I had reason to stop in briefly to this laundry near our auction house. Probably not unlike countless small-town laundries across the United States.
Let’s see if I can characterize my visit comparing/contrasting with the auction business? Here’s my initial takeaways:
This is a laundry — where customers would rightly expect to get their laundry washed and dried.
These machines are held to work by the directions posted on the top and/or side of the machines.
Machines that are “out of order” are marked as such, suggesting to me the others are “in order” and do work properly.
If a customer chooses the Extended “Super Cycle” option the machine removes tough soils and odors and eliminates excess soap residue.
The laundry owner is telling customers he is not responsible for lost or damaged clothing.
Customers are advised that they are using all washers and dryers at their own risk.
So, they work or they don’t work? Do they dryers dry? Do the washers wash? What does a washer do besides wash? Dryers do something besides dry? Can clothing come up missing after putting into a washer or dryer?
What are these risks that I was assigned by the laundry owner? All of them apparently. What else could happen here besides laundry? Personal injury? Death?
Could a machine that removes tough soils and odors and eliminates excess soap residue does not do any of that, and I would have no recourse as a customer? So it could remove tough soils or maybe it doesn’t?
Auctioneers are far from the only businesses that assign, disclaim, and waive responsibility for … almost everything. Even this laundry didn’t want to be responsible for anything.
And even this laundry has conflicting information — irreconcilable statements such as essentially, “this machine works” but “this machine might not work” just like the auction business.
Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, CAI, CAS, AARE has been an auctioneer and certified appraiser for over 30 years. His company’s auctions are located at: Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, RES Auction Services and Goodwill Columbus Car Auction. He serves as Distinguished Faculty at Hondros College, Executive Director of The Ohio Auction School, an Instructor at the National Auctioneers Association’s Designation Academy and America’s Auction Academy. He is faculty at the Certified Auctioneers Institute held at Indiana University and is approved by the The Supreme Court of Ohio for attorney education.
Comentarii