We’ve all heard people lament the high costs of convenience. Well … today I want to share a personal story that perfectly exemplifies this.
I was in my garage the other day when I heard a strange beeping sound coming from the optical network terminal (ONT). For those who don’t know, the ONT is the box that converts the fiber optic communication signals coming into my house to electric signals on the copper wires used by my home’s computers and telephones.
Anyway, it turns out those beeps were an alarm telling me it was time to replace the 12-volt rechargeable battery which is used to back up the system during a power outage.
So the first thing I did was visit my local provider’s website to see who was responsible for changing out the battery; unfortunately for me, since the battery was no longer under warranty, I was on the hook to replace it.
Thankfully, the provider’s website listed the proper battery specifications. For my convenience, they also offered a replacement 12-volt battery for $69.99 — just in case I didn’t feel like shopping around.
The Cost of Convenience
Of course, I had absolutely no intention of ever taking them up on their offer because I’ve learned that convenience is usually a very expensive luxury. As such, I figured my provider’s rechargeable batteries were not worth it.
In fact, a quick trip over to Amazon revealed several rechargeable batteries with the exact same specifications as the one offered by my provider for as little as $29.99! But wait — it gets even better: As an added bonus, I bought the battery via Amazon Prime, so I only had to wait two days for the replacement!
Add it all up and the battery offered by Amazon was almost one-and-a-half times cheaper than the battery offered by my provider. Or, looking at it another way, my communications provider charges a 133% convenience premium to people who are essentially too lazy to take the short amount of time required to make a few extra mouse clicks and shop around.
Keep that in mind the next time any company or business offers to sell you something that you wouldn’t normally buy from them for the sake of saving a little time and effort. In most cases you’re going to pay a lot more than you probably need to.
Photo Credit: Richard Elzy
The company that cleaned the septic tank at our house offered us a bootle of “good bacterias” to keep the septic tank clean for 85 dollars. I found the same on Amazon for 46 dollars. . Naturally I bought it via Amazon. I am prime customer too.
There’s numerous articles about these products being a complete waste of money at best and sometimes they cause damage to a septic system on a biological level.
What I find ironic about this posting is that I can get just about anything I buy, cheaper from somewhere else other than amazon.
Amazon just makes it more convenient to get a bunch of unrelated items all in the same place without having to leave my seat. This is especially true when purchasing normal consumables, tools, or home related products, some of the markups on these are 100% – 500% over what you’ll find it at a lowes or grocery store.
Amazon is the outright champion at capitalizing on the convenience game. Most of the time, people don’t even bother to check for a cheaper option at this point.
I see your point, Jestep. There is some irony there — BUT … with respect to jumping into the car and going to Lowes, for instance, you’re neglecting to value people’s time (not to mention the gasoline, vehicle wear-and-tear, and other ancillary costs too).
As for buying the battery on Amazon, in this case the price was about as good as it gets. There really are some good deals on Amazon! 🙂
I’m surprised that battery isn’t covered as part of their service. Man those companies haha
It was covered only if you paid $9 per month for their “free” maintenance program!
The annoying thing is that we could not silence the “chirp” while we waited for the battery to arrive, and the company’s representative couldn’t tell us how, either.
There is a “Silence Alarm” button on mine. I’m surprised yours does not have one, Ellis.
Len I do the same thing when I replace my UPS battery backups at work or my laptop battery. I find Amazon is not always the least expensive but very convenient. A few extra clicks on the web doesn’t take much time just to check other sites.
One thing you did not mention is sometimes off brand batteries do not last as long even though rated the same as the original, so they end up costing more than you think. However, at less than half the price you could buy two for the price your provider was charging and you’d still come out ahead. I find when shopping off brand batteries, legitimate reviews are very helpful to find the decent ones. My last off brand battery I bought for my laptop gave me 2 hours of run time and lasted two years where the original gave me 2:25 and lasted over three years. However the replacement battery was 1/3 to 1/4 the cost of the original.
I understand, Drew. The battery I bought received good reviews and, as you point out, even if it didn’t the cost was so much cheaper it really didn’t matter much.