Warranty

YOUR UNCLE came through with the name of a guy who built his garage, and somebody at work raved about the contractor who did their kitchen. Your neighbor liked the crew who remodeled his bath and you got a couple of names from the local homebuilders' association. Somewhere among these names is the person who will do your remodeling job. How do you single that person out?By interviewing them all and asking enough questions. Here are some things to ask:* References -- You will always find the most reliable information about your prospective contractor from previous clientele.

Slate is Wayne Roland Jr.'s life. He insists slate is "the best roof ever." But go up on his roof and what do you find? Asphalt shingle. "My roof is big. It would have taken about 70 squares [10-by-10-foot sections] of slate. That would amount to $50,000 for materials alone," said Roland, president of Roland Slate Service Co. Inc. "I'm in Harford County. Nobody around us has it. I wanted the home to blend in." Of course, it wasn't like he had to settle for the cheapest material around.

After he lost his job, Jeremy Andrews took his Ford Mustang to the lot of a used-car dealer to trade it in for more affordable transportation. The deal nearly ruined him.A few days after Mr. Andrews and his wife, Amy, had bought a used Jeep, Brooke Boyle Motor Cars Ltd. closed its doors -- without paying off the Andrewses' loan from Ford or the previous owner's debt on the Jeep.Within weeks, the young Bel Air couple discovered they were stuck with two car loans and no car. Ford was dunning them for the $14,000 they still owed on the Mustang, which had disappeared from the lot, and they couldn't get a license plate for the Jeep.

AS ANYONE who has spent hours on hold for bad advice can tell you, customer service is not exactly one of the computer industry's strengths. For the Iomega Corp., it was such a sore point that the company singled it out as a problem in its 1996 annual report. After that came lawsuits and the "click of death."In 1996, Iomega stopped providing free technical support and started the highly unpopular practice of charging $14.99 per phone call regarding Zip and Ditto storage drives and $19.99 for Jaz drives, not counting the value of time wasted hanging on the telephone for what could be a very long time.

WASHINGTON - After Firestone tire failures on Ford Explorers led to a national outcry over vehicle safety, Congress ordered a watchdog agency to create an early warning system for dangerous automotive defects. With the computerized system expected to be running by spring, the automobile industry is pushing for tight restrictions on the release of the data - a measure that safety groups say could gut the reform enacted by Congress in 2000. The early warning database is known as ARTEMIS, or Advanced Retrieval (Tire, Equipment, Motor Vehicles)

Ardent backyard gardeners can eliminate some of the backbreaking work from their favorite pastime with the help of a mini-tiller.These lightweight machines are easily portable, small enough to work in tight spaces, yet powerful enough to get the job done. With optional attachments, they perform several tasks that make them useful throughout the gardening season.The Mantis tiller, a 20-pound machine usually sold with a free edging attachment, is the most widely known of the mini-tillers. Optional attachments convert the Mantis into a lawn dethatcher, aerator, planter/furrower, crevice cleaner or hedge trimmer.

Karyn Wilmer's car doesn't look like much, with faded paint and a plastic sheet covering the leaky sunroof. But the humble, dark green 1998 Honda Accord has changed her life since a local nonprofit put her behind the wheel. The 24-year-old single mother received the low-cost used car from Halethorpe-based Vehicles for Change, allowing her to reach a job she loves and freeing her from dependence on bus service provided by the Maryland Transit Administration. "It was almost a miracle for me," Wilmer said of the car she received in February.

When Bob and Sarah Patterson signed a contract to put their family's Hamilton-area Cape Cod on the market March 1, they also agreed to purchase a home warranty that their real estate agent told them could help attract a buyer.The couple spent several hundred dollars for insurance to pay for repairs on the major systems and appliances in their house for one year after they sold it."We definitely wanted to move and if anything would make the house move faster we were going to do it," she said.

When a car is breaking down, it's usually pretty obvious: It makes awful noises, spits smoke, stops running. But when an appliance starts to go, it's sometimes harder to tell it's going, or even what is wrong.That's the case for a reader in Baltimore County, who asked, "What are the symptoms of a dying water heater, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of a traditional tank-style heater compared to the systems that heat the water instantly so you don't have a tank to keep warm?"Since the message was e-mail, we were able to write back and ask a couple of questions: Is the water heater powered by gas, oil or electricity?

Home sales activity is picking up in markets throughout the country. But buyers are still bargaining hard for the best possible deal -- including home warranty coverage.A home warranty protection plan is becoming increasingly common, according to a recent survey conducted by the Gallup Organization Inc. Nationally, 16.5 percent of sales last year included warranty coverage for a specified period after the sale (usually one year).A home warranty plan typically covers the electrical and mechanical elements in a residential property.