In my house it is.
Too many manufacturers now believe that sacrificing customers to ‘collateral damage’ in pursuit of profits is acceptable policy.
What’s ‘collateral damage’?
Citizens of foreign countries who lose their lives by being in the wrong place at the wrong time when bombs are detonated, are now called ‘collateral damage’ by the military and activist groups responsible.
And manufacturers now consider you and me fodder for their collateral damage.
Because the bean counters in a company think it’s perfectly OK to lower the product quality standards to a stage where a certain percentage of products ‘fail’.
So long as the overall bottom line is showing a profit, it’s just fine to lose a few customers along the way.
I wonder when they’ll bother to care about the fact that they are swiftly losing my confidence in them?
And many of my customers and friends.
Retailers, who suffer the brunt of customer dissatisfaction when a product fails, all mutter the same mantra.
While every manufacturer is making their products in the same factories as their competitors, in developing countries in Asia, nothing will change.
And many retailers say they have little choice because most goods are now made in Asia.
Not everything.
Miele is still made in Germany.
I have a 12 month old Miele front loading washing machine and it’s as dependable as the most loyal, faithful dog.
And Kenwood is still made in Great Britain.
In 2008, Victor’s mother replaced the mixer she bought in the 1960′s and swears the new one is made just like her original one.
But most things are made in developing countries in Asia.
My long saga of disappointment goes back to September 2008 when I started along the road of replacing my worn out appliances.
First cab off the rank is my trio of Sunbeam Cafe Series Mixmaster, Blender and Food Processor, Made In China, to replace my broken down Moulineux food processor/blender combination, which didn’t last 2 years.
The Mixmaster is in addition to my 40 year old Sunbeam hand mixer. Which is still tootling along. You always need a hand mixer.
All 3 Sunbeam products are beautifully engineered and I love the simplicity of the stainless steel design.
And am very impressed with the mainly stainless steel working components, instead of plastic.
I can’t wait to open the box with the blender.
Only to be immediately disappointed.
The exterior stainless steel housing is badly scarred. It looks like acid was thrown on it by a grumpy worker.
Returned to David Jones and replaced without question.
The new blender looks perfect.
I test it out.
I fill it with a little water and place the container on the pedestal base.
In a nanosecond, the container flies off the pedestal like a cat leaping off a hot stove and splashes water all over my kitchen.
The problem?
A factory worker doesn’t tighten, to its lowest point, the shank that pins the container in place to the base.
A spanner and some elbow grease from me fixes the problem.
Now I’m expected to be a de-facto factory hand.
One week into the use of the Mixmaster and it too has problems.
This time I contact Sunbeam direct and state in no uncertain terms my disappointment to Poppy in Customer Service.
Poppy deserves a medal for tolerating my no holds barred, outburst.
She politely and calmly asks me to send my Mixmaster directly to Sunbeam at their expense.
Two weeks later a call from Poppy says it’s on its way home to me. A few things needed to be tightened and adjusted.
I open the box on arrival only to discover the interior of the box is wet.
Not the exterior.
The interior.
Which means it was wet when it left Sunbeam.
I unpack it and place it on my kitchen bench and turn it on.
Then it ‘snaps, crackles and pops’.
Acrid smoke spirals out from the motor of the mixer.
And it dies.
It shorted from the dampness that seeped inside the mixer on its way from Sunbeam to Ilford.
Poppy says a new Mixmaster is on its way.
And I’ve not had another problem with it.
Proud of the fact that the food processor is still running to perfection, you can imagine my disappointment when 6 months into its life, the plastic hub that holds the bowl in place on the base, snaps and falls off while I am washing it.
Poppy says I must have dropped it. It’s never happened before.
#!$#!!##! I say to Poppy.
A new bowl is on its way.
The new bowl is calibrated differently to the old bowl and the original spindle doesn’t fit. The spindle is too big and won’t stay in place when I use it.
A new spindle, cutting blade and everything else that might not fit is in the parcel from Poppy.
My Sunbeam appliances haven’t missed a beat since then and I love using them.
But Sunbeam has serious quality control issues to address.
In return for her equanimity and her remarkable helpfulness, I send Poppy a gift from me to thank her for being what I consider to be the perfect ambassador for Sunbeam.
She’s the dream customer service consultant when you have the customer from hell on the end of the phone. Me!
After 8 years, my Tefal iron gives up the ghost.
The Sunbeam Accura range gets rave reviews everywhere. So I walk into my RetraVision dealer and purchase one.
The first one takes 55 minutes to lower the temperature from high to medium.
The Sunbeam customer rep – it’s Poppy’s day off: lucky her! – gets an Accura iron to test while I’m on the phone.
She turns it onto high. The temperature drops in seconds.
I take it back to RetraVision in Bathurst and exchange it for another Sunbeam Accura.
I fill it with water, turn it on, and it leaks from every single seam and orifice on the iron.
My ironing board and floor are soaked.
Back it goes never to return to my house.
Morphy Richards make a brilliant iron that I truly love and highly recommend.
Victor has placed a ban on Sunbeam products in our household.
The Sunbeam electric blanket he purchased for his mother has had the control unit burn out twice in 18 months.
Happily replaced by Sunbeam.
Sunbeam products are exceptionally well designed.
But it’s the annoyance, disappointment and inconvenience caused by poor quality control that ruins them in the eyes of the customer sacrificed to ‘collateral damage’.
Onwards to other products.
I purchase a top of the range Brother colour laser printer in March 2009.
After many discussions about my needs and how I’ll use my colour printer, my Corporate Express sales representative says it’s probably the best option in my price range.
In November 2009, the laser unit stops functioning.
It’s never happened before, protests the manufacturer.
There isn’t even one in the country.
Five weeks later, plus the utter inconvenience of me having to find another printer to use, my new laser unit is replaced.
I’ve always wanted a cast iron French oven. But have always been put off by the price.
I stumble across a one day sale on Le Chasseur French Ovens at almost wholesale prices. To make way for the new range and new colours.
I’m chuffed when I take it home.
The ovens are made in France.
The knobs on the lid are made in China.
I go through three before the fourth knob stops popping its head off in the oven.
My Telefunken CD/DVD player has great sound and looks terrific.
Eleven months and two weeks into its guarantee it stops playing.
The new replacement player doesn’t even turn on.
The third one plays until 10 months into its life. But the guarantee has timed out and we’re stuck.
The Telefunken decides which CD’s it will play. Not me.
Yes, it loves Norah Jones and Linda Ronstadt with Nelson Riddle. No! Queen’s A Night At The Opera is definitely out.
The entire LED display turned its lights out months ago.
Finally weary of only having a great radio, we order a Grundig Ovation II.
It’s on its way.
Should we be excited?
Or wary?
My 27 year old stove baked its last dinner in November. We chose a simple but very functional Chef stove. Its chunky exterior is right in keeping with our modest farmhouse kitchen.
Victor prepares the space. Opens the packaging. And there it is. A chip in the porcelain on the rim of the hot plates as big as a fifty-cent piece.
It couldn’t be missed in the factory.
But someone didn’t care and packed it anyway.
We’re waiting for our replacement stove to be delivered by RetraVision.
I’m using the chipped one.
It’s perfect for my simple baking and cooking needs.
The oven keeps to a perfect temperature. The solid hot plates heat evenly. The grill can be used with the door closed. It’s only 54cm wide, so doesn’t take up too much room. And the exterior shape and look is exactly what we want.
So why aren’t I happy?
On the truck with the replacement Chef stove is a new air conditioner we ordered for the main living area. 43C-46C days are too difficult to get through without air conditioning.
We tried.
But when the office equipment stops working because of the heat, it’s time to get some help when the temperatures soar.
Are we excited at the thought of air conditioning at last?
No!
We’re cynical about what warts and all problems will surprise us when we turn it on.
My not very old toaster was burning the toast.
But I didn’t expect much because it was given to me and I know it wasn’t very expensive.
And having read about toasters I know there are a few brands with excellent pedigrees.
Victor’s mother loves her Morphy Richards. But it’s far too big for the space I have.
Because I want a 4 slice toaster, compact in size, stainless steel exterior if possible, chunky in style in keeping with my old fashioned kitchen, I choose a Cuisinart.
Great reviews online and a 3 year guarantee gives me the confidence to think it’s possibly perfect.
I purchased it on 20th October 2009. It’s going back on Tuesday, 12th January 2010. One side of the toaster burns the toast to smoking point on a setting of 4 out of 6. The other side makes perfect toast on a setting of 6.
There was so much smoke coming from the kitchen, Victor thought the house was on fire.
When I got the original box out to repack it for its return to the retailer, I turned the box over and there it is.
Made In China.
#!%$#!
Add to this litany, the garden irrigation timers that no longer last through their 12 months warranty.
The ‘Do It Yourself’ packs that have screws and/or other vital elements missing.
And if it has screws, they’re of such light weight material you either strip the heads or the threads. Or both.
The kitchen tea towels that shrink to mini napkins on first washing. And the more expensive ones whose woven threads break within a month or two.
My ironing board is 45 years old. It’s so solid, it’s hard to move.
My customers complain non-stop about the current crop of flimsy, yet moderately expensive ironing boards.
The metal mesh is so thin it caves in under pressure.
They rock.
They roll.
And are becoming as much of an irritation as cheap ironing board covers that never stay in place.
My most frequently asked question is: where can I buy a decent ironing board?
The manufacturers have got it wrong.
There’s no longer a mass market.
There’s a market that wants to buy cheap.
These customers are never loyal and will only buy on price. They flit from place to place, always on the look out for the cheapest in everything.
And then there’s the market that wants to buy quality, use quality and are prepared to pay a reasonable price for it.
These customers are so loyal they’ll walk over broken glass to buy another quality product from you.
It’s not a huge market.
But it’s big enough to sustain my business.
And a few other companies who think like me.
Which type of customer are you?
Do you want to own things that last?
Or do you like to have something not so good, but new, every year or so?
There’s enough people in each group for companies to satisfy both markets.
This Guerrilla From The Bush knows that the only road for me is the one with the sign ‘Made With Quality And Care’ written on it.
Why can’t other makers be like Miele and Kenwood and offer a product range that lasts?
No one likes being sacrificed to ‘collateral damage’ for the sake of bigger profits.
Take care,
Carol
