Remember the movie “The Sting“? Paul Newman and Robert Redford play con men and conspire to swindle money from a mob boss played by Robert Shaw. Great movie! The movie was arranged as a series of “acts” – The Players, The Setup, etc. with each “act” designed to build up Robert Shaw’s confidence before Newman and Redford pulled the rug out from under him in the final act.
The Sting’s “confidence game” acts reminded me of my just completed woodstove install. The players, actions, and events of this little drama all built confidence toward a preconceived conclusion on the part of the “stingee” (me in this case) that getting a new wood stove would be a relatively simple process along a well thought out path that others had traveled before me. And while the end result is what I wanted, a new wood stove, the journey sure as hell felt like a sting operation.
- The Players – me, my 1977 Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove, The City of Keene, US Tax Code
- The Hook – $1000 voucher to replace an old wood stove, 30% tax credit, help with cleaner air
- The Tale – take a few pictures, fill out a form or 2, draw a floor plan, get a permit, get a voucher, take voucher to store, pick out a stove, subtract $1000, pay balance, installed wham – new stove, deduct 30% of final bill (including install) from bottom line of taxes.
- The Shutout – How big is that hearth and what’s it made of? Fire codes have changed in 30 years, need a new hearth, new non-combustible protection for rear wall, new double-wall stove pipe for chimney connection, $$$$, oh and here’s a new form that we didn’t tell you about at first, and by the way that’ll be $75 for the permit.
- The Sting – money already committed to purchase, paper work filled out, permits obtained, do I really need this? Nothing really wrong with the old stove. Could invest money in other projects? Don’t really need tax write-off. Sniff, air quality seems fine to me.. sigh.. I’m already here – might as well continue.
To be fair, every one of the players (including the vendor/installer) was as helpful as the could be. The people at city hall went out of the way to be helpful and answered my questions no matter how many trips I had to make. The vendor and installer were professional and told me exactly what they needed from me in order to do the job right. I read all the documents available to make sure I thought I understood what I was getting into.
If I had to add another act to this saga, I guess it would be called “The Gripes”:
- Timing – This is probably my largest issue. The program only had $100,000 in vouchers. At $1000 per person only 100 people could participate in the program. With a population of 22-23K it seemed like “first come, first serve” would go fast. Add to it that once accepted into the program a new stove had to be purchased within 21 days. Install could drag out but the purchase had to be complete. Oh and the program only lasts from Oct. 22, 2009 – Jan. 29, 2010 – slightly more than 3 months from start to finish. Don’t forget the holidays…
- Requirements – there should have been a fire code/pre-install check list to ensure that the consumer understood the areas in and around the install that may need to be addressed. Hearth construction requirements, sizing issues, non-combustible space requirements, all fees, etc. Finding these out as I went along and from different people (mostly the vendor and installers) make the process feel unorganized and haphazard. Granted I could have done more up-front investigation but the “time constraints” on the project meant that things had to happen quickly.
- Game changing – to be fair, I didn’t get my install permit finished until just before the install. Problem was there was a “new form” to complete before getting the permit that neither I or the vendor had ever seen. If I had completed the permit right after the purchase, the form would not have been required – my bad. Still, adding a step to the process that some had to complete and others didn’t smacks me the wrong way. I certainly understand the need for the extra form but the city should have thought of that before hand and once added, informed all parties of the change and what it meant.
