[Electronics-Talk] My Microwave Shopping Experience

Mon Nov 14 03:43:48 UTC 2016

You get what you pay for. That saying is so true.

-----Original Message-----
From: Electronics-Talk [mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of James Aldrich via Electronics-Talk
Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2016 10:42 PM
To: Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances
Cc: James Aldrich
Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] My Microwave Shopping Experience

Hi again,

My brother repaired my microwave and he came here to get it and brought it back again!  It outlasted all microwaves we had previously!  I can set my cooking time exactly and can operate all functions. 

I'm glad you are happy with what you have! Tell me in two years if it is still working!  That is all I ask! I'm very pleased with my talking microwave!

Jim

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 9, 2016, at 4:58 PM, Ashley Bramlett via Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

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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