Sure, April Fool’s Day was last month, but here at Cinch, we’re still feeling a little sneaky. Why not surprise and delight a stranger once and a while, if you can? We wanted to find some families who could use a hand and try to make a positive impact where there was an obvious need – something like what we strive to do with our national partnership with Homes For Our Troops – which helps veterans by making home ownership less stressful and more affordable. Anyway, what if we applied this general, helping-hand approach at the single-family level and added a fun element of surprise (and hopefully a little well-deserved financial relief)?
The idea
We decided to target one of the most essential home appliances around: the refrigerator. Everybody needs a good refrigerator; most of us rely on them perpetually, day and night. Especially if you don’t have a solid home warranty, having to repair or replace your fridge can get expensive, fast. It didn’t take us long to decide to surprise an unsuspecting family in need with a brand-new refrigerator. We started with the idea that a new fridge is obviously a significant expense and one of the biggest purchases many homeowners will make. We all hope to get many years of service from our refrigerators, but they don’t always last as long as we’d hope. Helping someone with refrigerator replacement (someone who had no reason to expect our help) would be a great way to really make someone happy, serve a need and spread a little good cheer.
The recipient
Aly, a single mom with two kids (including a typically ravenous teenager), serves the recovery community in her area by providing non-emergency medical transportation. After a decade in her home, Aly’s refrigerator’s vent fan stopped working. Though she’d had the foresight to invest in a home warranty, unfortunately her plan lacked major appliance coverage. It had been a tough year for Aly’s family, and after realizing that her home warranty wouldn’t help her with repair or replacement, she elected to start looking around online for a cheap, used refrigerator that could help them get by until they could afford to replace it with a new model. Once she’d found our listing and made the purchase, she was glad to have found a decent, working fridge at an affordable price but had no reason to suspect anything different or better. Little did she know, we had a real surprise in store for her!
The sneaky part
We didn’t want our lucky recipient to have any idea that we were involved, so we set out to sell a used refrigerator like anyone else might do online. We looked around, on various online selling platforms where people buy, sell and trade used items like appliances. Talking with our partners – the Cinch service providers in the city we’d be targeting – we acquired a used fridge that looked like a good candidate, took some photos and priced it just below what looked like the going rate for a well-used but decent fridge like this one that remained in fairly worn but reliably working condition. Placing our listing online, we baited the hook and waited.
The in-person surprise
Before long, we had a buyer! At our agreed-upon delivery date, we showed up at Aly’s home with a Cinch representative, a moving crew to install the new fridge…and a film crew to document the reaction. Cinch was thrilled to help Aly’s family by surprising them with a new refrigerator, and we like to think that Aly and her family were just as thrilled as we were to get much more than they’d bargained for. A seemingly random refrigerator upgrade proved a welcome surprise for the whole family, at a time when it really made a difference.
The outcome
Everything went off without a hitch, everyone was excited and relieved, and a good time was had by all. Aly confirmed that the newer, larger refrigerator is perfect for her family, with plenty of room for all the food they might need – even for her hungry teenager! After spending some time talking it over, it was obvious that we’d accomplished our mission to fill a need, make several people happy and spread plenty of good cheer. Aly described how great it felt to know she finally had a brand-new fridge the whole family could rely on, and she was quick to point out that she’d be switching her home warranty coverage to Cinch, too.
Next time…
At Cinch, we were absolutely thrilled to sneakily surprise Aly and her family with our Undercover Appliance giveaway. We had so much fun that we’re likely to try this again soon, but we serve most of the country with our industry-leading 180-day service guarantee (in 47 states as well as in D.C.), so our next Undercover Appliance adventure could happen just about anywhere! Keep an eye on our YouTube channel and other Cinch social channels for clues about where we might surprise people again soon. Our next lucky family could be yours!
The information in this article is intended to provide guidance on the proper maintenance and care of systems and appliances in the home. Not all of the topics mentioned are covered by our home warranty or maintenance plans. Please review your home warranty contract carefully to understand your coverage.