Yes, I am talking about my favourite ever SCREAM comic from 1984 - Not for the nervous!
Rather than write about it here, see my blog at http://www.toys-toys-toys.co.uk/2011/09/do-you-remember-scream-comic-from-1984.html
Enter if you Dare!
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Not fit for purpose!
If there is one thing that drives me absolutely crazy in todays world, it is products that are just simply not fit for the purpose they were designed for.
The motivation for todays blog post is that I have just spent the last hour of my life out in the garden attempting to start a chainsaw which is my 3rd replacement. I actually had convinced myself that this time would be 3rd time lucky, to the extent that after assembling and fuelling the chainsaw, I even set up my saw horse, popped a log on the top and donned my safety helmet and ear protectors before attempting to start the chainsaw.
How silly and naive to think that Draper could get it wrong 3 times. By the way, it is a draper Expert 45579 37cc petrol chainsaw. In case you were thinking of buying one, then don't (unless you enjoy wasting endless hours of your life assembling chainsaws and pulling on a cord until your hands bleed)! Just look at the reviews on Amazon and you'll see it's not just me! (I shall add my own in due course).
Anyway, whilst waiting for this Amazon agent to return from his afternoon break and realise he left me on hold (only been 17 minutes so far) I might as well rant on a bit more.
Not so long ago, I purchased a food blender when Blake was a baby to blend up his food. The first time I used it I chose to chop up some porridge oats, and the thing literally broke into pieces. It wasn't "cheap" either, just mid - range. I never used it after that and after it sat in the cupboard for a couple of years, i threw it away.
Just last summer, I bought a large Yeoman garden fork. Again, it was their flagship model that even had the wording along the lines of "Heavy Duty - for tough garden jobs". After just a couple of weeks of light regular use the handle snapped off! I got this replaced at the garden centre, and again after a couple of weeks of light digging, the handle snapped. I wrote to Yeamans who simply advised that there products do not carry a guarantee, and fobbed me off, so that is the last time I shall buy Yeomans, and recommend that you don't either.
Well I won't bore you with the intricate details of other examples, of which I can assure you there have been many. If you really won't be able to sleep at night unless I list them all, then drop me an email and I'll be happy to provide a list. Don't get me started on laser printers though. That's worth a blog on it's own.
It's not all bad though, 10 years ago, I bought a filter queen (a suction cleaning device commonly referred to as a hoover) second - hand for about £300 which works brilliantly every time, outperforming kirbys and dysons, sucking up coach bolts and anything in it's path. We have to be careful in Blakes room as it sucks up all the small toys! I have used it many times to clear up mountains of sawdust when doing DIY, and also use it to contain all the soot when cleaning the chimney. It's only ever been serviced twice professionally and once by me, so this does prove that sometimes the manufacturers do get it right. They even sell spare parts to maintain and repair the filter queen just like the good old days.
Well 32 minutes later and Amazon have promised to refund me for the chainsaw (hopefully at the price I paid for it a few months ago) so I shall just learn from the experience and go off and buy a Stihl. Now whenever I make a purchase, a huge deciding factor is whether the manufacturers are faithful enough in their products to provide a guarantee or warranty, and if it is a lifetime one, even better. If the company provides spare parts for their products then that is a good sign for me too. I really hate the disposable world we live in, and hope that some day in the future manufacturers will realise that designing quality products won't just benefit their pockets, but also the environment, the service industry and their customers.
The motivation for todays blog post is that I have just spent the last hour of my life out in the garden attempting to start a chainsaw which is my 3rd replacement. I actually had convinced myself that this time would be 3rd time lucky, to the extent that after assembling and fuelling the chainsaw, I even set up my saw horse, popped a log on the top and donned my safety helmet and ear protectors before attempting to start the chainsaw.
How silly and naive to think that Draper could get it wrong 3 times. By the way, it is a draper Expert 45579 37cc petrol chainsaw. In case you were thinking of buying one, then don't (unless you enjoy wasting endless hours of your life assembling chainsaws and pulling on a cord until your hands bleed)! Just look at the reviews on Amazon and you'll see it's not just me! (I shall add my own in due course).
Anyway, whilst waiting for this Amazon agent to return from his afternoon break and realise he left me on hold (only been 17 minutes so far) I might as well rant on a bit more.
Not so long ago, I purchased a food blender when Blake was a baby to blend up his food. The first time I used it I chose to chop up some porridge oats, and the thing literally broke into pieces. It wasn't "cheap" either, just mid - range. I never used it after that and after it sat in the cupboard for a couple of years, i threw it away.
Just last summer, I bought a large Yeoman garden fork. Again, it was their flagship model that even had the wording along the lines of "Heavy Duty - for tough garden jobs". After just a couple of weeks of light regular use the handle snapped off! I got this replaced at the garden centre, and again after a couple of weeks of light digging, the handle snapped. I wrote to Yeamans who simply advised that there products do not carry a guarantee, and fobbed me off, so that is the last time I shall buy Yeomans, and recommend that you don't either.
Well I won't bore you with the intricate details of other examples, of which I can assure you there have been many. If you really won't be able to sleep at night unless I list them all, then drop me an email and I'll be happy to provide a list. Don't get me started on laser printers though. That's worth a blog on it's own.
It's not all bad though, 10 years ago, I bought a filter queen (a suction cleaning device commonly referred to as a hoover) second - hand for about £300 which works brilliantly every time, outperforming kirbys and dysons, sucking up coach bolts and anything in it's path. We have to be careful in Blakes room as it sucks up all the small toys! I have used it many times to clear up mountains of sawdust when doing DIY, and also use it to contain all the soot when cleaning the chimney. It's only ever been serviced twice professionally and once by me, so this does prove that sometimes the manufacturers do get it right. They even sell spare parts to maintain and repair the filter queen just like the good old days.
Well 32 minutes later and Amazon have promised to refund me for the chainsaw (hopefully at the price I paid for it a few months ago) so I shall just learn from the experience and go off and buy a Stihl. Now whenever I make a purchase, a huge deciding factor is whether the manufacturers are faithful enough in their products to provide a guarantee or warranty, and if it is a lifetime one, even better. If the company provides spare parts for their products then that is a good sign for me too. I really hate the disposable world we live in, and hope that some day in the future manufacturers will realise that designing quality products won't just benefit their pockets, but also the environment, the service industry and their customers.
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