In Which the Washer and Dryer Get Returned Before They Are Even Delivered

Last week when I bought a refrigerator it was kind of by accident.  I have "buy new refrigerator" as one of my annual goals and I happened to be at Best Buy and saw a great sale on a scratch and dent refrigerator. The scratches were barely noticeable, the small dent was in the back where it couldn't be seen, the price was excellent, and it was a Whirlpool which is a good brand so I bought it immediately.  I then went home and read the reviews about the refrigerator and it got 4.5 stars out of 5 by more than 30 reviewers so I was happy with my purchases (and FWIW, the reviewers were correct when they said the ice maker was loud and sometimes the ice gets stuck in the chute but we can live with that.  In other words, I take what reviewers say to heart because they are generally right on about the item they are reviewing--barring the few reviews where it sounds like the reviewer was paid to write a great review or the rare reviewer who happens to get stuck with a lemon when generally the product is very good).

Fast forward to last night.  I forgot to check the reviews for the washer and dryer set that we had bought and which was scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday so I hopped online and found these reviews and was pretty disappointed.  I mean this is a Maytag which is supposed to be a good brand and there was the lonely Maytag repairman all those years ago! The reason I chose this set was that the price was good and the washer was a top loader (I loathe the new and popular front loaders as you practically need to stand on your head to get the clothes out of them or you can pay $400 extra for empty metal boxes that raise the machines up, neither choice I like).  My grandmother had Maytags, my mother had Maytags, and I had Maytags and they used to last forever.  Plus I've had a number of friends spend a lot of money on expensive front loading machines and then need to make service call after service call because they have problems with them.

What I want in a washing machine is a good, solid, basic machine that washes my clothes and will last for decades (like appliances used to, apparently this isn't often the case these days).  The set we have now was bought used and while they work well, there is too much vibration in the washer--it doesn't hop across the floor but it does shake a lot.  So after much research last night, I cancelled my order for the washer and dryer and got a refund and how have my heart set on this washer and dryer set.  Since this set will cost nearly a thousand dollars more than the set we had purchased, I have decided to wait a couple of months to save up a bit more money before we buy them.