Your electronic equipment and mechanical appliances always breaking down at the same time

How fate sometimes conspires in your favour. So much more considerate of washing machines, boilers, televisions and computers to agree the timing amongst themselves so that you only have the inconvenience one big upheaval rather than lots of little ones spread over weeks and months. Think of all the waiting-in time you save by getting several repairmen and installers all to call on the same day . There may even be cross-overs and doubling-up benefits too : you can try out that quot-line which repairmen with applicable skills never tire of hearing which is “ Oh , and while you’re here….” They will be only too happy to forgo another call-out charge. The most commonly posted quot about conspiratorial technology is ‘Machines always breaking down at the most inconvenient moments’ . This includes mobile phones when the battery dies or they run out of credit mid-call , but with any machine it usually turns out that it’s only the malfunction itself which makes the moment inconvenient which it would otherwise not be. Whoever it was that posted ‘ Windscreen wipers only ever packing up when it’s raining ‘ gets short shrift too for the same sort of reason. But the inevitability of machines all crashing and going down simultaneously is something you’ll probably find gets a mention somewhere in the small print on the guarantees.

(Keith Woolstock, Chelmsford) - QQQQ*