very evening, when I pressed the
Start key on my 15-year-old Panasonic microwave to reheat some leftover rice
for dinner, I heard a loud zap like a bolt of lightning, and suddently,
poof, just like that, this trusty kitchen workhorse went completely dead.  I
guess some Halloween gremlins must have infiltrated it, and it bit the dust
forever.  Anyway, because I cannot function well in the kitchen without a
microwave, I immediately went to work researching a new unit online.
Fortunately, Home Depot had Magic Chef microwaves on sale, and I was able to
download and read the PDF manuals for a few models I was interested in from
their web site.  The following mornig, my sighted lady friend and I and her
sister, who has been staying with us, proceeded downtown to the Home Depot
store on 23rd Street in Chelsea, just down the block from Selis Manor, the
residence for the thblind in front of which a terrorist bomb exploded in
September.  I figured this particular store had a lot of experience dealing
with blind customers.  We were greeted by a very helpful salesman who showed
us the three Magic Chef models I was interested in.  I finally settled on
the Magic Chef HCD1110B 1.1 cubic foot 1000 watt microwave, which was on
sale for $59.88.  This model is essentially the conventional equivalent of
the talking model sold by BlindMiceMart and other merchants.  Although the
carton was bulky and weighed about 30 pounds, the three of us managed to lug
it home in the subway.  Really.  I unpacked the carton, placed the new
microwave on my microwave cart in place of the old one, and plugged it in.
To my great relief, it beeped immediately to indicate that it was working.
My lady friend placed tactilemarkers on the Start, Stop,Popcorn, and numpad
5 and 0 keys, and I’m back in business.  I can easily set the cooking time
by touch and make microwave popcorn with a single touch of the Popcorn key.
By repeatedly pressing the Start key, the cooking time can be increased in
30 second increments up to a maximum of 5 minutes.  So to set the cooking
time for 3 minutes, all I have to do is press the start button six times.
What could be easier?  I use my microwave mostly for reheating and cooking
salmon and TV dinners.  Magic Chef is apparently the house brand for Home
Depot, and they have a range of models from 0.7 cubic feet to 1.6 cubic
feet.  All models share the same flat membrane touchpad with similar key
layouts which can be labeled with tactile markers as desired.  Just out of
curiosity, I checked the instruction manual for the Magic Chef talking
microwave and was absolutely shocked at its dearth of features.  Unlike my
new conventional Magic Chef, which had five one-touch cooking keys
(beverage, dinner plate, pizza, potato and popcorn), plus four auto cook
keys and an auto defrost function, the talking Magic Chef has no such
features.  It just has tactile keys to set the cooking time and clock, and
that’s about it.  It doesn’t even have a display for the benefit of sighted
users.  And setting the cooking time on this unit sounds like a royal pain.
So for $315 on sale and $370 when it isn’t, the Magic Chef talking microwave
is one of the biggest ripoffs in the blindness products arena.  How can the
blindness merchats justify selling this model for five times the price of my
conventional Magic Chef microwave, which has more features and is easier to
use?  As my experience demonstrates, it is still possible to find a
reasonably priced microwave with a membrane touchpad that can be made
accessible with tactile markers. There is no need to spend hundreds of
dollars for a unit with speech output.  If MCA International Inc., the
Chinese company that produces kitchen appliances under the Magic Chef brand
name can make a conventional 1.1 cubic foot model that sells for $60, there
is absolutely no reason why a talking model of similar size and wattage from
the same company should cost five or six times as much.  This is pure price
gouging by the blindness products merchants, plain and simple, and we blind
consumers need not be taken advantage of.

Gerald

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I'm not wearing a diaper, so don't try to change me.

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