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07 October, 2017

An Update to the Update; What Things Cost

OK. Here's an update on a little bit of what things cost. Our Sport Trac threw a timing chain about a month ago. I got it back this morning from our mechanic, Rick Magaña.

A month, you say? Isn't that a long time? In the US, sure. Here? I considered it almost lightning fast, especially when you consider having to find and ship a valve cover from the US, get the timing chain kit from Chetumal, etc., etc.
All in Belize Dollars (BZD)
Of course, this doesn't cover everything. the left valve cover simply wasn't available in Belize at the time, nor was it available in Chetumal. I had to order it from RockAuto (http://www.rockauto.com/). Including shipping from RockAuto to my shipper in Florida, the cost was $76.78 US.

My shipper, You Have Mail, part of PackYa in Florida (http://pakya.cargotrack.net) expedited it by air to Corozal. That cost $120.00 BZD. We use You Have Mail for small items only, and especially for items that need to get down here quick - repair parts, etc. It's not cheap, but hey, if you need something yesterday, they're the way to go.

So, taking the repair total from Rick, $2245.00 BZD, add in the $153.56 BZD and the $120.00 BZD and the grand total becomes $2,418.56.

Anyway, I have the truck back, it runs well, Tropical Storm Nate, avoided us, and life is good.

Just another snippet of costs. Yesterday morning our coffee maker died. I was planning to go into town to Courts to see about a replacement. We had paid about $70.00 BZD for one several years ago, a red Proctor Silex. It worked fine every day till yesterday.

Sometime during the morning, Dianna messaged Colleen about our coffee plight. Colleen happened to be in Courts looking for a mattress or something, took the following picture:
For Sale At Courts

Of course, this one is black, which is what we wanted when we bought the red one. Red was all that was available.

I showered, dressed and went down to courts, in our newly repaired Sport Trac, making sure to take the doggies with me.

In Courts, I found the pictured display model. Looking around, there was no one on the floor. Of course, it was lunchtime. Why have anyone on the floor? I asked the Cashier if anyone was working the floor? He ran and got the manager for me.

Well, in short order, the manager found that there were no Proctor Silex coffee makers available. In fact, there were none available in the warehouse or at any of the other Courts branches in the country. Well, bummer.

I pointed at the display and asked if I could get that one. He said yes, and I asked if there was any sort of a discount since it was a display model. He knocked $5.00 off the marked price. So, we got a new Proctor Silex for $55.00 BZD, a considerable savings over the $70.00 we paid before.

Well, there you have it. An update on what things cost here in Belize. I hope it helps.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Out Rodeo is still in the shop. Since January. So a month is lightning fast.

Winjama said...

Hi Colleen, Well, thanks to some great help from the Blogger Forum, I think my problem of not being able to reply to comments, or even to post comments has been corrected.
You're right of course, about your Isuzu Rodeo. It's been in the shop so long that Rick has farmed it out to another mechanic to see if he can troubleshoot it. Yes, mine coming back so soon was way faster than lightning fast. Cheers, Dave

Unknown said...

Just an update for your readers. The Rodeo spent a full year in the shop, cost $800 and stillhas a hard starting issue. Have sine spent $1600 on rebuilding the transmission which wasnt slipping until after the rebuild. And the EGR valve that was "probably" the root of all evil was replaced yesterday with an OEM from the states. Made not a lick of difference. And our 2nd car, that went in for a paint job and a replacement for the soft top, in January, is still in the shop. So glad we have good friends, bicycles and access to buses.

Winjama said...

Hi Colleen,
Well, you and Bruce have my every sympathy. I know, from hanging with you guys that you've been more than patient (Job would be a miser with patience, were your and his circumstances compared) with these business practices. It's always a mystery to me how crooks like these always manage to stay in business.

Down here, it's not unusual for a repair job for a vehicle or an appliance to take a couple of weeks or even longer, simply because of the general unavailability of parts. They have to be ordered in after the fact, and that delay is a major contributing factor.

In both of your cases, with the Isuzu and the little car in for a paint job, and roof modification, that undefined line has been crossed long, long ago.

Still, having said that, there are sometimes miracles of repair that do happen down here. Things that in the States or Canada would be throw-aways are as a rule repairable as a normal course of action, our microwave, coffee maker, my iPad LCD (I didn't even have to take it into an authorized Apple repair facility, just our local electronics repair shop), cell phones, and more often get a second, and third lease on life.

I guess that's what's so galling, the repairables you expect to be repaired, sometimes take more time than you would expect (your vehicles do take the cake in that regard), and some of the things that do get repaired amaze you that they were repairable in the first place. It is a true dichotomy. And, that's part of what keeps life interesting down here, the sometimes unpredictability of daily life here.