Consumer Gripe: Nothing is Built to Last

[Stevendsmith]

It seems that nearly every product is designed to be replaced within a ridiculously short period of time. Even the dumb little dish scubbers I buy fall apart in a few days.

And most infuriating is my printer, which sucks up its ridiculously expensive ink cartridges in record time.

I'm tired of manufacturers who design their products to keep the consumer paying for replacements.

Aaargh!

[Rush1184]

1. I feel the same way...

I had a lexmark printer in which the cartriges almost cost more than the printer, and they did not last long at all. I had to refill them as new ones were too much...

[burythehatchet]

2. its a very powerful sentiment that can lead to feelings

of powerlessness. The sad fact is that almost all of these disposable products can easily be made more durable. Gotta keep that economy booming.

[SharonAnn]

3. A laser printer, office capacity, will pay for itself in no time.

You need to be sure what the capacity of the toner cartridge is, though.

My husband and I both have HP Laser printers. He's a light user, so he bought a less expensive one that uses smaller toner cartridges and prints fewer pages before it runs out.

I'm a heavy printer user so I bought a more expensive one that uses higher-capacity toner cartridges that print more pages.

[Toucano]

18. I agree.

The money you pay upfront results in an overall lower cost of ownership.

I got a color laser printer in September and I'm still on the starter toner that came with the machine.

I've got my average page cost down to about 3 cents.

With some Lexmark ink cartridges, people are paying as high as 22 cents a page.

[idlisambar]

4. For good quality dish scrubbers...

go here...

http://www.qulex.com/pages/body_what_is_qulex.html

I've been using one scrubber since Christmas and it still works as good as new -- and food doesn't stick to it at all. Recommended by the Cooking Club of America.

And no I'm not on their payroll :D

[Stevendsmith]

11. Hey, thanks! (NT)

[wovenpaint]

5. pre-planned obsolescence

For example, I've always wondered why do we expect our cars to last for 2-5 years with an odometer, and our washing machines to last 10-15 years without an odometer??

[Mockingbird]

6. Its, Built-In Obsolescence, Doc. (chomps carrot)

Well, it USED to be built-in obsolescence, or so the mantra went.

Now its really more of the drug dealer mentality.

The printers (your example) are practically given away because the consumables (ink) prices can be jacked through the roof.

We are pattern-seeking creatures of habit, so its the habit that gets repeat hits.

We are all maroons. (a color of ink my printer doesn't have).
We should expect another run like the 60's & '70's as the domestic economy shrinks. (wow! a tie-in to pot scrubbers).

[derby378]

7. It's been like that at least since the 1970s

The architects who built Oral Roberts' avant-garde Prayer Tower in Tulsa designed it to last for only 25 years or so.

[Mockingbird]

8. Tower of Oral Power

Yeah, but realize "The Rapture" is just up the street.
They probably didn't want the building outlasting the occupants.

[derby378]

9. One possible solution: Rapid Prototyping

RP can be used to create replacement parts for "obsolete" devices that are otherwise impossible to find. It's still in the early stages, but keep an eye on it.

[Mockingbird]

15. Rapid Prototyping Oral Roberts Parisheners

...You won't know 'em from the real deal.


That is an interesting idea.
I've used RP for the usual uses.

[tridim]

10. I know what you're saying, but there are still some good products

Like PC's (home built) and TV's seem to last a long time. Japanese cars tend to last forever (probably longer than any other cars in history), and I hear American cars are getting better. Power tools are good too if you buy one step up from the cheapest models. Printers are a scam.. They always have been since the advent of the ink cartridge.

I agree about the dish scrubbers. I have the one with the soap in the handle.. Why can't they invent one that doesn't leak soap? The replacement heads are also really hard to find in my experience.

[WillowTree]

22. And yet, power tools are one of my pet peeves right now.

Or at least cordless drills. My drill is barely 5 years old and the batteries wouldn't take a charge anymore. Went to price new batteries and it's flat-out more cost-effective to just get a new damned drill. Monumental waste of an otherwise perfectly good tool. I did find a couple more reasonably priced on e-Bay, but it's just nuts that 80% of the cost of a new drill is the batteries that come with it and don't last. It's almost enough to make me go back to a corded drill and be done with it. Before I received the cordless as a gift, I had my Dad's old corded one that worked just fine and has to have been 35 years old. It weighed a ton and wasn't variable speed, but it worked and cost nothing to maintain.

[tridim]

26. Well, Ni-Cads just don't last that long

and 5 years is about right. It sounds like the manufacturers are getting the hint that they can sell the tool for dirt cheap and hit where it hurts with new batteries.. That's the ink jet printer/razor model to a 'T'. I'd look for a cordless tool that has batteries that can be re-celled when the battery dies. That'll save you a bundle.

I'm still looking for a cheap car antenna for my Sirius satellite radio. So far all I can find is the whole car kit.. What's worse is they don't sell the right kit for my receiver any more. I have to buy an incompatible kit to get a new antenna, half the parts in the kit are useless to me.. Or I can pay $50 for a new antenna, which is the same price as the car kit. They've got me by the balls.

[MuseRider]

12. It is funny how the

fact of that matter becomes accepted and assumed. I don't accept it. Our big screen TV went out the other day and my husband was ready to go buy another. Oh well he said, we have had it for a long time. That long time was 4 years and he was perfectly willing to accept that as the standard time a big ticket item like that should last. Well, the TV is OK, he thinks it is blurry but he is alone with that and with the assumtion that you can spend thousands of dollars on something and it is OK if it only lasts 4 years. I had a TV while in college that was at least 15 years old and you had to use a wrench to change the channels since the knob was broken. I gave it away once I had a paycheck to buy another (color!) and it was still working. These things should not fall apart so quickly.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

13. Thank God that we've got Social Security!

No prob.

[KT2000]

14. No kidding!!!

have had to email several comapies about their methods of increasing profits:

dishwashing soap that is now watered down
premium dry cat food that is loaded with crumbs ($30 a bag!!)
bobbie pins tht have already "sprung"
light bulbs that don't last long
pruners that the handles falls off
spray nozzle that drips out the bottom

spend too much time returning faulty products now

[Igel]

16. Twinkies. They last forever. n/t

[kckc]

17. this is my biggest complaint about WalMart

they have lowered the bar so much on consumer goods that most Americans seem to think it is their constitutional right to have access to the most massive array of consumer goods ever known, and at the most ridiculously low prices ever seen. Lower prices, lower quality. This is ok for some consumables, but it drives down the prices and quality of all items, as consumers demand the absolute rock-bottom prices on everything. Clothes shopping is my own personal pet peeve lately, as even the mid-price designers (Claiborne, etc) have started using crappy fabric and crappy design to keep prices even.

[Stevendsmith]

19. Yep, and T-shirts are pure crap these days--sweatshop junk (NT)

[napi21]

20. Recently, I've been buying most of my appliances, etc on Amazon

or Overstock. I've gotten great prices on a lot of factory reconditioned items, and I've never had any problems with them. I got a Cusinart $86 toaster for $14.50, a Cuisinart #100.00 coffee brewing machine for $20.00, and many other things too many to list.

I don't buy anything at WM. I just won't go in their stores!

[rfkrfk]

21. the door handle, on my 1980 frig, is loose

The rubber strip on the little backwindow
of my 1996 car, has shrunk.

[Kansas Wyatt]

23. Well, you import all goods so they remain inexpensive...

And they will not last long at all, so you end up spending the same amount of money if you would have just bought an American made product in the first place. But if you did that, then you would realize that your wages are not exactly keeping up with with the cost of things. Meanwhile, the Republicans are only trying to make it seem like everything is fine, while the backbone of this country is beaten, pummeled, raped, and cannibalized.

But the rich are doing great, and the rest of us get "morals" and feel good about ourselves wars against people who want to take away the 1950's American Dream. When does this nightmare stop, and when does this country purge the lunatics in power who want more of this?

[Nikia]

24. Companies have trained people to buy cheap products

In both senses of the word. They lowered prices and quality and people bought the cheap stuff. Consumers had to replace it sooner rather than later and demand went up. Companies discovered this was a good way to make a lot of profit. The cheap products became popular and fewer people would buy expensive versions of the same thing even though they wouldn't have to replace the item nearly as soon if at all. People are willing to buy a $50 microwave every other year instead of buying a $200 microwave that will last for 20.

[Historic NY]

25. I've had a few things go like that.....but then I've had some luck too...

My TV is a Sony console from 1985, it was a floor model that a local electronics store had, the last one they sold before closing. I did try to hookup my Sharp VCR the other day it wasn't used much but it will not work, something must be stuck. I broke the knobs one my Friedrich A/C some years back, I called the company and they sent me 6 new ones no charge (its about 18yrs old). Cordless phones are definitely pre-planned to destruct, I have found out they will also take a regular hard wired one out too when they do. (cause line interference)

Then again my 2 old 1973 Plymouth's keep moving down the highway, w/o any problems other than regular maintenance.