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Defective Stuff

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TClaeys

Skilled Investigator
I get defective stuff all the time. Sometimes the item is not defective, but certain parts are missing while there are too many of other parts. Example: I opened a new (you build it) clothes hamper yesterday. There are supposed to be four legs, two of one kind and two of another. It turns out I had 3 of one kind and 1 of the other.

I also opened a new package for my kid, some flashing lights for his bike. They don't work. Opened another package, LEGO's (New unopened). Directions show one particular piece that is missing. But in it's place is another, that is the wrong piece, but still manages to work.

These are just a few from this week, but this happens to me very often. Things will stop working in a matter of days. Pieces are mismatched, printed backwards, missing, etc. I always seem to get the messed up items. So much so that anytime I open something my wife will say "Oh is it defective??" But I'm really not kidding. Sometimes I'll take the item back (if I kept my receipt) and get another defective one. I've taken things back 3 times before just getting my money back. A lot of times I can find a way to rig it so it works.

So here's the weird part if there is one. I'm beginning to think that somehow, strangely, that I am causing it. That feels stupid to even write and probably isn't the case, but it kinda feels like it. Because it happens often enough to make me wonder.

So do you people get as much defective stuff as I do?? Maybe China is playing a joke on us all. Or just me. Or I just don't know. I've never had anything seemingly paranormal ever happen in my life and I don't think this is. But, .... no one I know gets as much non-working stuff as me. It just strikes me as strange. And it pisses me off too.

Anyone out there experience this??
 
TClaeys said:
Anyone out there experience this??
Click to expand...

This is simply what happens when we buy everything from the cheapest source using what is in essence slave labor, that being China.

Go here

CPSC Recall Announcements and Product Safety Alerts

and just start looking at all the product recalls. Start tallying in what country most of the recalls were manufactured.

Your experiences are definitely the norm and not the exception.

The sad part is that actually returning the product, or forcing the manufacturer to make good, IS the exception. If the item is less than say $40 (or some number), many people just toss it and say it is not worth the trouble.
 
Just about everything I buy comes the way it is supposed to. Same with hubby and kids. What it looks like after we try to put it together is another story...
however, I have a friend whom I can almost guarantee will wind up with something wrong with whatever she buys.

real or bullshit? you decide...;)
 
Ain't it the truth! I had a professor who was shy of technology and nothing EVER worked for her. She couldn't use the usual props a teacher does - overhead projector, computer, light pen--all that stuff because something would always go wrong. It wasn't just ineptness on her part, either. I saw this in action many times.

Yet for myself, this rarely happens. I get all the parts in the package. The car never breaks down. Technology always works. I don't have problems with Windows or MS Word (which I soemtimes push pretty hard.) Bureaucracy always works flawlessly (TOO flawlessly sometimes, if you know what I mean.) This is not because I've 'knowledgeably tweaked' something. It just always falls into place. It's uncanny. I have to be careful or I'll piss people off, particularly women. I want to say, 'Just give it to me and it will work,' but it comes off as being chauvinistic. It's really hard to keep quiet without grinning, which is worse.

Don't worry. Other areas of my life more than make up for this. My dog still farts when he sits by me, and it's really bad. :)
 
And I say China because almost every damn thing comes from there, but it isn't just China. A few weeks ago I got a gift (A t-shirt) from my relatives who went to Florida. And no it wasn't a "all I got was this lousy t-shirt" thing.

Anyway, it shows a picture on the box of what the t-shirt is supposed to have on it, and guess what?? A completely different picture on the shirt in the box. It was made somewhere in the states, but apparently some fool put the wrong t-shirt in the box.

So,... I email the company telling them the story (that I got this gift and it was the wrong shirt, could I please perhaps exchange it). Their response: "We are unable to locate your order number by our extensive search" or something to this effect.

I email them back asking them why they are searching for my order number when I never had one, and I quote from my previous email that "it was a gift". Their response "Sorry, we were trying to figure out what t-shirt you actually received" (even though I clearly spelled this out previously). I basically call them a bunch of schmucks, tell them to forget it, and let them know that they have packaged wrong shirts somewhere in Florida.

At first I thought it was funny because the name of the company is called "Life is Crap". I thought it to be ironic, me getting a wrong shirt from a company named this.

And it keeps on. Just another example of shit like this that perpetually keeps happening to me.
 
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