Soldato
This is the modern way. I think the Kaiser Chiefs wrote a song about it.
Anyone else fed up of mass-produced, disposable carp?
- Thread starter FoxEye
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Soldato
Cello. Haha. I have one of their TVs. Cheap rubbish akin to the supermarkets own brand TVs. A Sony would be miles better.
Like most people, if I buy something I want it to be of suitable quality and last for a decent amount of time. One area I've found where goods can be cheap and good quality is with climbing gear. All of it is well tested, yet mass produced enough to be cheap, and works well.
Soldato
As laptops were mentioned ,my issues in the past with Hp were charger connector tips breaking but to me that seems sorted ,however bought an HP gaming laptop ,its definitely way out of warranty but both metal look hinges are plastic and of course they have both failed ,wonder how much more metal ones would have cost .
Anyway i can live with it ,just velcrod this in place
Anyway i can live with it ,just velcrod this in place
It's quite simple...don't buy mass produced cheap carp.
Years ago I stopped spending money on things that won't last. In a nutshell, this means no plastic, and no electronics, and good craftsmanship.
If you buy used, even better, because good quality, well built kit holds its value, and you can often sell it on for the same as you paid for it. Case in point, I just sold on a Leica lens I wasn't using enough justify keeping (also to fund the purchase of something well built, to last instead of a cheaper option).
Years ago I stopped spending money on things that won't last. In a nutshell, this means no plastic, and no electronics, and good craftsmanship.
If you buy used, even better, because good quality, well built kit holds its value, and you can often sell it on for the same as you paid for it. Case in point, I just sold on a Leica lens I wasn't using enough justify keeping (also to fund the purchase of something well built, to last instead of a cheaper option).
Girlfriend buys the same cheap stuff this thread is all about!
Mostly it is outdoor solar lights that I'm not fussed about so off she goes to Amazon to buy some more because they didn't even last a year before failing.
I've said to request a refund but noticed they're now not there so probably in the bin!
She got some of those cheap led sensor lights too as we don't have a front door light wired up and they didn't last a year either. I took it apart and tested it and the bit that failed was the led! The bit that supposed to have 1000 of hours and was probably on for 3 hours tops in all its life!
Can't find an led that would fit easy enough that wouldn't cost more than the 7 quid or so it cost to buy another one. Plus the led probably failed due to poor power regulation or some other reason anyway so fixing it might be a short repair anyway.
It bugs me to chuck them when I know they can be repaired but for what it's worth vs the time and the parts to fix when it might not work its just not worth it unfortunately.
I'm sure she has already ordered some more from Amazon and they will be replaced in a week or so...
Mostly it is outdoor solar lights that I'm not fussed about so off she goes to Amazon to buy some more because they didn't even last a year before failing.
I've said to request a refund but noticed they're now not there so probably in the bin!
She got some of those cheap led sensor lights too as we don't have a front door light wired up and they didn't last a year either. I took it apart and tested it and the bit that failed was the led! The bit that supposed to have 1000 of hours and was probably on for 3 hours tops in all its life!
Can't find an led that would fit easy enough that wouldn't cost more than the 7 quid or so it cost to buy another one. Plus the led probably failed due to poor power regulation or some other reason anyway so fixing it might be a short repair anyway.
It bugs me to chuck them when I know they can be repaired but for what it's worth vs the time and the parts to fix when it might not work its just not worth it unfortunately.
I'm sure she has already ordered some more from Amazon and they will be replaced in a week or so...
It's one of the reasons I've stopped using Amazon so much. You search for something and are hit with pages and pages of utter **** for £5 and then occasionally find something for £200. The middle ground seems to have gone, where the £75 option?!
Soldato
It happened because the manufacturing industry bosses saw £ signs in their eyes when they could get cheaper items made in India and China instead of paying the workers here a decent wage.
My town had the most cotton mills within its boundaries than anywhere in the world. At one time it had the most millionaires too.
Now nothing. All the mills closed down, most of them knocked down.
I hear the same happened across Britain, and to our American friends too.
Ricky Gervais made a reference to the situation in his recent monologue at the recent Golden Globes 2020 award event. How big tech companies are using slave labour in 3rd world countries to mass produce cheap devices while also claiming to be ethical.
A combination of capitalism and communism as brought us here.
My town had the most cotton mills within its boundaries than anywhere in the world. At one time it had the most millionaires too.
Now nothing. All the mills closed down, most of them knocked down.
I hear the same happened across Britain, and to our American friends too.
Ricky Gervais made a reference to the situation in his recent monologue at the recent Golden Globes 2020 award event. How big tech companies are using slave labour in 3rd world countries to mass produce cheap devices while also claiming to be ethical.
A combination of capitalism and communism as brought us here.
Yeah absolutely.
Also Google isn't any better/more helpful.
The first few pages are all Amazon/Redbrain/Idealo, and the Redbrain/Idealo links just send you back to Amazon...
The next few pages are all for US shops that either don't ship to the UK or would cost £50 to ship (on a pair of gloves, yeah, nope..)
And that's searching on Google.co.UK. Make it return UK results only and ALL you get is Amazon..
And then you're right back to the cheap carp.
Maybe I need to stop using Google and find some local tradesman index or something.
Those countries must be laughing their asses off (at us).
They've witnessed the wholesale destruction of manufacturing around the western world, and now we no longer have the skills (or the will) to take it back. Our leaders and millionaires/billionaires see no benefit in making anything in this country, and continue to support/encourage the decline in manufacturing.
China knows it is almost the only place with the infrastructure, skills, and determination to build stuff anymore. And even when this is not the case, the raw materials and parts are all coming from China..
We can't even build a railway line anymore - there was talk of bringing China in to build HS2 because we can't get our **** together. How the mighty have fallen, eh? Purely in order to make the 5% richer. They would dismantle the entire country if it brought them 10% better margins. Sell it all to China.
You only have to look around the country to see how much we've lost (in the last couple hundred years). Look at all the abandoned plants, factories, warehouses, mills..
And as said, when we do make/assemble stuff it's mostly made with Chinese raw materials or Chinese parts.
And every year British businesses are saying they can't compete with cheaper imports. Whether that's British steel, British wool, British veg, British farmed meat, yadda, yadda, you name it. It's cheaper to import it than produce it here. There's always stories every single year about it, with x,y,z firm going bust - or selling up to overseas investors (like China, ho ho ho).
Denying that it happens is pointless.
True. But look at the number of industries gained/expanded over that same period- Computing, IT, telecoms, media, healthcare, electronics, biosciences, chemicals, education, aviation, road transport, utilities, hotels, restaurants/bars, leisure, professional services, tourism, environment, the gigantic growth of the public sector...the list goes on.
You're right that we struggle to compete with cheaper imports. But you said that we no longer have the "skill", or "determination" to make things any more- this is not true. Matching developing countries on cost is one of the biggest issues, and sometimes this is insurmountable if you require lots of manual labour to assemble your "widgets". We can't match China on labour costs, and why should we? The areas where we can compete, we tend to- in things like higher net value added manufacturing (niche products that retail for high prices, basically).
We could do more on automation to increase our productivity to match the US/best European countries.
I remember having a chat some years ago with somebody who actually worked in one of those mills during the three day week.
Interestingly, while other factories had to close because of the power cuts, the mills didn't because they didn't actually need an external electricity supply to operate.
Everything ran on Steam
Soldato
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Am I the last person on earth who just pops into the local co-op when his toaster has died take a quick look as what on the shelf nabs the cheapest one takes it home plugs it in notes it works as intended and doesn't give it a second thought about it afterwards?
How often do you use a toaster though? Life of toasters doesn't vary greatly in my experience and Gucci toaster just has a name attached to it doesn't gaurantee better build quality or longevity case in point replaced my cheap £10 trainers with a pair of Nike's cost like £80 or some ridiculous amount they didn't last any longer. I wouldn't say a Dyson is better than a Henry it just has a prestige label. Both suck up dirt.
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But surely you need to know whether it has an app for your phone to????????
Even with some 'better' products they're also designed to fail, about 8 years back I bought both a chrome desk fan and a chrome dustbin with flip lid.
Despite both being chrome as their selling point and not that cheap either, both used highly brittle plastic in crucial load bearing, hidden areas, that in my opinion were designed to get dry and brittle and break after three years or so.
The fan's chrome attachment to the chrome base depended on an internal plastic screw attachment that got brittle and snapped within 3 years, 2 cable ties later it had full functionality again with a near invisible fix, been working perfectly for 5 years since. Unlike that brittle plastic, cable ties are built to last or at least hold some weight together.
The bin had similar brittle plastic for the bin hinge, again within 3 years a hinge snapped. A couple of screws forced into the plastic hinge casing and wedged into the bin top, again perfect functionality with an invisible fix 5 years later.
Some things are definitely designed to break, but at least repairs can be viable and actually better than the original design and materials.
Despite both being chrome as their selling point and not that cheap either, both used highly brittle plastic in crucial load bearing, hidden areas, that in my opinion were designed to get dry and brittle and break after three years or so.
The fan's chrome attachment to the chrome base depended on an internal plastic screw attachment that got brittle and snapped within 3 years, 2 cable ties later it had full functionality again with a near invisible fix, been working perfectly for 5 years since. Unlike that brittle plastic, cable ties are built to last or at least hold some weight together.
The bin had similar brittle plastic for the bin hinge, again within 3 years a hinge snapped. A couple of screws forced into the plastic hinge casing and wedged into the bin top, again perfect functionality with an invisible fix 5 years later.
Some things are definitely designed to break, but at least repairs can be viable and actually better than the original design and materials.
This is one of the reasons I've started buying antiques for the house. They are a thousand times more durable, built to last for centuries and you can even sell them on after their use has ended - often for more money than you paid. Certain antiques are embarrassingly cheap, too.
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Seems a bit amateur! How can you validate your purchase without reading tons of reviews! How can you get it 47p cheaper without spending hours trawling websites?
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Anyone ever watched a documentary called The Lightbulb Conspiracy. Worth a watch.
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/light-bulb-conspiracy/
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/light-bulb-conspiracy/