Rant: Things That Don't Work
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As I sit here using Visual Studio, and tripping over broken features.. then surfing the web and tripping over broken features.. I am compelled to scream. Why do we put up with so many lousy products? This weekend, my wife went to the store to buy my son a tether ball, for use at the school's tether ball courts. She came home with an entire backyard tetherball set. My inclination was to tell her to take it back immediately, because there's no way it could possibly work.. but rather than make her drive all the way back across town, and disappoint my son, I did the "good dad" thing and tried to make it work. Once I had everything out of the box, I was proven correct. The pole had a pointed end which was supposed to be driven into the ground, without the use of a hammer (so as not to bend it). The problem, of course, is that if the ground is soft enough to push the thing in w/out hammering, there is no possible way that it could stand up straight during normal use! Plus, the pole was made of several pieces which fit together quite loosely, so even if the base was secure, the whole thing would wobble. I used a hammer anyway - carefully - and managed to get it deeply into the ground (about a foot) So after three minutes of use, the thing is leaning at a 60 degree angle, and we gave up. My son, disappointed as hell, says to me.. "Daddy, why do they sell things that don't work?" And I had to give him yet another dose of hard-earned cynicism. Since the thing cost $30, and my wife says that tetherballs alone cost $20, and the store is on the other side of town.. I just took the tetherball, tied to it a snap, and we took it down to the school. Meanwhile, I have a pile of junk in the backyard which I can either throw away or add to the growing pile of stuff that should be recycled. It's not that this thing didn't work that pisses me off.. it's not a defective product. It's a product that can't possibly work. And that really pisses me off.
You didn't buy the Soft-Ground Stabilising Anti-Tilt Supreme 3.0 Support system to go with it? Its only three times the price of the tetherball and makes it work great! Yeah. X|
regards, Paul Watson Ireland FeedHenry needs you
eh, stop bugging me about it, give it a couple of days, see what happens.
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Hmmm... I hadn't even heard of "tether ball" before. I asked Google and found wisdom. http://www.sportsunlimitedinc.com/besttetherball.html[^] looks like something we use in our backyards here in Sweden also, but I can't seem to remember what the heck we call it... Oh, well. :confused:
-- The Blog: Bits and Pieces
Jokari or similar wasn't it?
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Jokari or similar wasn't it?
Nope. Never heard of that one, but googling for it gave some interesting history.
-- The Blog: Bits and Pieces
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It can 'work' to your advantage! I keep buying cofee filter machines from ASDA, non have lasted 1 year, so I take them back, get a refund and buy a new one, with a 12 month guarantee. I think it was 4 - 5 years ago that I bought my first one, the UK consumers laws are great! But as has been said, they electricl goods are so cheap to make now that if only a small percentage of people return these items the shop will gain in the long term.
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman
That's all very well, but those you keep returning have to be dumped somewhere. Why not splash out on a good quality, long-lasting machine? Neil.
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That's all very well, but those you keep returning have to be dumped somewhere. Why not splash out on a good quality, long-lasting machine? Neil.
Believe me I have tried! The cheapest ones last weeks, the better ones sometimes 9 months. The really expensive ones about c. 2 years, so it is not worth buying the really expensive ones as they don't last much longer, plus they break out of warranty so I have to pay for a replacement.
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman
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You didn't buy the Soft-Ground Stabilising Anti-Tilt Supreme 3.0 Support system to go with it? Its only three times the price of the tetherball and makes it work great! Yeah. X|
regards, Paul Watson Ireland FeedHenry needs you
eh, stop bugging me about it, give it a couple of days, see what happens.
In the U.K it used to be called Swingball
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As I sit here using Visual Studio, and tripping over broken features.. then surfing the web and tripping over broken features.. I am compelled to scream. Why do we put up with so many lousy products? This weekend, my wife went to the store to buy my son a tether ball, for use at the school's tether ball courts. She came home with an entire backyard tetherball set. My inclination was to tell her to take it back immediately, because there's no way it could possibly work.. but rather than make her drive all the way back across town, and disappoint my son, I did the "good dad" thing and tried to make it work. Once I had everything out of the box, I was proven correct. The pole had a pointed end which was supposed to be driven into the ground, without the use of a hammer (so as not to bend it). The problem, of course, is that if the ground is soft enough to push the thing in w/out hammering, there is no possible way that it could stand up straight during normal use! Plus, the pole was made of several pieces which fit together quite loosely, so even if the base was secure, the whole thing would wobble. I used a hammer anyway - carefully - and managed to get it deeply into the ground (about a foot) So after three minutes of use, the thing is leaning at a 60 degree angle, and we gave up. My son, disappointed as hell, says to me.. "Daddy, why do they sell things that don't work?" And I had to give him yet another dose of hard-earned cynicism. Since the thing cost $30, and my wife says that tetherballs alone cost $20, and the store is on the other side of town.. I just took the tetherball, tied to it a snap, and we took it down to the school. Meanwhile, I have a pile of junk in the backyard which I can either throw away or add to the growing pile of stuff that should be recycled. It's not that this thing didn't work that pisses me off.. it's not a defective product. It's a product that can't possibly work. And that really pisses me off.
Yeah, I stopped purchasing things from Wal-mart a long time ago ... less frustration, more money in my pocket etc. etc. Hey, welcome to the world where you can experience the HIGH cost of LOW prices! Cheers, Xaverian
What we need is a patch for human stupidity
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As I sit here using Visual Studio, and tripping over broken features.. then surfing the web and tripping over broken features.. I am compelled to scream. Why do we put up with so many lousy products? This weekend, my wife went to the store to buy my son a tether ball, for use at the school's tether ball courts. She came home with an entire backyard tetherball set. My inclination was to tell her to take it back immediately, because there's no way it could possibly work.. but rather than make her drive all the way back across town, and disappoint my son, I did the "good dad" thing and tried to make it work. Once I had everything out of the box, I was proven correct. The pole had a pointed end which was supposed to be driven into the ground, without the use of a hammer (so as not to bend it). The problem, of course, is that if the ground is soft enough to push the thing in w/out hammering, there is no possible way that it could stand up straight during normal use! Plus, the pole was made of several pieces which fit together quite loosely, so even if the base was secure, the whole thing would wobble. I used a hammer anyway - carefully - and managed to get it deeply into the ground (about a foot) So after three minutes of use, the thing is leaning at a 60 degree angle, and we gave up. My son, disappointed as hell, says to me.. "Daddy, why do they sell things that don't work?" And I had to give him yet another dose of hard-earned cynicism. Since the thing cost $30, and my wife says that tetherballs alone cost $20, and the store is on the other side of town.. I just took the tetherball, tied to it a snap, and we took it down to the school. Meanwhile, I have a pile of junk in the backyard which I can either throw away or add to the growing pile of stuff that should be recycled. It's not that this thing didn't work that pisses me off.. it's not a defective product. It's a product that can't possibly work. And that really pisses me off.
Jim A. Johnson wrote:
It's not that this thing didn't work that pisses me off.. it's not a defective product. It's a product that can't possibly work. And that really pisses me off.
Ultimately there is no economic incentive to make products that last and work well. The current model is; 1) buy a piece of junk, 2) realize it is defective and bring it back to the store, 3) choose between a different piece of junk, or in store credit. The final decition matters little because you have already paid. Now the only thing that remains is for the manufacturer to reduce their costs as much as possible to maximize their profit. What about a company that puts out a good quality product? Their pricing must be comprable to the junk, or it wont sell. They will sell fewer products because the ones they are selling dont wear out. Therefore they will not do well economically, at least not as well as the company selling junk. Capitolize has a lot going for it, but it is far from a perfect system. In fact I would say it is the worst system out there, except for all the others :-). With appologies to Winston Churchill http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/it_has_been_said_that_democracy_is_the_worst_form/15815.html[^]
Tanks for your support
Pat O
Blog_ _ _
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As I sit here using Visual Studio, and tripping over broken features.. then surfing the web and tripping over broken features.. I am compelled to scream. Why do we put up with so many lousy products? This weekend, my wife went to the store to buy my son a tether ball, for use at the school's tether ball courts. She came home with an entire backyard tetherball set. My inclination was to tell her to take it back immediately, because there's no way it could possibly work.. but rather than make her drive all the way back across town, and disappoint my son, I did the "good dad" thing and tried to make it work. Once I had everything out of the box, I was proven correct. The pole had a pointed end which was supposed to be driven into the ground, without the use of a hammer (so as not to bend it). The problem, of course, is that if the ground is soft enough to push the thing in w/out hammering, there is no possible way that it could stand up straight during normal use! Plus, the pole was made of several pieces which fit together quite loosely, so even if the base was secure, the whole thing would wobble. I used a hammer anyway - carefully - and managed to get it deeply into the ground (about a foot) So after three minutes of use, the thing is leaning at a 60 degree angle, and we gave up. My son, disappointed as hell, says to me.. "Daddy, why do they sell things that don't work?" And I had to give him yet another dose of hard-earned cynicism. Since the thing cost $30, and my wife says that tetherballs alone cost $20, and the store is on the other side of town.. I just took the tetherball, tied to it a snap, and we took it down to the school. Meanwhile, I have a pile of junk in the backyard which I can either throw away or add to the growing pile of stuff that should be recycled. It's not that this thing didn't work that pisses me off.. it's not a defective product. It's a product that can't possibly work. And that really pisses me off.
Just curious, did the product have the text "Made in China" anywhere on it?
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Jim A. Johnson wrote:
Why do we put up with so many lousy products?
Because we are so enamored of Wal*Mart prices that we let them sell us crap from China that is designed by imbeciles and manufactured by peasants and prisoners. We hunger for "everyday low pricing" without considering the indigestion this will bring.
The only way to really fix this would be to make the vendors responsible for the full product life cycle - that is, the cost of recycling the product at its end of life. Don't ask me how to implement such a law, or how it could ever get passed, though I think some countries, for some products, have tried this. If vendors are motivated only by selling more product, then whatever it takes to sell more product, PARTICULARLY that the product self-destructs quickly and requires replacement, while lasting long enough to establish "brand loyalty", is the "smart" move. If, on the other hand, the waste stream was evaluated by vendor, e.g., how many brand X toasters were thrown away this year, and the vendor had to PAY for processing that volume of waste, maybe the lifespan of products would go up. I'd love to see this implemented, but don't ask me how, in the consume-consume-consume US, it ever would be. Now excuse me while I throw away my coffee cup.
jdo
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Where was the set made?
We're the regulators that de-regulate We're the animators that de-animate
The company's based in Massachusetts; manufacturing in China; purchased at a sporting goods store.
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As I sit here using Visual Studio, and tripping over broken features.. then surfing the web and tripping over broken features.. I am compelled to scream. Why do we put up with so many lousy products? This weekend, my wife went to the store to buy my son a tether ball, for use at the school's tether ball courts. She came home with an entire backyard tetherball set. My inclination was to tell her to take it back immediately, because there's no way it could possibly work.. but rather than make her drive all the way back across town, and disappoint my son, I did the "good dad" thing and tried to make it work. Once I had everything out of the box, I was proven correct. The pole had a pointed end which was supposed to be driven into the ground, without the use of a hammer (so as not to bend it). The problem, of course, is that if the ground is soft enough to push the thing in w/out hammering, there is no possible way that it could stand up straight during normal use! Plus, the pole was made of several pieces which fit together quite loosely, so even if the base was secure, the whole thing would wobble. I used a hammer anyway - carefully - and managed to get it deeply into the ground (about a foot) So after three minutes of use, the thing is leaning at a 60 degree angle, and we gave up. My son, disappointed as hell, says to me.. "Daddy, why do they sell things that don't work?" And I had to give him yet another dose of hard-earned cynicism. Since the thing cost $30, and my wife says that tetherballs alone cost $20, and the store is on the other side of town.. I just took the tetherball, tied to it a snap, and we took it down to the school. Meanwhile, I have a pile of junk in the backyard which I can either throw away or add to the growing pile of stuff that should be recycled. It's not that this thing didn't work that pisses me off.. it's not a defective product. It's a product that can't possibly work. And that really pisses me off.
I and my friends have adopted a policy of no longer buying crap merchandise. I'm so fed up with buying garbage because it was all I could afford (ahh...college) and have decided that if it's worth having an object, it's worth having one that will work and last. Of course, I don't allways shell out for the newest bestest stuff -- that's expensive! So if I can find somehting used that was top of the line 5 years ago, then a lot of time that's a good investment. In my experience, cheap stuff isn't worth it. Firstly, a lot of times it only lasts a short time, so the cost and hassle of replacing it is about equeal to buying a nice one in the first place. (Not to mention the environmental impact.) But the main issue is use; it sucks to use crappy equipment. The use of a tool should be a joy, whether it's a frying pan, computer, camera, or shovel, the tool should be well made and using it should be as much of an aesthetic pleasure as anything else. Best example of this that I can think of is shoes: sure, you can go to Wallmart and buy 20$ shoes. Most often they will fall apart in 4 weeks, look crappy the whole time, and probably contribute to knee and back discomfort if you do any sort of walking. So in the course of a year you buy six pairs of crappy shoes and spend $120 to wear crap all year long. Or you can wait till the Red Wing store has a sale and get great quality shoes for $150 that will last for YEARS. It's our short-sighted society. The quality products are out there, but we don't allways factor the years into the dolor tag. Sorry for the rant....
Essentialists unite!
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Jim A. Johnson wrote:
It's not that this thing didn't work that pisses me off.. it's not a defective product. It's a product that can't possibly work. And that really pisses me off.
Ultimately there is no economic incentive to make products that last and work well. The current model is; 1) buy a piece of junk, 2) realize it is defective and bring it back to the store, 3) choose between a different piece of junk, or in store credit. The final decition matters little because you have already paid. Now the only thing that remains is for the manufacturer to reduce their costs as much as possible to maximize their profit. What about a company that puts out a good quality product? Their pricing must be comprable to the junk, or it wont sell. They will sell fewer products because the ones they are selling dont wear out. Therefore they will not do well economically, at least not as well as the company selling junk. Capitolize has a lot going for it, but it is far from a perfect system. In fact I would say it is the worst system out there, except for all the others :-). With appologies to Winston Churchill http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/it_has_been_said_that_democracy_is_the_worst_form/15815.html[^]
Tanks for your support
Pat O
Blog_ _ _
/*\== /*\== /*\==Depends entirely upon the type of merchandise. There is economic incentive for smaller companies to develop high quality equipment, but you won't find it at Target, Wal Mart, etc. It might be a little different for electronics...more prone to mass-retailing woes.
Essentialists unite!
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Old tire, concrete in a bag, water hose, broken fence pole, nylon rope, and ball. Total cost < $20. Nothing better than a ghetto tetherball.
On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. - Charles Babbage
Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
Old tire, concrete in a bag, water hose, broken fence pole, nylon rope, and ball. Total cost < $20. Nothing better than a ghetto tetherball.
Also makes for nice concrete overshoes if you need to dispose of a body in a nearby lake or river. :)
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The company's based in Massachusetts; manufacturing in China; purchased at a sporting goods store.
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The only way to really fix this would be to make the vendors responsible for the full product life cycle - that is, the cost of recycling the product at its end of life. Don't ask me how to implement such a law, or how it could ever get passed, though I think some countries, for some products, have tried this. If vendors are motivated only by selling more product, then whatever it takes to sell more product, PARTICULARLY that the product self-destructs quickly and requires replacement, while lasting long enough to establish "brand loyalty", is the "smart" move. If, on the other hand, the waste stream was evaluated by vendor, e.g., how many brand X toasters were thrown away this year, and the vendor had to PAY for processing that volume of waste, maybe the lifespan of products would go up. I'd love to see this implemented, but don't ask me how, in the consume-consume-consume US, it ever would be. Now excuse me while I throw away my coffee cup.
jdo
Why should the vendor be responsible for the whole life cycle? Once I buy a product; except for software, music, and DVDs; it's MINE. Why should the vendor be responsible for dispensing of MY PROPERTY? You are right, however, about the costs of disposal not being completely paid. If we in the U.S. actually had to pay for the proper disposal of items. We'd be a lot more careful about what we'd buy. For example, a cheap microwave here is $50 and an excellant one can be $200. The former lasts a year and the latter lasts three years. It is cheaper for me to buy three cheap microwaves ($150 total) than the one good one for $200. But, suppose there was a $35 disposal fee for the used microwave. Then I'd buy the good $200 one because the total cost would be $235 for three years versus $255 for three of the cheaper ones.
Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)
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I and my friends have adopted a policy of no longer buying crap merchandise. I'm so fed up with buying garbage because it was all I could afford (ahh...college) and have decided that if it's worth having an object, it's worth having one that will work and last. Of course, I don't allways shell out for the newest bestest stuff -- that's expensive! So if I can find somehting used that was top of the line 5 years ago, then a lot of time that's a good investment. In my experience, cheap stuff isn't worth it. Firstly, a lot of times it only lasts a short time, so the cost and hassle of replacing it is about equeal to buying a nice one in the first place. (Not to mention the environmental impact.) But the main issue is use; it sucks to use crappy equipment. The use of a tool should be a joy, whether it's a frying pan, computer, camera, or shovel, the tool should be well made and using it should be as much of an aesthetic pleasure as anything else. Best example of this that I can think of is shoes: sure, you can go to Wallmart and buy 20$ shoes. Most often they will fall apart in 4 weeks, look crappy the whole time, and probably contribute to knee and back discomfort if you do any sort of walking. So in the course of a year you buy six pairs of crappy shoes and spend $120 to wear crap all year long. Or you can wait till the Red Wing store has a sale and get great quality shoes for $150 that will last for YEARS. It's our short-sighted society. The quality products are out there, but we don't allways factor the years into the dolor tag. Sorry for the rant....
Essentialists unite!
I buy cheap shoes at Wal-Mart (I wouldn't mention that except for all the Wal-Mart bashers here.) for the following reason. I buy a cheap $10 or $20 pair of sneakers and they last for about a year. I once, 12 years ago, paid $50 for some Nike's. They lasted about six months. I've had similar experience with other higher priced "higher quality" shoes out there. Of course, either this type of merchandise may be an exception or my wearing behavior renders the "benefits" of the "better" shoes moot. And one last word to the Wal-Mart bashers out there. I think that, if you think/feel that way that is a subject for another thread unless you think that Wal-Mart was the cause of this. But, my brother, who couldn't survive without Wal-Mart, said they were one of the LAST companies to move to Chinese goods. One other point of clarification for the China bashers, before 1999, a large portion of the goods that now say "MADE IN CHINA" would have said "MADE IN HONG KONG." And I, IMHO, thought that they could make quality products. Of course, they made a lot of junk too.
Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)
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I buy cheap shoes at Wal-Mart (I wouldn't mention that except for all the Wal-Mart bashers here.) for the following reason. I buy a cheap $10 or $20 pair of sneakers and they last for about a year. I once, 12 years ago, paid $50 for some Nike's. They lasted about six months. I've had similar experience with other higher priced "higher quality" shoes out there. Of course, either this type of merchandise may be an exception or my wearing behavior renders the "benefits" of the "better" shoes moot. And one last word to the Wal-Mart bashers out there. I think that, if you think/feel that way that is a subject for another thread unless you think that Wal-Mart was the cause of this. But, my brother, who couldn't survive without Wal-Mart, said they were one of the LAST companies to move to Chinese goods. One other point of clarification for the China bashers, before 1999, a large portion of the goods that now say "MADE IN CHINA" would have said "MADE IN HONG KONG." And I, IMHO, thought that they could make quality products. Of course, they made a lot of junk too.
Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)
Not really China-bashing, as I think China is the way of the future! Not that I agree with all their policies or practices, but they do provide our standard of life to us. Some things have been pushed so low in price that you can get quality at low cost-- my Trek mountain bike, for instance, is made in China and has served me faithfully for two years of daily commute and trail biking, without problem. If you've found somethign cheap and high quality, congrats! But as always, caveat emptor.
Essentialists unite!
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As I sit here using Visual Studio, and tripping over broken features.. then surfing the web and tripping over broken features.. I am compelled to scream. Why do we put up with so many lousy products? This weekend, my wife went to the store to buy my son a tether ball, for use at the school's tether ball courts. She came home with an entire backyard tetherball set. My inclination was to tell her to take it back immediately, because there's no way it could possibly work.. but rather than make her drive all the way back across town, and disappoint my son, I did the "good dad" thing and tried to make it work. Once I had everything out of the box, I was proven correct. The pole had a pointed end which was supposed to be driven into the ground, without the use of a hammer (so as not to bend it). The problem, of course, is that if the ground is soft enough to push the thing in w/out hammering, there is no possible way that it could stand up straight during normal use! Plus, the pole was made of several pieces which fit together quite loosely, so even if the base was secure, the whole thing would wobble. I used a hammer anyway - carefully - and managed to get it deeply into the ground (about a foot) So after three minutes of use, the thing is leaning at a 60 degree angle, and we gave up. My son, disappointed as hell, says to me.. "Daddy, why do they sell things that don't work?" And I had to give him yet another dose of hard-earned cynicism. Since the thing cost $30, and my wife says that tetherballs alone cost $20, and the store is on the other side of town.. I just took the tetherball, tied to it a snap, and we took it down to the school. Meanwhile, I have a pile of junk in the backyard which I can either throw away or add to the growing pile of stuff that should be recycled. It's not that this thing didn't work that pisses me off.. it's not a defective product. It's a product that can't possibly work. And that really pisses me off.
Gee, you should have grown up when I did, in the 60's when practically everything worked, AS ADVERTISED! Whether it was the car (450 HP Roadrunner that would literally stomp the dog P!$$ out of any of today's pocket rockets) or the telephone (you could burn one of Ma Bells phones up in a house fire and it would still work!) it all worked. Sad to say, could'nt say the same for the government. It took us a long time to get out of Nam...
Regards, John McPherson "Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clark, inventor of the telecommunications satellite
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Why should the vendor be responsible for the whole life cycle? Once I buy a product; except for software, music, and DVDs; it's MINE. Why should the vendor be responsible for dispensing of MY PROPERTY? You are right, however, about the costs of disposal not being completely paid. If we in the U.S. actually had to pay for the proper disposal of items. We'd be a lot more careful about what we'd buy. For example, a cheap microwave here is $50 and an excellant one can be $200. The former lasts a year and the latter lasts three years. It is cheaper for me to buy three cheap microwaves ($150 total) than the one good one for $200. But, suppose there was a $35 disposal fee for the used microwave. Then I'd buy the good $200 one because the total cost would be $235 for three years versus $255 for three of the cheaper ones.
Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)
Cost of disposal needs to be included in the price at purchase plus a bit. After proper disposal, they would get the refund of the bit. Then people would be motivated to take them to the proper disposal place as opposed to dumping them in the road ditches as seems to be the custom in South Carolina-USA. cbc