Things I find a tad exasperating v.3

[lordxizor]

Serious question: Are electronic and appliance manufacturers designing products with a built-in shortened lifespan so as to ensure repeat purchases every couple years? Between the members in my family and our circle of friends, there have been at least 10 refrigerators, multiple dishwashers, ovens, microwaves and TV's that crapped out within 15 to 18 months and some even before the warranty expired.

Maybe my memory is failing me but I don't remember this happening until the 00's.

I don't necessarily think that companies plan for their products to fail. But I do think there is tremendous pressure to make their products cheaper, both to increase their profit margin, and to compete with competitors. This leads to cheaper components, less robust materials, etc, which shortens lifespan. Also as we add more technology to appliances that didn't used to need them, it creates more things that can break.

To go with that, as appliances become cheaper, and repairs become more expensive, it's often cheaper to just replace things rather than repair them. This creates a perception that things don't last as long, when it could have been fixed and potentially lasted years longer. Decades ago, you'd repair a TV. Now you just toss it and buy a new one.

[cramx3]

Serious question: Are electronic and appliance manufacturers designing products with a built-in shortened lifespan so as to ensure repeat purchases every couple years? Between the members in my family and our circle of friends, there have been at least 10 refrigerators, multiple dishwashers, ovens, microwaves and TV's that crapped out within 15 to 18 months and some even before the warranty expired.

Maybe my memory is failing me but I don't remember this happening until the 00's.

I don't necessarily think that companies plan for their products to fail. But I do think there is tremendous pressure to make their products cheaper, both to increase their profit margin, and to compete with competitors. This leads to cheaper components, less robust materials, etc, which shortens lifespan. Also as we add more technology to appliances that didn't used to need them, it creates more things that can break.

To go with that, as appliances become cheaper, and repairs become more expensive, it's often cheaper to just replace things rather than repair them. This creates a perception that things don't last as long, when it could have been fixed and potentially lasted years longer. Decades ago, you'd repair a TV. Now you just toss it and buy a new one.

I have no idea if these things time perfectly to die with warranties, but it certainly feels that way 

[The Great Ape]

Just realized I have to work during the game awards... aagh!

[pg1067]

Serious question: Are electronic and appliance manufacturers designing products with a built-in shortened lifespan so as to ensure repeat purchases every couple years? Between the members in my family and our circle of friends, there have been at least 10 refrigerators, multiple dishwashers, ovens, microwaves and TV's that crapped out within 15 to 18 months and some even before the warranty expired.

Maybe my memory is failing me but I don't remember this happening until the 00's.

Planned obsolescence has been a thing for the better part of a century.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

The price of Christmas trees. WTF??

A couple years ago, I finally convinced my wife to let me buy an artificial tree.  I paid a couple hundred bucks, and I'll never have to pay for a Christmas tree again!  AND we won't be vacuuming needs up until June.

[jingle.boy]

The price of Christmas trees. WTF??

A couple years ago, I finally convinced my wife to let me buy an artificial tree.  I paid a couple hundred bucks, and I'll never have to pay for a Christmas tree again!  AND we won't be vacuuming needs up until June.

Thankfully, mrs.jingle has ALWAYS preferred a fake tree.  Haven't bought a real tree once in my life.

[hefdaddy42]

There was a time that used an artificial tree, but for the last several years, we have gotten real trees, most years getting two, which I assume we will do again this coming weekend.

They both have pros and cons.

[Stadler]

Love the IDEA of a real tree, but fake ones are just so much more practical (and they look the same from the street).

"Planned obsolescence", in it's purest form, is sort of a myth.  I worked for a MAJOR manufacturing company for the better part of a decade and can't name one actual example of that.  The original term wasn't PLANNED obsolescence, but rather DYNAMIC obsolescence where a product isn't designed to fail, but the company designs NEW ones that essentially make the old one obsolete. That's the idea in the car industry, with the model years and what not.

I think it's less purposeful "planning", but more like what Lordxizor said.  It's not that they plan for obsolescence, but that they can't or won't design for perpetuity (or close to it). 

[TAC]

The price of Christmas trees. WTF??

A couple years ago, I finally convinced my wife to let me buy an artificial tree.  I paid a couple hundred bucks, and I'll never have to pay for a Christmas tree again!  AND we won't be vacuuming needs up until June.

Unfortunately, the whole going out to buy a tree is a ritual that my son isn't yet ready to let go, and until that happens...my wife won't switch. I'm going to start trying to convince her though. 

[cramx3]

Love the IDEA of a real tree

Yeah, this.  The effort, the cost, and maintenance and eventual removal all make it not something I'm interested in, but generally, I'd love to have a real tree.  I also have a cat so that's another level of complexity.  I haven't even bothered with a fake since my ex moved out 9 years ago.  But my gf wants a tree and just bought a fake one on amazon (apparently all our local stores were sold out) so we'll set that up this weekend. 

[hefdaddy42]

We always get our trees at the local Farmer's Market.  Then after the season, we haul them outside, chop them up, and burn in our fire pit, which we were going to use to burn some other wood anyway.

[pg1067]

Love the IDEA of a real tree

Yeah, this.  The effort, the cost, and maintenance and eventual removal all make it not something I'm interested in, but generally, I'd love to have a real tree.  I also have a cat so that's another level of complexity.  I haven't even bothered with a fake since my ex moved out 9 years ago.  But my gf wants a tree and just bought a fake one on amazon (apparently all our local stores were sold out) so we'll set that up this weekend.

The best time to buy a fake tree is the couple weeks after Christmas.  The stores don't want large items that won't be saleable again for ten months in their inventory, so they get marked down big time.  Same is true for wrapping paper.

[King Postwhore]

My parents had the sane fake Christmas tree for over 30 years before they bought a new one.

I work at a Wal Mart DC in NH that services 104 stores in N.E. and a little of New York.   I see so many trees every year that I think some people treat their fake trees as disposable.

[lordxizor]

I loved when Costco had their $30 real trees. We did that every year and only moved to fake when they stopped carrying them. I prefer real, even with the hassle, but the cost has gotten prohibitive now.

[jingle.boy]

Love the IDEA of a real tree

Yeah, this.  The effort, the cost, and maintenance and eventual removal all make it not something I'm interested in, but generally, I'd love to have a real tree.  I also have a cat so that's another level of complexity.  I haven't even bothered with a fake since my ex moved out 9 years ago.  But my gf wants a tree and just bought a fake one on amazon (apparently all our local stores were sold out) so we'll set that up this weekend.

The best time to buy a fake tree is the couple weeks after Christmas.  The stores don't want large items that won't be saleable again for ten months in their inventory, so they get marked down big time.  Same is true for wrapping paper.

Yup ... for about 15 years, we had a pre-lit tree that normally listed for $800, and we got it for under $200.

[Cool Chris]

If I had to rank my most cherished Christmas memories from my childhood, picking out our tree with my dad would be #2, only behind decorating the tree. There was something magical about that experience. Today as a 47 year old dad, it isn't #2 but it's up there. My wife just wants a tree and can't be bothered by much else. But the kids enjoy picking out our tree as much as I do. Just yesterday we went to our usual place and split up. After a few minutes I found my 12 year old standing by a tree and I said "Guess you found one?" Her big smile gave me the answer. I didn't even really care what it cost at that point.

[cramx3]

Love the IDEA of a real tree

Yeah, this.  The effort, the cost, and maintenance and eventual removal all make it not something I'm interested in, but generally, I'd love to have a real tree.  I also have a cat so that's another level of complexity.  I haven't even bothered with a fake since my ex moved out 9 years ago.  But my gf wants a tree and just bought a fake one on amazon (apparently all our local stores were sold out) so we'll set that up this weekend.

The best time to buy a fake tree is the couple weeks after Christmas.  The stores don't want large items that won't be saleable again for ten months in their inventory, so they get marked down big time.  Same is true for wrapping paper.

Yup ... for about 15 years, we had a pre-lit tree that normally listed for $800, and we got it for under $200.

Makes sense but isn't going to satisfy my gf wanting a tree this year    She actually had a tree from her parents, but realized it was missing the stand over the weekend.  She got one on amazon for $25.  Not pre-lit, which is fine, because she wants to decorate it herself.

If I had to rank my most cherished Christmas memories from my childhood, picking out our tree with my dad would be #2, only behind decorating the tree. There was something magical about that experience.

Yeah, for me, decorating the tree was a big family experience.  My dad would play christmas music and bring out all the boxes from the basement with the ornaments.  A lot of the ornaments were yearly gifts from my grandparents and I would love to play with them like toys so opening the boxes and seeing my old "toys" was so much fun. 

Once I grew up, I got real tired of that though.  Eventually I didn't want to be part of decorating the tree at all and felt forced to.  Might be why I'm not terribly interested in doing it anymore.  I actually have to go through my basement, I may have a box of my old ornaments and if I do, I will hang those myself on our new fake tree this weekend.

[gmillerdrake]

We always get our trees at the local Farmer's Market.  Then after the season, we haul them outside, chop them up, and burn in our fire pit, which we were going to use to burn some other wood anyway.

We did this every year as well....minus the chopping up and burning them. I'd just drag them 30-40 yds into the woods behind our house and call it even. I LOVE having a real tree....grew up a real tree family....BUT....shoot, I guess it's been 3 or 4 years now.....we switched over to a fake tree. Spent some good money to get one that looks every bit real so it does look the part....but it's not the same.

I like the convenience of it but in my mind the whole experience of putting up the tree was cheapened a bit when we made the switch. Sure, the boys are older now and heading out to chop down a real tree at the farm wasn't the same as it was when they were young....but those memories were great.

[hefdaddy42]

Even though I love real trees, I have no interest in chopping anything down for myelf.  We get our trees at the Farmers Market, buying directly from the owners of the tree farms, who have graciously already professionally chopped down the trees for us lol

[gmillerdrake]

Even though I love real trees, I have no interest in chopping anything down for myelf.  We get our trees at the Farmers Market, buying directly from the owners of the tree farms, who have graciously already professionally chopped down the trees for us lol

Ours consisted of getting the kids on the ground to hold the hand saw that made it 'look' like they were helping, the wife getting a pic of each doing so....then....all of them stand there as I wallow and flail about the bottom branches to saw through it all     If I recall correctly, we did this for three years in a row....then the farm we went to shut down due to their entire inventory of growing trees dying....and we never found a new place. So we did the usual like Boy Scout or church lot tree a couple times....then ended up in the fake tree realm.

[Stadler]

Even though I love real trees, I have no interest in chopping anything down for myelf.  We get our trees at the Farmers Market, buying directly from the owners of the tree farms, who have graciously already professionally chopped down the trees for us lol

Ours consisted of getting the kids on the ground to hold the hand saw that made it 'look' like they were helping, the wife getting a pic of each doing so....then....all of them stand there as I wallow and flail about the bottom branches to saw through it all     If I recall correctly, we did this for three years in a row....then the farm we went to shut down due to their entire inventory of growing trees dying....and we never found a new place. So we did the usual like Boy Scout or church lot tree a couple times....then ended up in the fake tree realm.

I've done the "wallow" several times myself.  HAHA, I laughed out loud because I've done that exact dance.  "Oh look how cute! Elizabeth is sawing the tree with dad!"   There are no pictures, however, of Dad covered in mud and sap trying to wrangle that tree back to the car. 

[lonestar]

So yesterday, in a cost cutting effort by the ridiculously rich law firm I'm contracted to, they told us they were cutting our Friday shifts, effectively costing each of my staff and myself at least 10k in the coming year. Of course it fell to me to tell my staff, probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.


This is a company that spent 3k on flowers for a holiday party, they're not poor by any means, and bleed money everywhere.



Merry Christmas.

[cramx3]

That blows and the timing is worse.  I guess they aren't having lunch on Fridays then or something or people work from home?

I got served two nights ago. Being sued for a car accident where I WAS REAR ENDED can't make this shit up.  Guy who served me the papers at my home says "merry christmas" as he leaves. I know it wasn't him or anything, but boy did I want to kick him off my porch when he turned around after saying that 

[hefdaddy42]

You were rear-ended and you're getting sued?  That's weird.

You didn't brake-check the guy or anything, did you?

[cramx3]

You were rear-ended and you're getting sued?  That's weird.

You didn't brake-check the guy or anything, did you?

No, I changed lanes into hers and shes claiming it was too quick to react, she wasn't paying attention and jst barely clipped my car.  Then a truck rear ended her.  So the truck is also being sued (and possibly the real target here according to my lawyer).  My insurance already ruled 0% liability over a year ago on this (and still hold this) and are going to fight it on behalf of me. Shes also claiming injuries now, but never claimed that initially (according to my insurance, I never really spoke to her).  This lady also presented expired insurance to the police which is on the police report and a reason why I wasn't able to file a claim against her for this.  Very fishy to me, but luckily insurance is on my side and they've already lawyered up. Just a headache before the holidays.

[hefdaddy42]

She hit you from behind WITH NO INSURANCE and sued you?

Fucking hell

[lonestar]

My last accident where I was rear ended in my Hyundai by a Ford F450 (yeah, I lost that one for sure), the dude that hit me filed an injury claim against my insurance. When my rep called me to ask about how he was(he was totally fine), he actually was laughing about it.

That blows and the timing is worse.  I guess they aren't having lunch on Fridays then or something or people work from home?

They've always been work from home on Fri, even though half the lawyers still show up. It's mostly a day for us to deep clean/prep for the week etc. I'm hoping my boss has work options for us on Fridays at other accounts, we have a ton of them, but I'm not holding my breath, especially for me since my hourly rate is way to high to be just a cook elsewhere.

[King Postwhore]

I hate people. 

[cramx3]

That blows and the timing is worse.  I guess they aren't having lunch on Fridays then or something or people work from home?

They've always been work from home on Fri, even though half the lawyers still show up. It's mostly a day for us to deep clean/prep for the week etc. I'm hoping my boss has work options for us on Fridays at other accounts, we have a ton of them, but I'm not holding my breath, especially for me since my hourly rate is way to high to be just a cook elsewhere.

Sorry man, hopefully they can get you some work though.  That's some tough news to swallow before the holidays.

[Jamesman42]

Lonestar and cram, I am sitting here in disbelief for you both. Fuck this world sometimes.

[ReaperKK]

She hit you from behind WITH NO INSURANCE and sued you?

Fucking hell

I one time ideled (foot didn't even leave the brake) into the back of this woman's jeep cherokee. I got out to check if there was damage and to apologize. She shoo'd me off and called the police and paramedics where she was carted off in a neck brace. I then got served by something like 1-800-CRASH-LAW (I can't remember the exact name but it was something like that). Insurance got involved and from what I know my insurance company, Geico, paid her some small sum of money. Like 5 years later Geico calls me up and I come to find out that she was suing Geico because supposedly she didn't get the full amount promised from geico because it was contingent on her showing actual harm. The amount of time and phone calls I had to get on was absurd. I hope it goes smoothly for Cram.

RJ that really sucks about the cut on Friday's, I'll keep my fingers crossed something does come up at another account!

[Stadler]

That all leads to what I find exasperating: that so many Americans think "insurance" means "payday".   We ALL pay for it in the end.  ALL of us (well, check that; those of us that play by the rules).

[wolfking]

It's astounding people would go and take legal action over something so small.  Point still stands is that she hit you from behind.  Her fault.

[Adami]

That all leads to what I find exasperating: that so many Americans think "insurance" means "payday".   We ALL pay for it in the end.  ALL of us (well, check that; those of us that play by the rules).

So like 10 of us?

[Stadler]

That all leads to what I find exasperating: that so many Americans think "insurance" means "payday".   We ALL pay for it in the end.  ALL of us (well, check that; those of us that play by the rules).

So like 10 of us?

If that.

[lordxizor]

National parks in the US have gotten crazy popular in recent years. I am trying to make camping reservation for Grand Teton in June, 6 months to the day in advance. The electric campsites in popular campgrounds boo up instantly. Now I need to figure out plan B since I missed out on what I wanted despite being online to make the reservation at the exact moment they went active.