REPAIRMEN MAY GYP YOU-1951
"For six months," says The Neiv York Herald Tribune, "the two authors of this perturbing little volume made a nationwide investigation of the higher nature, if any, of the American repairman. Buying a used car of distinguished make, they engaged the assistance of a lady who looked more helpless than she was, and traveled 19,000 miles, with 1,700 calls on repair shops." "And no one," adds the Boston Post, "could ever pass this book with indifference Whatever your experience with repairmen may have been, you'll find its counterpart here. You will point it out with great satisfaction, and you'll say: 'There! That's exactly what happened to me once.' And you're lucky if it has happened only once. The Post can't think of any subject for research that touches more people. Buy this book, and you will get your money back, over and over, in amounts saved through your wisdom." "There are some amusing stories in it," says the Baltimore Sun, and the Washington Post thinks that the funniest were "the authors' experiences with the Rube Goldberg testing machines used by some shops to impress customers." "The articles in The Reader's Digest were interesting," remarks the Springfield Republican, "but they left room for doubt. The book, however, with details of the almost laboratory caution used by the authors in making their tests, is alarmingly convincing."
"For six months," says The Neiv York Herald Tribune,
"the two authors of this perturbing little volume made a
nationwide investigation of the higher nature, if any, of the
American repairman. Buying a used car of distinguished
make, they engaged the assistance of a lady who looked
more helpless than she was, and traveled 19,000 miles, with
1,700 calls on repair shops."
"And no one," adds the Boston Post, "could ever pass
this book with indifference Whatever your experience with
repairmen may have been, you'll find its counterpart here.
You will point it out with great satisfaction, and you'll say:
'There! That's exactly what happened to me once.' And
you're lucky if it has happened only once. The Post can't
think of any subject for research that touches more people.
Buy this book, and you will get your money back, over and
over, in amounts saved through your wisdom."
"There are some amusing stories in it," says the Baltimore
Sun, and the Washington Post thinks that the funniest were
"the authors' experiences with the Rube Goldberg testing
machines used by some shops to impress customers."
"The articles in The Reader's Digest were interesting,"
remarks the Springfield Republican, "but they left room
for doubt. The book, however, with details of the almost
laboratory caution used by the authors in making their tests,
is alarmingly convincing."
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WATCHES 159<br />
quently not at all a watchmaker, he is a watch<br />
repairer. Sometimes he is neither of these, but a<br />
high-pressure salesman who farms out his repair<br />
work. Whatever he is,<br />
he is<br />
permitting his fellows<br />
to prostitute the watchmaking art. His is<br />
one of the few handcrafts which can flourish even<br />
in an age of mass production; yet he himself is<br />
betraying it.<br />
Just about half of the watch-repair shops<br />
gypped us. That is what we discovered as we submitted<br />
to watchmakers in all forty-eight states<br />
watches with the simplest possible trouble. We<br />
obtained 462 clean-cut tests;<br />
in 236<br />
the watchmaker<br />
made the simple repair easily and swiftly.<br />
But 226 of them gave long-winded diagnoses of<br />
this or that technical difficulty, lying, overcharging,<br />
performing sleight of hand to wring dollars<br />
out of the investigators.<br />
The watches themselves gave no trouble ;<br />
were in perfect<br />
they<br />
condition at the start of the investigation,<br />
and by resort to honest repairmen<br />
they were kept in as nearly perfect<br />
the sabotage and clumsy handling<br />
condition as<br />
of the crooks<br />
permitted. Yet the watchmakers prescribed uncounted<br />
cleanings, seventy-six new mainsprings,
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