Irritatingly Petty Cheapness - Examples Anyone ?

Raiser

I'm talking about the smalltime petty, stingy, 1/4 cent counting irritating things that manufacturers and goods/services providers do in order to increase their profits and fcuk the consumer/customer over.

So until recently when you opened a pound of Sausages the packaging was made out of nice stretchy, sticky cling film - nowadays just to save .001 of a cent per pack its crappy plastic which won't re-seal and all of your remaining sausages turn a funny colour and dry up in the bottom of the fridge.

Or when you spend €29,999 on a flashy new Motor, and discover to your surprise that when you get a puncture your spare wheel has been replaced by a little orange plastic circle [a wheel ?] that won't let you drive quicker than 11 kmph or further than 4.8 miles without disintegrating into dust.

USB printers don't ship with a USB cable [or any other fcuking cable] and the poxy ink cartridges are only 1/3 full so as to have you queueing up 3 days later for a pot of ink the size of your thumb that costs €50.

When you buy any product these days you need to keep the receipt, cardboard packaging, aeroboard packaging, plastic bags, documentation and have a photocopy of the sales assistants birth cert. stapled to a polaroid photo of them for when the product fails, falls apart, explodes - and if you're lucky enough to get it home before it breaks - burns down your house.

Anyone got any more ?

*Edit - left out a bit

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

Easy Grandpa!

dade

Raiser wrote:

USB printers don't ship with a USB cable [or any other fcuking cable] and the poxy ink cartridges are only 1/3 full so as to have you queueing up 3 days later for a pot of ink the size of your thumb that costs €50.]

Pisses me off too. printer manufactures make the money off the toner not the printer. i heard that in the UK the major printer manufacturers where being investigated over the fact that it was cheaper to buy a new printer than the replacement toners.

The cables bit is so they can make another couple of euro off you. they had to drive prices down for competition so instead they broke it into component parts. I bet in a few years ya'll have to buy the toner separate too.


Oh and before anyone says it, Yore Ma is getting pretty Cheap these days

Lex_Diamonds

Products that fail weeks after their guarantees expire. This has happened to me numerous times, and I seriously believe its intentional.

judas101

Lex_Diamonds wrote:

Products that fail weeks after their guarantees expire. This has happened to me numerous times, and I seriously believe its intentional.

yup.i study mechanical engineering in college and we had a guest lecturer tell us that a lot of companys want their products to fail after a certain lifespan.


:eek:

Stephen

Raiser wrote:

Or when you spend €29,999 on a flashy new Motor, and discover to your surprise that when you get a puncture your spare wheel has been replaced by a little orange plastic circle [a wheel ?] that won't let you drive quicker than 11 kmph or further than 4.8 miles without disintegrating into dust.

There is a bit of logic behind this one. Space saver spare wheels are designed to do that - save space and thus increase available boot space and reduce the overall weight of the vehicle.

However, now some new cars come with a fag-lighter operated compressor and a bottle of gunk that you use to repair a puncture instead of any spare wheel at all!

Paddy Dignam

Is it my imagination or are mobile phones becoming less durable? Good be with the days of the aul' Motorola. Afraid to leave it on overnight in case you'd jack in the battery!

Fratton Fred

Lex_Diamonds wrote:

Products that fail weeks after their guarantees expire. This has happened to me numerous times, and I seriously believe its intentional.

there is a note on the guarantee that says it does not affect your statutory rights.

Goods should bee of merchantable quality and if you buy a TV you can reasonably exect it to last longer that 12 omnths and one day, so if it falls apart one day outside of its waranty, you are still covered by the sale of goods act and are within your rights to demand a epair.

TequilaMockingBird

Grrrr... Printer Manufacturers...bad karma being built up there alright.

Gumbyman

I got a cat the other day and the cúnt scratched me. I was only trying to feed it. To a bigger cat.

Stephen

Eh, are you sure you posted in the right thread?

Splinter

yeah i agree with the printer one, and another that p!ssed me off! was in mcdonalds the other day and they have no fizzydrinks cause the machine was out of order and as a replacement they had milkshakes but charged the extra they usually would... now in my mind, its their machine out of order, why should i have to pay? that plane annoyed me! also dvd players coming no scart leads...

seamus

splinter wrote:

now in my mind, its their machine out of order, why should i have to pay?

You had the option of not buying a milkshake
But of course, in the interests of customer care, you'd think they'd charge less. But it's McDonalds. What's customer care?

Have to say I agree that mobile phones are becoming far less durable.

The older phones I had, never used to spontaneously stop working, reboot themselves, or otherwise become faulty over time. The last two phones I've had have done all of these things. The keypads also become less sensitive over time, which also never happened to me before. Apart from that, modern phones get scratched to ****, and look very shoddy and wrecked after about 3 months in my pocket.

Splinter

but if i chose not to buy it then i have to get the rest of the meal ya get me? i have to buy the stuff seperate.. bah, just ticked me off at the time... maybe im teh petty one :P

Jimoslimos

Cheapskate dell PCs; not supplying operating system discs with computers anymore:mad:

Jesus Wept

Raiser wrote:

USB printers don't ship with a USB cable [or any other fcuking cable] and the poxy ink cartridges are only 1/3 full so as to have you queueing up 3 days later for a pot of ink the size of your thumb that costs €50.

Cost of ink cartridges is a major major (*100) rip off.

I don't have a printer, my dad told me that he pays €45e for a colour ink cartridge and €25 for a black one. (Edit, still expensive considering what it is, but, a lot less.)

Straight on to ebay. I can buy a colour and a black cartridge for 28euro total, delivered.
Total saving €48.

There are also kits you can get where you can put the ink in yourself, haven't tried that, dunno how well they work/difficult/messy it is, but they are only 3-4euro, might try it...

Also, they will buy old cartridges back from you, so they say, for a few euro a go.

jester77

Charging silly price for the little piece of butter to put on your roll when you buy soup somewhere. That annoys me!

The price of a splash in bars. You want your vodka with a splash of lime,etc and they charge you €1+ depending on bar for it!

Caliden

All the sweets/choc bars/taytos have been getting smaller and smaller but still going up in price.
I think this was made apparent when some bloke saved a sadbury's cream egg from the previous year and compared to the current one and there was a huge difference.

Man those sausage packs were a god send but now
Also talking about sausages makes me hungry!!

AlmightyCushion

The-Rigger wrote:

Cost of ink cartridges is a major major (*100) rip off.

I don't have a printer, my dad told me that he pays €45e for a colour ink cartridge and €25 for a black one.

Straight on to ebay. I can buy a colour and a black cartridge for 28euro total, delivered.
Total saving €48.

There are also kits you can get where you can put the ink in yourself, haven't tried that, dunno how well they work/difficult/messy it is, but they are only 3-4euro, might try it...

Also, they will buy old cartridges back from you, so they say, for a few euro a go.

For photo printers the refills aren't as good (just what I've heard) but for bog standard documents they are fine. Also printer ink is more expensive then rocket fuel per millilitre. It's a fúcking scam.

Cake Fiend

jester77 wrote:

they charge you €1+ depending on bar for it!

You still pay it though, don't you. That's business for you - they'll charge whatever they can get away with.

Jesus Wept

AlmightyCushion wrote:

For photo printers the refills aren't as good (just what I've heard) but for bog standard documents they are fine. Also printer ink is more expensive then rocket fuel per millilitre. It's a fúcking scam.

Maybe they are not, dunno.

The dad just uses them for letters really, so they should do the job.

It is a serious fcuking rip off though.

Jimoslimos

jester77 wrote:

The price of a splash in bars. You want your vodka with a splash of lime,etc and they charge you €1+ depending on bar for it!

True! The margin on splash drinks is in many cases greater than the alcoholic beverages:eek:

Max_Damage

Jimoslimos wrote:

Cheapskate dell PCs; not supplying operating system discs with computers anymore:mad:

Packard Bell are the same.

I no longer buy rip off computers anymore, I just build them now myself.

PeakOutput

Raiser wrote:

When you buy any product these days you need to keep the receipt, cardboard packaging, aeroboard packaging, plastic bags, documentation

by the way back when i was in secondary school and learning consumer law we were told that we didnt need proof of purchase if the product does not work as described or breaks..................dont knwo if it is true or not but it has gotten me numerous replacements from different shops (up to a year after purchase) when they say i need a receipt sorry and i say "well actually the law says".

may help in future

AlmightyCushion

The-Rigger wrote:

Maybe they are not, dunno.

The dad just uses them for letters really, so they should do the job.

It is a serious fcuking rip off though.

Neither do I, it's just what I've heard but for printing out letters and the like they're grand. It's insane though a new ink cartridge with the ink in it costs about €40, a refill kit costs less than a tenner. What a fúcking mark up. Next time you're buying a printer get an epson. Their ink is meant to be the cheapest.

seamus

Jimoslimos wrote:

Cheapskate dell PCs; not supplying operating system discs with computers anymore:mad:

The problem now is that if you give out about this stuff, the fluffy crusties will shout you down citing the environment.

AlmightyCushion

Jimoslimos wrote:

True! The margin on splash drinks is in many cases greater than the alcoholic beverages:eek:

That's very true a bottle of miwadi only costs about a euro or two yet they charge a euro for a tiny bit. What's the bets that they just keep the miwadi bottles and fill them with tesco value orange juice?

jdivision

In my local Eddie Rockets they refill the Heinz ketchup bottles with cheap nasty stuff.

My pet one though is the way newsagents increase the price of a 500ml bottle of soft drinks by 5c every six months. Without fail. Don't know whether it's Coke and C&C doing it or the shops but thinking of complaining to the Competition Authority about it.

PeakOutput

jdivision wrote:

In my local Eddie Rockets they refill the Heinz ketchup bottles with cheap nasty stuff.

My pet one though is the way newsagents increase the price of a 500ml bottle of soft drinks by 5c every six months. Without fail. Don't know whether it's Coke and C&C doing it or the shops but thinking of complaining to the Competition Authority about it.

unless you think its cartelism(sp) then it has nothing to do with the competition authority. more than likely its just inflation......whats has inflation been recently??? 5% so 5% of 1.20 is a little more than 5c so that could be it.

hate to take the side of the retailer on that one but it just struck me as being a non issue

James Forde

Jimoslimos wrote:

Cheapskate dell PCs; not supplying operating system discs with computers anymore:mad:

my computers shagged and i dont have the operating disk thanks a bunch dell!!

luckat

Apple, who supply the manual on CD. If my computer goes dead, that's when I need the manual, eh? How am I going to look at it then, eh?

All electronics makers that urge you to register your product as soon as possible - then limit upgrades to people who've only registered x many months ago.

Maplins, who refused to give me my money back when their DVD 50-pack wouldn't work on my Mac. For the sake of €30 they lost my custom, and that of the people I was always sending in there.

Someone should tell these companies that making their customers hate them is not good for repeat business.

Blush_01

Clonakilty sausages are still wrapped in the sticky clingfilm. They're the nicest sausages anyway. Or wrap your sausages in the stiffer plastic they come in, and wrap that in clingfilm. It's not a major deal.

Epson cartridges are the cheapest because they're the smallest and imo from experience Epsons aren't great. HP printers all the way - you can get the cartridges refilled, and over the years we've had about 5 of them for the various PCs, the two most ancient ones are gone but the other three still work fine. /me pats printer on head.

Galvasean

I see Denny cumberland ham slices have gotten about a third smaller, still the same price though. DANM YOU!!!!

jdivision

PeakOutput wrote:

unless you think its cartelism(sp) then it has nothing to do with the competition authority. more than likely its just inflation......whats has inflation been recently??? 5% so 5% of 1.20 is a little more than 5c so that could be it.

hate to take the side of the retailer on that one but it just struck me as being a non issue

5c every six months equals just under 10 per cent. the fact they all do it at the same time strikes me as either the drinks companies agreeing it or RGDATA stating members should do it. It's been happening for last four years at least so inflation wasn't always that high. The other thing is that food inflation has actually been way below level of inflation.

Terry

10p crisps rose in price to 20c after the change over.
Some were also reduced in size from 20g to 16g.
This really pissed me off because I love cheap corn snacks.

biko

When you buy a pack of smokes in a NI pub and you only get 16 inside, instead of 20!

PeakOutput

biko wrote:

When you buy a pack of smokes in a NI pub and you only get 16 inside, instead of 20!

they are cheaper than a 20 box tho............its the same in germany but its so they can sell them at even prices like 4 euro for 18 instead of 4.70 for 20 or at least thats what they told me

Spud83

When they ask you for the extra 1c of petrol you accidently put in.

Tar.Aldarion

Should be a feckin memory card in digital cameras when you get them.

Jesus Wept

alanmurphy83 wrote:

When they ask you for the extra 1c of petrol you accidently put in.

Tell them you accidently put in €10 worth.

jackdaw

judas101 wrote:

yup.i study mechanical engineering in college and we had a guest lecturer tell us that a lot of companys want their products to fail after a certain lifespan.


:eek:

Really!!! with what type of systems ?

Im thinking of getting a nice cinema system .. if i fork out €1000 for speakers and an AMP i hope it's not gonna banjax in a year !!
same for the 37" LCD !!

Naikon

Max_Damage wrote:

Packard Bell are the same.

I no longer buy rip off computers anymore, I just build them now myself.

Same here, I find building your own system gives you more freedom in the sense that you don't have to pay for useless software, peripherals and "support services" which charge 3.00 euro/min.
Dell really took the biscuit when they moved into retail selling with Walmart:mad:

Tinytony

A regular burger: €2.00
A Cheese burger: €2.50

Now since when did it cost 50c for an easi single??

Also curry chips (or any chips with sauce)

Regular chip: €3.50
Curry chip: €4:55

:mad: :mad: :mad:

Ruu_Old

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Should be a feckin memory card in digital cameras when you get them.

Some do but they are tiny in terms in megabyteage so you end up getting a new one anyway. Dell as mentioned, 18 euro for a USB cable for your printer. They also used to sell their Dell wallpaper for 5 euro (it is still there somewhere).

PeakOutput

jackdaw wrote:

Really!!! with what type of systems ?

Im thinking of getting a nice cinema system .. if i fork out €1000 for speakers and an AMP i hope it's not gonna banjax in a year !!
same for the 37" LCD !!

apparently ipods have a built in thing like this were they break after a certain amount of time

also the iphone is only good for 1000 charges apparently

big b

Shops that sell ham & stuff in " handy re-sealable packs" but when you open the pack the feckin lid tears in half.

judas101

PeakOutput wrote:

apparently ipods have a built in thing like this were they break after a certain amount of time

also the iphone is only good for 1000 charges apparently

yep, stuff like that.

think about it; apple undeniably have a great product in the ipod but if it lasted forever they'd have sold far far less of them.

i've bought 2 ipods in the last 4-5 years. great pieces of technology but are engineered to fail.

most power showers are like that too as well as hoovers ect.

i dont think it's common practice for premium electronics (plasma screens ect.) but you never know.


ideally the manufacturers want to provide a good product that the consumer is happy with so when it eventually breaks they buy another. a lecturer of mine calls it the ipod principle.

Kintarō Hattori

PeakOutput wrote:

apparently ipods have a built in thing like this were they break after a certain amount of time

Apparaently eh? My missus has had her iPod the last two years or so and it's still going strong. I suspect that's an urban myth type thing.

PeakOutput

eo980 wrote:

Apparaently eh? My missus has had her iPod the last two years or so and it's still going strong. I suspect that's an urban myth type thing.

i didnt say what the length of time is and also i have had an ipod that broken after a year and a half so your wifes still working does not prove anything. I do believe that the people iv heard this off know what they are talking about as im sure the other poster believes that his lecturer is not lieing for some sort of shock value


google it anyway and you will find alot of stuff on it some sound bull**** some sound researched

edit; it would also be fairly stupid if they had something in them that broke them exactly 365 days after being turned on.....it is much more likely to be something like including a battery that CAN last 4 years but the majority of them will last 2

dame

Replacement batteries for watches that cost E30 but you could buy a pack of ten from battery manufacturers for GBP15. :mad:



Why don't you folks all head to your nearest Cartridge World and refill your cartridges????????????????????????



Shaws sausages are the only ones with 80% pork. :eek: All the rest have less meat and more crap. Pity about the wrappers alright though.





Oh, and by the way, the engineered to fail thing is true.

MooseJam

shop attendants who dilly daddle in getting the 2 or 3 cent change hoping you will just walk off