I was shopping the other day when a sales associate came up to me. Looking to encourage me to purchase, he informed me cheerfully that the item I was looking at came with a 'guarantee'.
"Really?", I asked, "What kind of guarantee?"
"A Lifetime Guarantee", he informed me proudly.
"Whose lifetime?", I asked immediately.
"Huh??"
"Whose lifetime?", I repeated slowly. He just looked at me, puzzled.
"Whose lifetime is it guaranteed to last through? Yours...? Mine...?"
"Uhh... I don't know. No one's ever asked me that." (There's a long pause here, while I stare at him patiently, waiting for the obvious to occur to him.) "I could go ask my manager.", he finally said.
"You could do that", I replied, "I'll be right here."
Shortly, he returns to inform me that it is "guaranteed for the lifetime of the product".
"So the guarantee runs out when the product "dies" by not working anymore?", I asked.
"Right!" He's all smiles now, probably feeling very smart and successful for having found the answer to my question. I hated to disillusion him, but...
"You just told me that the guarantee is only good until the product stops working. That doesn't sound like much of an advantage. I wouldn't need a guarantee while it was still working, would I?"
This time, while he was off asking his manager, I just slipped out quietly...
*************
This post is part of the 2012 A-to-Z Blogging Challenge!!
*************
