No doubt I'll get flak just for having bought such items from DIY sheds, bu t I'm getting seriously pissed-off with the low quality and short service l ife of certain goods. A couple of years back, I replaced various light swit ches and dimmers in my house, opting for B&Q's nickel/satin finish items. I also replaced various door handles, opting for Wickes nickel/satin somethi ng-or-others. One of the dimmers (2-way, dual) I fitted in the kitchen didn't work proper ly from day 1. The lights flickered on any dimmed setting (the wiring was s ecure- I checked). After a few months and coinciding with a bulb blowing, t he dim function for one of the two knobs quit working altogether (becoming, in effect, an on/off switch only). I took it back, got a replacement and f itted it. All fine for 6 months or so, then the same thing happens. Took it back, got a replacement again and fitted it. Well, this third one causes t he lights to flicker on dimmed settings, just like the original did, so I s uspect it's only a matter of time before it, too, fails. The power being dr awn is within the specified limit for the dimmer, so is this just an exampl e of crap components? On the handle front, the ones I bought from Wickes had a "10 year handle gu arantee". Actually, it might have been "Lifetime handle guarantee". Regardl ess, the kitchen door handle (most frequently used one in the house) failed after about a year. The spring busted. I took it back for a replacement, a t which point, the sales droid tried to fob me off: "Well, you see, the gua rantee applies to the handle, not the mechanism". I pointed out that the pa ckage describes the product as "Door handle", not as "Door handle, face pla tes and mechanism" and that any normal person would regard the guarantee as applying to the whole unit. After a bit of an argument, I got a replacemen t. Well, said replacement has now failed, in exactly the same way, a furthe r 6 months or so down the line. Is my kitchen cursed, or are there simply lots of shoddy products out there ? I suspect the latter because the examples I have given here are the tip o f the iceberg. I seem to spend my life taking things back to shops. It isn' t that I buy budget-priced items, either. Almost everything is just shit, i t seems. Do others have similar problems? Regards, Terry.
- posted
10 years ago