I think it’s always for the best to invest in any service plan offered for your appliances at home, as well as your car. Turning down a four-year warranty on a new car is foolish, but imagine turning it down when it would only cost you an extra $10 per month! I don’t know about you, but I just think that’s ludicrous. Some people are terribly frugal though, and I would know – my wife is without question one of the stingiest people I know! This is the same woman who believes that a $2 tip is fair and reasonable, no matter how expensive the bill is! What’s even more amazing is that this isn’t even the worst thing she’s done. When we were still just recently married, my wife and I dealt with our home’s heating and air conditioning system enduring a major breakdown. It was bad – bad enough that our ductwork was compromised by an extreme backdraft of dirt, dust and debris from the outdoors. I won’t get into the specifics of how it happened, but let me tell you this – whole-house fans are definitely more powerful than you’d expect, and you’d better make sure that every window in the house is open when you use it! Anyway, we had an HVAC service technician come by the house to perform maintenance on the system and appraise the ductwork replacement costs. When he came back with the estimated charges for cleaning out the ductwork, he even went as far as itemizing the actions taken to clean the ducts, and showed the individual charges for each action. Still, this wasn’t enough for my money-conscious wife, as she refuted his quote and insisted he do it for free. “You never told us the whole-house fan could damage our system the way it did”, she explained, “so I think it’s only fair that you get our ducts cleaned at no charge as a show of good customer service!” I couldn’t believe she said it, and I especially couldn’t believe her strong-arm approach worked.