> They're not service manuals then, regardless of their titles.
I tend to agree - but I was given them for nothing so
I'm not in much of a position to complain. Anyway,
when I've been forced to purchase a real service
manual for something I've needed to fix, the price
has been anywhere between ?20 and ?90 (I assume
the upper limit is higher and I've just been lucky).
For a ?20 MP3 player I think I'll have to think
long and hard before shelling out that much.
> Why would anyone use a cassette player that is so poorly made
> and apparently can't be calibrated?
Dunno. I'd want a CD player anyway :-) Maybe if I take
away SWMBO's credit and cash-point cards I can stem
the influx of cheap stuff ...
> > I'm happy that my washing machine is relatively
> > cheap (bad example: easily repaired anyway). I'd be even
>
> About a year or so, I spoke with the executive assistant to
> the president of a major washing machine and clothes dryer
> manufacturer, who explained why the quality of the new
> washing machines and clothes dryers is nowhere near as good
> as the old ones. For one thing, they can't get the same
My Zanussi laster 15 or so years before needing anything
done to it (drain pump replacement IIRC). It made the
20 year mark before giving up the ghost. The Bosch seems
to be going well but 3 years is a little early to be sure
I guess. These both fit into the "cheap" category and
wash with acceptable performance (or so I'm told). Of
all the household items, these are the only ones on
sub-millisecond response times in the event of failure :-)
> Such consumers are a big part of the problem; they would
> rather purchase cheap junk frequently than good quality
> products less freqently... hardly good for the environment either.
OTOH there's eejits who are trying to drive the price up :-)
I hate junking stuff (although I drew the line at keeping the
drum out of the old Zanussi "just in case"). But I can do
simple sums to calculate expected cost-per-year of a product
and if a cheap MP3 player costs ?20 and lasts 5 years
(a guess, mine's still going after 3 despite being dropped)
and an expensive one costs ?100 I'm going to want some
significant reassurance that the ?100 one will last
25 years.
If all you are saying is that you would like the
opportunity to buy a ?100 MP3 player (I'm assuming
that you can find one built to a spec that
satisfies you for that price) then I'm all for that.
But some of us would like to have a range of choices
available which includes cheap stuff too.
I occasionally pick up the TV rags here in the UK
(I mean rags aimed at TV Service Engineers and not
listings magazines). Pretty much every month there
is a bit of a whinge about people not being
prepared to pay to have a TV fixed (cost new,
maybe ?50-?100 for a small one, typical call-out
fee ?25 + ?25 for the first hour or part thereof:
no I wouldn't pay that either!). The problem is
not cheap goods but expensive people :-)
Antonio
--
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Antonio Carlini arcarlini_at_iee.org
Received on Tue Jun 08 2004 - 18:05:43 BST