DESIGN GONE WRONG WITH COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS -AND HOW TO FIX THEM

[Jon]

Agreed on refrigerators. Our icemaker stopped working recently (after all, it's been an entire two years). A small motor had failed, and I thought I might just replace the motor. It looks like the manufacturer had taken a very common small motor, and altered its housing such that only this proprietary modified motor would fit. That way, my most reasonable option is to replace the entire icemaker unit.

And on GPS. My neighbor called me recently to lend a hand transferring his map files to his new GPS. His old maps were highly detailed, but the file format compatibility had changed, so he had to replace everything.

Seasonal items is another issue. We repeatedly fell into the trap of replacing holiday lights each season. My wife's parents have had the same exact lights for 40+ years now.

The upside is that our purchasing habits can now improve from reading discussions in online communities. I ended up finding a holiday lighting forum, and I saw a small light manufacturer who posted regularly in the forums, guaranteed his product (he even had a tiered money-back guarantee, with X% back if they failed at 1 year, Y% at 2, etc.), and was vocal about the problems with mainstream lights. I ended up purchasing from him, and was shocked at the build quality of his products, and the reasonable cost. It might even cost more to initially manufacture an inferior product, but it's more profitable long-term with repeat purchases.