I was well aware I was going to need a current heater before winter arrived.
I thought I could put a couple of hundred dollars back every month and spend my money on it before I needed the heater.
Unluckily, like everything else, the price of the current heater had gone up. I was going to need to put a thousand away every month if I wanted to purchase the current heater. The next day, I was at home and called the HVAC business. I wanted to know if they had layaway plans for current heaters. The guy who answered the phone seemed confused. She asked if I was a purchaser of theirs. I told him I was, and I had already been told I needed a current heater. Since their prices went up more than my finances, I needed to know if I could get a layaway plan for the heater now. That would lock in the price, and hopefully my heater would last until it was paid for. She told me they didn’t do layaway as far as he knew. She asked if I would simply hold for a minute, and he would get an HVAC business on the phone. After talking to the business, my hopes were dashed. He eventually told me they didn’t have layaway plans. I was going to ask if they had a payment plan, but I was too embarrassed to admit I could not afford the price they wanted. He had already put me on hold, and I considered hanging up, however that was rude. When he came back, he asked for my name and address. An hour later, I got a phone call. They were offering me an easy payment plan with up to years of interest-free payments.