A Bit of a Rant

Firstly, this is nothing at all to do with publishing, writing, editing or anything even vaguely related. So, if you only stop by her on occasion to hear about that sort of thing, you might want to wander away now.

But I just had to get this off my chest (a "grumpy old man moment", if you like).

Things that don't do what they are designed to do.

How many things have yo bought that simply do not perform as expected? Whether it be the can opener that opens cans so badly you are in danger of ripping your finger on the jagged edge, or the nail clippers that can't cut through the smallest of nails, or (my current rant) the vacuum cleaner whose belt snaps the minute anything gets caught in the brushes (no matter how quickly you switch it off).

All three of these are personal to me recently. Of course, every one of these has been a cheap purchase (though, of course, that's relative: a Ford car is cheap compared to a Rolls Royce, but you don't hear anyone saying "Well, you should have bought a Rolls" when your Ford breaks down, right?), but whether something costs a pound, or fifty pounds, or fifteen thousand pounds ought to be irrelevant. Does it, simply, perform the task it claims to perform?

I know the next response: take it back to the shop, get a refund (the Sales of Goods act protects you from items which are "Not fit for purpose"). It's not that simple: is it worth returning the one pound nail clippers? If not, where do you draw the line? If it's not worth the effort of returning a one pound item, what value item is worth returning? And, so long as you don't return the one pound clippers, the shop will keep selling them and the factory will keep making them.

My vacuum cleaner, subject of a few Twitter rants this morning, actually has a label on it which says "DO NOT RETURN TO THE SHOP. Call the Helpline." Really, that should have rung alarm bells right away but, in fact, it appeared to work very well. At first. Since then, however, I have spend more money on replacement drive belts that I spent on the actual cleaner. And it had to have a new brush bar after less than six months. And it needs another new one now, at just two years old.

So, buy a new one, right? Of course, but that's another £50 (for a cheap one) or £300+ (for a decent one) and no guarantee it will be any better. Price does not always equal quality. Well known brands are not always better.

Our fridge/freezer was replaced recently after four years of pain. It was a reasonably quality brand, but we lost endless fridge/freezers worth of food because of a major design flaw (the frost-free freezer would ice up, meaning the fan - which kept the fridge cool - would be unable to turn). A bit of research - after the event - made it clear this is a common fault, but the company is still selling the same (as far as I can see) design. We replaced it with 2, cheap, separate items.

I could go on and on, but I won't.

I won't name the fridge/freezer manufacturer here, since I'm not qualified to speak of the design fault (though I'll happily mention it be email if asked). Suffice to say, we recently replaced a washing machine by the same manufacturer because that failed to perform to expectations too. We still have a dishwasher, and that's faulty.

The vacuum cleaner? That one I will name, since it's fault is clearly demonstrable (and I've already named it on Twitter): It's Vax.