what would you do?

[Contrary Housewife]

A month ago I put a deposit down on an electric garden tiller. I need an electric one because it has switch and not a pull starter, which I can't use due to an injury. I was told it would take a week to arrive.

Well ten days passed and I called about it and was told the distributor had it back ordered and it would be another week or two.

Now it's been 30 days. I need to get the garden tilled next weekend so I can plant on time.

Should I ask for my money back, or wait another week?

[2ndGenGranola]

I would have to figure in many things. How much is it? How often will I use it in the future? How much can I rent one locally? Am I willing to rent one and use this one in the future?

In my house it is cheaper just to rent. You may have a completely different situation.

[Contrary Housewife]

The electric ones are not available for rent, only the gas powered ones which I cannot use. If we rented one I would have to wait for my husband to do the tilling. The idea was that *I* could get the work done and we wouldn't have to spend a Saturday driving around, make the rental, return it, etc some afternoon when DH was finally coerced into do it.

The money is not an issue as much the convenience is. And at this point, I'm running out of time. The manufacturer tells me I can have it shipped tomorrow and it will be on the UPS truck in a week. The local dealer doesn't know if or when he'll get it.

[pbobber]

Try looking in the local paper for someone offering tiller services. Back when I had a garden (really need to start one again), having someone else till the garden was so cheap that I never bought a tiller.

[vigilant20]

Try looking in the local paper for someone offering tiller services. Back when I had a garden (really need to start one again), having someone else till the garden was so cheap that I never bought a tiller.

Or check with local gardening clubs, ours has a couple events planned to help people get new gardens going. They might have something like that you could put your name in the hat for.

[FrugalMomof3]

I would call the company back and ask that they ship it faster since it was their mistake that it's taking so long if that doesnt work, personally I would get my money back and try your local craigslist.

[ml2620]

I am a buyer for my company, and I know that many, many items are backordered because of a slowdown in production due to the economy. I had to wait 7 weeks for some computer monitors!

I'd contact the distributor, get the status and if it isn't going to reach you in time, cancel the order - you'll probably get a better price on it during the off season anyway. Then, I'd probably take the money I "saved" by not buying the tiller, and hire a landscaper to do it for me. People will work cheap these days!

[TheMartianChick]

I was fortunate enough to find an electric Mantis tiller on Craigslist. It wasn't even 1 year old and I got it extremely cheap. In your situation, I would probably price out the cost of hiring someone to till for you and then decide if it made sense to cancel the one that you ordered.

In my area, the cost of hiring someone to till for me would have cost about 1/2 of what I paid for the electric tiller. Maybe the costs are different in your area. With the surge in interest in gardening due to the economy, I'd think that the folks who till gardens would be charging a fortune.