Saving Electricity

I came to my parents home today to find Heinz sitting on the phone on hold with his local electric company. He was trying to buy the hot water heater which he was renting from the local company. He wanted to save the thirteen dollars a month rental fee and buy the tank outright. Figuring the tank was about 5 years old he expected to pay about two hundred dollars for it and thereby own the tank. The agent was trying to explain to him that the rental fees covered him in case something went wrong with the tank and that they would even cover any servicing the tank might need or replace it in the event it gave out completely. Heinz however wanted to buy the tank despite all this and was getting more and more frustrated with the agent, whose job it was to convince my father to keep renting the tank. Since he didn't seem to be getting anywhere with the agent I asked if he wanted me to speak to the agent to which Heinz happily relented.
Once again I explained the situation to the agent, who told finally told me the tank was only one year old and would cost over one thousand dollars to buy which would include the installation fee. At this point I became irritated myself. Knowing the house quite well and knowing the heater hadn't been installed within the last twelve months, I told the agent that it was an outrageous price and that the heater was at least five years old. One could tell just by looking at it. I asked Heinz to check for a date on the heater and he came back with a serial number. However, the agent insisted that the heater was only one year old and stayed with his price. I explained this to Heinz while I asked the agent to wait. Heinz got very upset, he was raising his voice at this point threatening to hire a lawyer to solve the issue. I told him not to be upset that he could buy his own heater at the local hardware store, install it himself and let the electric company come by and get their own back if he didn't agree to the agent's terms.
The agent, listening to my suggestion and my father agreeing, then decided he could check his files on the heater again. After a couple of minutes I got an apology from the agent saying he had made a mistake and the heater was already 6 years old and if Heinz wanted to purchase it outright it would cost 500 Dollars taxes included. Still outraged and feeling he was paying way too much for the heater Heinz reluctantly agreed to the price since he would save himself the aggravation and work of installing another heater. Now I figure that at paying 13 dollars and change a month rental fees, he will have the heater paid for itself in about 38 months. So in the long run I suppose he will save some money. I am glad I came to house just in time to intervene, before Heinz would have been even more upset and possibly have hired a lawyer  unnecessarily. It also made me feel good thinking I was able to save him possibly five hundred dollars, despite the fact that I also feel that even this was too much money to pay for a used hot water tank.