Mitchell Test Equipment

WILTZ: Protection plans can be frustrating

By: Roger Wiltz , The Daily Republic

Radio-television money manager Clark Howard has saved Betsy and me a fair amount of money over the years with his advice. He doesn’t like service protection plans, and I have come to agree with him. The marketing for these plans is very aggressive, and these sales people do not like to take the word no for an answer.

When we bought a Chevy GM program car in Mitchell last fall, the dealer made his protection plan pitch. For Mother’s Day, the kids and I bought Betsy a new dining room table set — another protection pitch. It doesn’t seem to matter what the item is — even clothing is targeted! I’m telling you this because I want you to understand my attitude toward protection plans. The badgering gets old fast, and one almost needs an attorney to interpret the conditions of a contract.

My Eagle Fish ID 128 portable depth and fish finder recently died on me. This tool is one of the most useful pieces of equipment I have ever owned. When it came to locating deep water lake trout in the Canadian wilderness, we would have failed without it. Even though the unit looks like new, it is worthless as no one will work on it. I bought my Fish Eagle at Cabela’s about 10 years ago. It has served well, and I have no problem with Cabela’s.

Because of great customer service, Cabela’s is one of my favorite stores. A few years ago, I broke the tip off of my favorite rod by closing the pickup door on it. I took the broken rod to Cabela’s in order to buy a new tip that would fit. Even though I told them the truth, Cabela’s insisted on replacing the rod. I had a similar experience with a Cabela’s Prodigy reel. Yes, their customer service has been awesome.

I recently went into a Cabela’s store to buy myself a new portable depth and fish finder. When I went to pay for it, the cashier told me that for an additional $14, I could extend the Cabela’s 90-day protection plan that came with the unit to a full year. It rubbed me the wrong way. Shouldn’t a high quality unit be good for more than 90 days? I hesitated. Finally I passed on the plan and bought the unit.

Soldiers test FCS equipment in 'culminating' exercise | Article ...

&Quot;It's really easy," said Spc. David Mitchell, tanker with C Company, 2nd CAB, based at Fort Bliss, referring to the MAV. "It's like flying a remote-controlled plane, really - only it's slower. You can hit 'stop' if you don't know what you're doing, or you can make it hover. It makes it really easy to fly." Now the restructured spinout has the Army focusing all efforts on IBCT's with two phases: the early phase and what's known as the threshold phase. The current and early phase calls for systems to be fielded by the end of fiscal 2011, DeLuca said. Further upgrades - the threshold phase - are scheduled to be tested in 2013 and fielded in 2014. To DeLuca, the exercise showed the capabilities these experimental systems add to the IBCT, in the limited context. With spinout equipment, he said Soldiers used indirect fire to subdue targets. Without the equipment, though, Soldiers couldn't use intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets remotely -- but still accomplished the mission with direct fire. "What I like best about all of this is that we're getting an opportunity to use tools we've already learned and integrate them now with the new age of battle - new robotics, early warning devices and all that kind of stuff," said Sgt. Matthew Senna, A Co., 2nd CAB. "It's pretty much, in the long run, going to keep Soldiers alive." Even though it works in training scenarios, DeLuca said the equipment is in relatively early stages. Normally, equipment in these stages of development wouldn't land in Soldiers' hands to test for about two years. In the past, TRADOC leaders would normally come through Army development labs to give advice, he said - but nothing quite like this.

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