"If it doesn't break in the first three months, then it won't break at all"

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Or so says my Dad about electrical equipment. I've kinda kept this policy in mind when declining extended warrantees etc, but I really don't know if it's true. Is it true? Has it ever been true? Is it true for some stuff but not others? Or these days with microchips in everything is it a piece of somewhat archaic advice?

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:08 (twenty-one years ago)

And here's me thinking this thread was about Anniemal.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Mostly true. Also, extended warranties are shit anyway. When a salesman offers me an extended warranty, I usually say, "Why is this a crappy product that's going to break? Because if it is, I don't want to buy it."

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Bollocks. Every piece of electrical equipment known to mankind expires the day after your guarantee runs out. (Planned obscelesnce (sp?) generally takes about a year.)

― We Are All Full Of Kate (kate), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been told that if a computer gets a problem in the first couple of months, it's completely fucked.

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:16 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a fairly reliable rule of thumb. Everything will break eventually, but most things will last long enough to be beyond economic repair.

People offering you warranties are attempting to make money. That they can make money suggests that stuff doesn't break often and when it does it isn't too expensive to repair.

FREE extended warranties are a different matter of course. That's why you should buy iPods from John Lewis (especially since batteries are an obvious exception to that 3 month rule).

xpost

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:21 (twenty-one years ago)

My parents have had the same telly for 30 years, and it hasn't given them any problems at all, so not EVERYTHING has planned obsolescence.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Not 30 years ago, things didn't.

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, planned obscelesence is a fairly recent development. I'm most annoyed about my Powerbook's planned obsscelensence. The last Apple I had lasted for ten years. This one has broken after a year. :-(

― We Are All Full Of Kate (kate), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:36 (twenty-one years ago)

2/3rds of all porsches ever masde are still on the road, go figure.
I have worked in electronic retail, the comission rate for extended waraties is something lik 20 percent, with a heavy bonus structure added on. in other words they are a total fucking rip off. I was also told while doing that jobh, that alkthough prices for electrical goods have dropped the cost of repair has increased, meaning that for most small items the warrenty company resist paying off, and when the eventually do, they replace not repair.

― lukey (Lukey G), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Planned obsolescence has been around for well over 30 years! In fact, it seems to me to be a perfect 50s/60s phenomenon. mark s will know.

― Dadrock, Meshach and Abednego (Dada), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Google tells me:

"Planned obsolescence was first developed in the 1920s and 1930s when mass production had opened every minute aspect of the production process to exacting analysis."

― Dadrock, Meshach and Abednego (Dada), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Having seen a man fix a video by opening the case and blowing three times, I did this this to my old busted one (which I used cos it had a remote for changing chnnels when lazy Pete was in bed). This simple act made the thing come back to life. Fixing stuff is great!!!

― Pete (Pete), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:41 (twenty-one years ago)

There was a planned obsolescence (feature? chapter? thing?) in an old Mad book I had from the 60's. The only one I remember was a pencil sharpener that sharpened off center. Wait, I think that was products designed to annoy and confuse .. but they had a planned obsolescence thing too.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:42 (twenty-one years ago)

When I think about it, planned obsolescence seems like much more of phenomenon of the 1950s and 1960s than it does of the present day - hold on, haven't I just said that?

― Dadrock, Meshach and Abednego (Dada), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:44 (twenty-one years ago)

That last post is an example of uplanned obsolescence

― Dadrock, Meshach and Abednego (Dada), Thursday, 7 April 2005 11:44 (twenty-one years ago)

My new computer got a problem last night. Bugger.

― caitlin (caitlin), Thursday, 7 April 2005 12:14 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/b/bathtubcurve.html

I love when people think annecdotal evidence makes something true.

― Alex in TCBY (ex machina), Thursday, 7 April 2005 12:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I have just apparently fixed my one-month-old, wouldn't-boot-up-at-all computer by a) opening the case b) blowing the dust off everything c) unplugging and replugging the SATA cable at both ends. And, as far as I can tell, it's working fine!

― caitlin (caitlin), Thursday, 7 April 2005 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Sometimes it just needs to know you care.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 7 April 2005 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

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