Linda writes: I routinely use MBOs with great results. Recently I had an interesting experience with one that didn’t materialize quite as quickly as I’d hoped.

I own an antiques business. I acquired a dresser that I needed to reassemble to add the mirror, and I got a friend to help. She borrowed her father’s prize electric drill for the task. After using it, the drill disappeared. We looked all over the shop, and my friend and her father returned that afternoon to look. The drill was nowhere to be found. My friend took some verbal abuse from her father for several days while the drill was missing.

Meanwhile, I was doing a steady stream of MBOs and wondering why I couldn’t find it; MBOs had never failed me and unusually worked quickly.