The victim strikes back: forbrugermagt og kontrol

Therese O’Dell struck a blow for the consumers, when she shut the service mechanic up.

Therese O’Dell bought a washing machine in august and went through the usual troubles: It did not

works, the spares did not fit and so on and so forth. She took a lot of days off from work, while she

waited for the service mechanic from the company Servis to fix it. The company failed to appear

two appointments, and Therese O’Dell had to do her washing by hand. When the last of a number of service mechanics told her that he had to order new spares to replace the old – new – spares, which had been installed in the washing machine, she did not know what to do. Then she got an idea, which really helped out.

She locked the front door and barricaded his van by parking her own car across the driveway. He

was allowed to make a phone call and had a cup of tea, but could not leave the house until she had a

machine, which had been fixed, or until she had got a new machine. Therese O’Dell won: the

service mechanic could actually fix the washing machine!