Is everything cr#p nowadays ?

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welsh dragon

Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll pass.
The fact is things from decades ago lasted a lifetime. Kettles, washing machines, anything mechanical or electrical was made to be repaired, hence repair shops. How many do you see nowadays?
 

welsh dragon

Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll pass.
Don't get me started on that ! I buy mine in bulk now just to get some nice stuff .
See if you can find a local joiner to supply you with what you need . They will have the best stuff .

Go to B&Q and the wood is really really crap. You can't use it at all.
 

snorri

Legendary Member
Not literally everything, but how much stuff now is just cr#p :sad:
White contiboard, for my bathroom top, replaced 6 months ago, the surface is just so cr#p..it looks cr#p.
Toilet seat, B&Q, not cheap...more or less the same, its deteriorated so quickly and the thing just wont bolt down anymore, it sits there skewed, annoying me.
Woodscrews with heads that shear off.
Kitchen worktop..brought in store some time ago wheni was doing my kitchen up..it didnt make it out of the carpark. Loading it in the car and noticed it wasnt bonded properly at the back. Took It straightback for a refund.
Fridges and freezers, even from 'reputable' manufacturers, with drawers that break as soon as look at them.
I just fabricated a porch in my garden with corrugated bronzed plastic sheet, £32 a go. The fixings ?..so short, you barely get 5mm of good anchorage.
So much stuff Is JUST fit for purpose..its getting ridiculous.
Yours are ?

Oh dear:sad:.
Further proof, if proof were ever needed that many of the over 40s in this country should be on a course of sedatives and/or anti-ageing medication:sad:


:biggrin:
 

guitarpete247

Just about surviving
Location
Leicestershire
Aaaarrrgh can openers….do my head in! I have tuna everyday for lunch, a can opener is important to me. The usual chunky handled things you get never last, I've resorted back to the thin weedy looking old school opener, its slow and sometimes has a paddy but by and large it works and gets the job done.
p38-can-opener.jpg
I've never had a problem with one of these. Only problem is finding it in the cutlery drawer.:blush:
 
I bought some wood from BnQ the other day. It came from New Zealand! Aren't there any trees nearer than that?
 

Cuchilo

Prize winning member X2
Location
London
I bought some wood from BnQ the other day. It came from New Zealand! Aren't there any trees nearer than that?
There are but its cheaper to ship it from abroad than buy from the UK . My Oak comes from France , goes to York and then is transported to London . That's quite obviously the cheapest way for me to buy oak :wacko: but it is :eek:
 

ayceejay

Guru
Location
Rural Quebec
Once upon a time if you took a non working widget back to Robert Dyas and waited long enough you could get the guy in the brown coat to sift through the gazillion bits you were never allowed to see 'back there' and for sixpence you were sorted.
Contrast that with today: even if you knew what you wanted you would have to look for it yourself and then buy a pack of 10 (now tell me you don't have a shed full of plastic boxes with 9 of a myriad odd screws etc that you have long since forgotten).
And then taking something back for exchange that was once like a scene from Marathon Man today is a walk in the park, "Do you have the receipt?" then she throws it into a box where it it resealed and put back on the shelf. Me "but I only want the nut that was missing (stolen)"
 

TVC

Guest
I've just installed an Ikea kitchen, excellent modular design, sturdy metal drawers, faultless quality, and all the parts -doors, hinges, handles can be bought seperately with supply guaranteed for 25 years if something is damaged.

Not crap.
 
The old saying about cheapness and value not being the same thing is still true.

It is odd that so much stuff is really not fit for purpose but they all stock it.

Can someone make a hose pipe that fits together well, does not leak and is easy to roll up. Is it asking too much?
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
well at the risk of a measured reply, some stuff is crap, but some stuff is amazingly good these days. I used to be, and still am to an extent a bit of a tool snob (Fnaar will be along in a mo') but these days, some quite cheap tools can actually be OK. Even power tools - a Bosch blue (pro model) or Makita angle grinder £50 - which is what I paid for my Black and decker one 30 years ago - and a cheap and cheerful one is only a tenner - which if you've only odd jobs to do, is stupidly cheap even if it only lasts a fortnight.

Consumer electronics are ridiculously cheap - and tend to keep working indefinitely (TV, hifi and the like). Cheap hifi now sounds amazingly good - remember the old Amstrad crap from the 70's and 80's - and you needed a Linn for proper hi-fi. The built in sound on my PC is very nearly as good as my £600 studio quality sound card - which I got 2nd hand cheap(er) off fleabay.

Even cheap tents - a "joke" tent might be £15, but a usable double skin camping tent can be had for twice that - and whilst I love my Hilleberg, it's hard to really justify the cost, lovely though it is.

All that said, on some stuff, you see the nice version of something and it's hundreds of pounds - so stuff that. The cheap one is perhaps only 10% of the cost, and is almost quite good - but could have been really nice if they'd only spent an extra fiver making it. Something like a floor lamp say - after a year of dithering I gritted my teeth and paid out for the Italian one - as the cheap ones had just been made a bit too naffly, but could have been just fine for an extra couple of quid - but mid-range simply didn't exist
 
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