Originally Posted by
Ramona_W
(For the record, it's also my job to put together grills which, as it turns out, were purchased so the one broken piece from the new owner's grill could be replaced with one from the box before the product is returned with the notation "Pieces missing. Could not assemble." No kidding.)
Without knowing what kind of grills you are talking about, I can imagine that might be the only way to repair them or replace a missing part. Years ago there were widespread local industries dedicated to repair and maintenance of appliances, but they have been sent out of business by corporations like Walmart that leverage economies of scale that small businesses have no ability to match. The Walmart model itself doesn't include repair programs to the same degree, because they make their margins on cheap manufactured products which are difficult or costly to repair, but which ironically break easily, the result being landfill, waste and pollution. Kudos to those customers with the ingenuity to hack the system, keep their appliances working longer and degrade the corporation which put them in that situation in the first place.