people are these days going after brands on the hope that they can chose the best of a product. This can be seen almost everywhere. say be it in IT based products, services , consumer goods etc.But I would say this is utter nonsense. There may be good brands but many locally produced brands have greater credibility and long lasting capability than reputed brands. I would share one of my experience. I bought a laser printer from a reputed brand one year back but that printer stopped working after just 2 weeks and as warranty period was not expired they replaced it . but the replaced one also started showing abnormalities and again they repaired it and I totally began to hate that brand. But a locally made electric motor in my home is working efficiently since 20 years with no complaints,in its entire life span. this makes clear that brand names have no importance

I don't know about where everyone else sits but in the USA, brand can be very important.
That is not to say new brands or off brands are not important.

Many companies and people, are not into the quality of their trade any more like they
used to be years ago. Many products are made cheaper today and many people do
not appreciate their job.

For example in the USA, there was a time when there manufacturing every where.
I can give almost first hand experience to that because I lived in the suburbs of
Chicago.... ChicagoLand. Much of my family, uncles, worked in the steel mills.
Companies such as Inland Steel, Northern Indiana Steel, etc. The memory stays
fresh in my mind, recalling the lunch box's and hard hats. People were very appreciative
of their jobs and glad to have work. Probably a good phrase for that time is the
'whistle while you work' because people were happy. People were proud of what
they made and they wanted to keep the good job they had. They made quality
items with quality parts.

Today, many people don't care. They don't even care if they have work. They think
they are entitled to everything. They don't care about quality. Many of the parts
products are made with today, are cheap, cheap plastics and cheap metals. Ever
see a screw break in half or a cast iron skillet break in half? Years ago, that would
be near an impossibility. Today, screws snap in to like toothpicks and cast iron will
break. Many USA companies became so greedy they went to other countries where
people were poor and would accept very low wages.

Quality seemingly has gone out the window.

BUT with that said, there are products today that are certainly better than yesteryears.

A newer product I hate is washing and dryer machines. I have a pair of Maytag washer/
dryer machines. They are simple and I have had them for several years. Well, counting
on my fingers, I have had them approximately 7 years. I dread the day they stop
working and hope they never will. Today it is difficult to find a new washer and dryer
that is not huge with gazillions of digital settings. That brings me to another issue....
too many gadgets on products today. Of course the more you put on a product, the
more possibility something will go wrong with it.

What the heck do people need huge washer/dryer machines with all the digital settings, for?

All I need is a knob that turns to cold, hot, warm, start, off. I don't want a monster
washer/dryer. LOL

You are right Valerie these days quality is outweighed by quantity and is based mainly on profits. When gone towards profit quality has no role . But there are innovative brands but that too indulging more on latest technology forgetting the quality and need for everlasting

I agree with you but we don't encourage local brands to come up,not a single Indian product is world class,even our industrialists have produce from Collaboration with foreign brands,even MARUTI SUZUKI is Collaboration with Japanese company,Suzuki,government says made in India,what is made in India,Government has given license to foreign brands to set up plant in India it is called made in India,SAMSUNG,OPPO,APPLE all have plants in India,Apple now has the largest factory in the world in India,an iPhone costs Rs 115000,even if it is being manufactured in India how cheap can it become how many people can still pay Rs80000 for an iPhone,but the government is making money with this make in India slogan who cares about our local business,naturally people are lured by the technology and buy it,who cares its Chinese most Indians have Chinese mobile phones because they are cheap,that is where brand is making a difference people are not interested in locally sourced brands except food.

In this day people tend to support foreign brands and not local mainly due to the COST. Local labour is extremely expensive, near rip-off expensive. There is much debate to be made also about foreign factory workers being exploited, it is true it is a reality, much the same way as workers here are being exploited in tasks and surveys with such abysmally low rates - and why the industry works is because people allow this to happen, so the same applies to the consumer industry. There is another factor other than price. QUALITY !!! I know that people constantly BASH foreign products and say it is of inferior quality - it is not always true, it depends on the factory, and not the people - there is a lot of stereotype around the industry. I have a lot of experience in this first hand as I have purchased so many electronics, computers, parts, over the years. I have personally stopped supporting LOCAL products a long bloody time ago, with the exception of course, food products, produce, etc. As far as electronics and non food products, I have gotten far better QUALITY than I have ever had local. I have actually KNOWN people who work in local factories here producing products and have SEEN with my eyes the abysmal quality standards - To avoid legal trouble I will avoid naming names, but I have dealt with a local company here who's products I have purchased back in the years, they were expensive too, the quality was mediocre at best, did not last long, support was equally as bad as well. Labour is high here, it is expensive, but the quality is not up to standards in many areas. Since I have stopped supporting local and gotten my electronics from known brands, who's products are produced and assembled outside of here, it has been like day and night, I have gotten sturdy, solid made components that lasted many times as long. It's not about country or person it's about quality of standards and the factory they are made in.

Back in those days it was a luxury to have a "Made in Japan" product, due to the standards of quality they have there. I've had a bad luck with a tape backup drive I purchased, in those years, which was made in Japan, it broke down in less than 7 months of LIGHT use !!! Since then, I have purchased one made in China, and it lasted me so many years and going strong, it never broke down, I removed it as backup storage became obsolete for me and had no more use for it, but that QIC backup drive I have gathering some dust is as good as new - and it was used heavily at the time too.

Years later, I purchased an electronic product that was said to be made in the US, the sh*t did not last 1 year, company has gone belly up ever since, product had a lifetime warranty to top it off. Since then been buying the same, made in China, and lasted a decade or so before I had to change it to keep up.

So yeah it's easy to say support local, but you are basically paying A LOT more money for something that is NOT necessarily of higher quality, in some cases it may actually be subpar to low quality.

Regarding Optical media, I have consumed tons of those, not only for my needs but also for business. There is a company in India that made some of those optimal media said to be of high quality, which unfortunately, turned out to be absolutely horrible quality, I have since switched to Japanese made media and never had a single issue.

So IT DEPENDS on the product AND factory. For optical media for example I would NOT buy made in India from that specific brand. Certain products I would NOT buy made in China, it depends on the brand, this is what makes a brand trusted, reputable, etc, experience. You may NOT always get good stuff from well known brands, for example while Samsung makes good phones and Smart TVs, they may not make as good of washers, refrigerators, etc. So it's all about the consumer to make INFORMED purchases and decide on the brand.

Overall anyways production costs are rising but many companies are cutting corners, probably bigger corners if you are looking local.

There are also certain things you cannot get LOCAL, I mean last time I checked I did not see a single TV, appliance, etc, or any product that was 100% made local, the majority of LOCAL companies will use imported parts to keep their costs low, so when you are buying that product said to be "Made in Canada" or "Made in the USA" you can be certain that it has foreign components inside - it might be assembled here but certainly not MADE here. The majority of electronics, switches, and components you will find nowadays is made in China - not ALL bad contrary to popular belief, it all comes down to the BRAND, and if they have good Quality Control and set high standards. Some brands of optical media outsource the dye surface but they are NOT created all equal. You can get TDK branded discs for example made by 2 different suppliers, with 2 different quality standards. Some products can use a MAX of different sources, made in CHina, made in Taiwan, made in Mexico. My motherboard for example is made in China, it has Japanese hard polymer caps, the board is so sturdy, I have not seen this level of quality from an electronic product produced here locally where the defects were apparent even to the non trained eye.

So yeah next time someone says support local, I will tell them "it depends", when you are supporting local you are supporting your corrupted government, they are earning most of that money in taxes, they are already stealing from the people who vote for them and misspend the money then crying the deficits are high and cannot even support poverty, jobs or the deteriorating health care we have here - FOOD ? No problem In the end if I am expected to pay triple the price for a product I expect it to be equally good if not better or I will save my money and buy elsewhere.

BRAND *IS* important. If you buy that GENUINE battery made in China, it is not the same as buying that cheap generic battery also made in China, costing 10 times less, it will likely be a fire hazard.

BRAND is important, and I am loyal to brands that have provided me the value for my money.

For motherboards and graphics card I use ASUS, they have never failed me. I did the big mistake in using a graphics card from a US company, it had a lifetime warranty, and it did not even last 2 damn years, and it was not even OC and not even used a lot, that company went out of business. So you can get 2 products different brands, but SAME components made from X country, but 2 different QUALITY - what matters is the BRAND in properly screening and testing its components.

This is why you should not always judge based on the "Made in x country" part, not all "Made in China" are created equal.

Everyone in the back day would say DELL was fantastic and many people today love DELL.

I hate DELL. haha!

There is or at least was, guess it is still there, in Nashville, TN and I have gone by it before
traveling. Not too far from me.

Anyway, I have had multiple DELL's and have always had issues with them. I never had a
DELL last longer than 2 years. Most bellied up in a year.

Before DELL was Gateway. Those were popular in the back day. I had a Gateway before I
had a DELL. The Gateway laptop had a battery charge that lasted 40 minutes if I was lucky.
Of course, that was the days when batteries did not last very long. I was rather fond of the
Gateway and you know what, I think I still have it some where and it still works or worked.

Not too long ago I bought a small DELL laptop and did not use it. After about a year, I went
to turn it on and I guess the battery is dead. I tried charging it and it's deader than a door
nail.

So at one point I finally went with a MAC and it was a 27" desktop. Lasted probably close
to 6 years and I used it very heavily. That thing is so heavy and I have it in a closet wondering
if I should stomp on it, take it apart in pieces, or simply let it sit there until I am dead.

I bought a new MAC about 8 months ago but I did not buy the 27" and I am glad I didn't.
I think this smaller one is 22" and it's much easier to move around, takes up less space,
and I don't notice the difference when using it.

Many products are also about USE. How much you use it and how you use it. For some
people a product may last a long time and someone else with same product has nothing
but problems.

valerie wrote: Everyone in the back day would say DELL was fantastic and many people today love DELL.

I hate DELL. haha!

So do I I used to know someone who worked for Dell, he told me to stay away from it, luckily I build my own system from scratch, so I am sure on the components and quality. Yes Dell was talked about a lot in the days, but its quality has declined over the years, and they are not the only ones too. Back in the days people bragged about their Dell laptop

Quote:
Anyway, I have had multiple DELL's and have always had issues with them. I never had a
DELL last longer than 2 years. Most bellied up in a year.

This is why I build my own system from the ground up, I won't settle for ready made crap with shoddy components.

Quote:
Not too long ago I bought a small DELL laptop and did not use it. After about a year, I went
to turn it on and I guess the battery is dead. I tried charging it and it's deader than a door
nail.

This is a big no-no, the battery when purchased new had a minimal SAFE charge, you are supposed to charge it. Leaving it unused all this time caused the battery to drop at a voltage below threshold, where it can no longer be charged, so indeed that battery is as good as a door stopper

Quote:
Many products are also about USE. How much you use it and how you use it. For some
people a product may last a long time and someone else with same product has nothing
but problems.

Which is why some companies rate based on men time before failure based on a cycle %. You mentioned washer and dryer, yeah I agree with you - now they have computer displays on them and have wi-fi and are smart, you can get basically a text on your phone from your dryer when the clothes are dry, and maybe soon with an app you can tell your drye rto fold the clothes for you Are those dryers better built and more reliable, NOPE, you pay more for the electronics and features, and if some electronic component dies, the whole dryer dies, and changing electronic cards on those are quite expensive, whereas repairs on a standard dryer are fairly cheap, most of the repairs you can do on your dryer is minimal, like the drum felt, belt and idler pulleys / wheels, and sometimes element, so well maintained your washer / dryer can last 25-30 years, they might event outlive some people I know some people who still have their vertical freezers in their basement, still running like brand new and 40 years old. Try to find a major appliance that will last even a fraction of that now - lucky if your new refrigerator will last 5-7 now, stuff is made out of cardboard nowadays so yeah it's good to hold on to your old stuff and repair it, it has value. Now everything in people's home are smart this smart that, even refrigerators can tell you when you run out of cranberry juice. I'm glad to still have manual knobs on my washer and drier, with cool leds The only thing I appreciate on my current generation of dryer is the moisture sensor which complements the humidity sensor - and for my washer, it has sensing, which allows it to fill only the necessary water level, so it saves on water usage rather than filling to the top, it fills based on the level and amount of clothes and so far it has been accurate 100%, other than that, really who needs the extra features, do we really need SMART devices everywhere ....

As far as use, this is where brands come in handy some brands and model are better suited for heavier use. I always used heavy duty performance washer / dryers, they have not failed me. One thing also to consider, MAINTENANCE if you take care of your equipment it will generally last longer, and most of the FAILURES can easily be repaired, problem is most people do not have the technical knowledge so they get ripped off by the service THIEVES who charge you close to the actual price of the new product, forcing you to go and buy new....... Example some dryer repairs can cost you $50-$60 in most cases, or sometimes single digit for smaller parts, you'd expect to pay $400 for that done by a repair person. For LED/LCD flat screens, most of the time it is a failed capacitor, or power related, you'd expect to pay $300+ for repair, so yeah that's why brand is important, some brands are more notorious for failing than others.

Yep, my washer and dryer is very simplistic in comparison to those big machines today.
Mine is a standard top load washer and the side door dryer. My sister complains about
her washer because when her washer starts, she can't open it. It won't let her open it
until it is completely finished washing.

I have several electronics that I do need to plug in and make sure they are working. I
may some day buy a replacement battery for the dell, but I kind of doubt it. Wonder if
I should remove the dead battery?

valerie wrote: Yep, my washer and dryer is very simplistic in comparison to those big machines today.
Mine is a standard top load washer and the side door dryer. My sister complains about
her washer because when her washer starts, she can't open it. It won't let her open it
until it is completely finished washing.

My washer is like that too, it is a Kenmore branded (but actually made by Whirlpool). Yes, once the cycle starts the door activates a LOCK mechanism, this is for safety, those who have kids or even adults with a couple of Darwin awards, would not want to stick their hands in there during the spin cycle If you want to open the door during a cycle you must hit the PAUSE button - the cycle will pause and the door will unlock. If you pause during a spin cycle, the machine will wait until the spinning comes to a full stop, then unlock the door. But there is usually no reason to want to open the thing when the cycle starts, and when you do it is usually in the begin cycle when you forgot to add something or you realized you forgot the detergent

Quote:
I have several electronics that I do need to plug in and make sure they are working. I
may some day buy a replacement battery for the dell, but I kind of doubt it. Wonder if
I should remove the dead battery?

Be sure to buy genuine replacement batteries if you want to avoid fire or explosion risks Those batteries are quite expensive - even the phone and tablet batteries, it's like they are made of 24k gold or diamond maybe Unfortunately on all newer phones batteries are sealed, you cannot replace them unless you delid and do other hacks....

As far as laptops, I've always used desktop so I would not know, your laptop is probably outdated and obsolete by today's standards and you would not be able to get security updates, might as well toss it, along with the battery

My washer I can open the lid at any time. It automatically stops when the lid is
open except for the start when water is running in.

I will relay that info to my sister but I don't think her's has a pause button on it.
Maybe it does and she doesn't know it. LOL.

Well I thought it was my Dell ChromeBook that I purchased Christmas before last,
that no longer charged. I plugged it up last night and it charges just fine.

It's probably another Dell laptop.

This thread has got me off my butt to go thru my office and do updates on my
electronics, to say the least.

Hp is another hated brand . they admit that they have innovative technology but as of my experience they are just profit making and cares less to the customer satisfaction. they are successful due to the catchy ads they present , but their products are totally unpleasent for me. Dell I think is better than this brand at least in its loyal customer care.

rajukurup wrote: Hp is another hated brand . they admit that they have innovative technology but as of my experience they are just profit making and cares less to the customer satisfaction. they are successful due to the catchy ads they present , but their products are totally unpleasent for me. Dell I think is better than this brand at least in its loyal customer care.

Right HP is a big joke - I am glad that I always opted to building my system from scratch, people are happy to buy those cheap pre-built computers thinking they are getting a good bargain when in reality they are getting cheap sh** components - I used to know someone working for an OEM who even told me this, NEVER buy from an OEM, build from scratch.

As far as HP their support is indeed big CRAP

Well I dunno about that. I have an HP printer that was less than $50 bucks, if memory serves me correct.
I've had it for several years and it has never given me a problem. I've used it a lot. I also get $10 bucks
(amazon gift code) a month from HP by simply participating (reply or answer or survey x 3 a month).

I will say I have never had an HP laptop so can't comment on that.

valerie wrote: Well I dunno about that. I have an HP printer that was less than $50 bucks, if memory serves me correct.
I've had it for several years and it has never given me a problem. I've used it a lot. I also get $10 bucks
(amazon gift code) a month from HP by simply participating (reply or answer or survey x 3 a month).

I will say I have never had an HP laptop so can't comment on that.

IT IS BETTER NOT TO TRY A HP LAPTOP . my experience is very painful.

Back in the days you would buy a tv and keep it 20 years... we just had to change ours.. 65'' 4k tv.. 16 months old... dead. It's utter nonsense. The companies and their greed are ruining everyone as we work work work to buy back things that we shouldn't have to. We all running in circles like crazy for the sake of a few trillionaires that could build a dozen burj dubai in their backyard with their money but will still ruin and destroy lives to try to had a 0 to their bank account. Heh

fredos386 wrote: Back in the days you would buy a tv and keep it 20 years... we just had to change ours.. 65'' 4k tv.. 16 months old... dead. It's utter nonsense. The companies and their greed are ruining everyone as we work work work to buy back things that we shouldn't have to. We all running in circles like crazy for the sake of a few trillionaires that could build a dozen burj dubai in their backyard with their money but will still ruin and destroy lives to try to had a 0 to their bank account. Heh

he he, True. Companies are clever and makes things that don't last too long.

When the lightbulp was invented and went into production it lasted forever, Hey!! let's make crap lightbulps instead that don't last long and make a fortune.

It's the same with clothes, Printers and most tech.

We are living in a society of cheapness.

The real problem is.....people will buy it!

I've got a couple of those little round google talk things.
When I moved, I never bothered to get them out and plug them up.
They're around here some where. However, the other day I received
an email from google stating they now can turn your lights on and off.
All you gotta do is buy their light bulbs. Guess how much their light
bulbs are? I think it said they are $99.00. There is people that will
pay that. So dumb.

fredos386 wrote: Back in the days you would buy a tv and keep it 20 years... we just had to change ours.. 65'' 4k tv.. 16 months old... dead. It's utter nonsense.

What brand was it if you don't mind sharing ? You ended up a lemon maybe. I've had my 1080p 32' Samsung Smart TV working fine for the last 7 years. Yes older CRT TVs lasted a long time, much fewer electronic components, sturdier power supplies, however, some older CRTs also went bad in time, and when a CRT goes bad you can never repair it yourself due to the very high voltage capacitors that can kill you or deep fry your internals very quickly if you don't have the right equipment and skill.

With new flat screens LCD, it is quite unfortunate that yours went bad at 16 months old, usually the cheap brands are said to last about 3-4 years, some less, some more it depends. Most of the time the issue on these are parts that cost cents to a few dollars, for example on those newer flat TVs, most of the failures are power related (power supply) or an internal capacitor that can be removed and replaced, though you need the skill to do so. This is why for TV I think brand is very important, there will always be some lemons even on higher end brands, but still. One thing I have always done on my LCD TVs is lower the back light, as most come with factory settings that are very high which is unneeded, so I lower them to a decent enough point, adds more life to the leds As far as your 65' at 16 months, I'm pretty sure it is a power supply issue or faulty electronics / bad capacitors, even past the manufacturer's warranty, you should still be able to get it serviced under the Canadian legal warranty clause, when an item is within its reasonable life cycle, and 16 months is NOT a reasonable life cycle for a TV, but there again you must be willing to fight to get that right honoured by any company nowadays But other than that it is true that companies are cutting corners more and more and quality at some point is declining, no brands are immune to that, some are worse than others though.

valerie wrote: Well I dunno about that. I have an HP printer that was less than $50 bucks, if memory serves me correct.
I've had it for several years and it has never given me a problem. I've used it a lot. I also get $10 bucks
(amazon gift code) a month from HP by simply participating (reply or answer or survey x 3 a month).

For laptops I would never touch HP, their support is horrible, they don't update their drivers that much, some laptop owners end up with very outdated drivers. As far as printers, that's another thing, some brands may be good with specific items and very bad with others. For printers, HP may be better. Some companies use HP printers. My first printer was an HP DeskJet 5xx series if not mistaken, it was good AT THE TIME, and it never failed me, but it was quite slow based on today's standards. What was good with those is the print heads were on each cartridge, so when you changed cartridges, you also got a brand new set of heads - but the only side effect is that the heads are of cheaper quality and wear much faster than the heads hard wired inside a printer. Also the inks were all pigment based so the heads clogged much quicker, though they were much easier to clean manually than today's generation of printer that wastes tons of ink to clean heads (i.e. Epson). Though circumstances has one day forced me to switch to Epson, and been using Epson since, despite the occasional issues with clogging of nozzles, the QUALITY of build and result is exceptional. I use quality refill kits and save a ton on ink - the main issue with printers nowadays is that they are not meant for staying idle and used rarely, or the heads dry up and you end up with big problems getting them cleaned if at all.

Nikorj wrote:

fredos386 wrote: Back in the days you would buy a tv and keep it 20 years... we just had to change ours.. 65'' 4k tv.. 16 months old... dead. It's utter nonsense. The companies and their greed are ruining everyone as we work work work to buy back things that we shouldn't have to. We all running in circles like crazy for the sake of a few trillionaires that could build a dozen burj dubai in their backyard with their money but will still ruin and destroy lives to try to had a 0 to their bank account. Heh

he he, True. Companies are clever and makes things that don't last too long.

When the lightbulp was invented and went into production it lasted forever, Hey!! let's make crap lightbulps instead that don't last long and make a fortune.

It's the same with clothes, Printers and most tech.

We are living in a society of cheapness.

LIghtbulbs lasting forever ? I don't think so, technically that might not be possible due to the way a lightbulb works, the filaments are very thin and fragile, in time due to the heat they just break apart and cut the continuity, so your bulb is burnt and produces no more light. Lightbulbs from all generation had estimated amount of effective hours lifecycle based on a % of use. i.e. if you keep a light bulb on the entire day 24 hours, it will not last as many hours as intermittent use (couple of hours daily) at a time. This opened doors to the light bulb scam industry, companies advertising long lasting bulbs guaranteed for 5 years and such or energy efficieint light bulb, long lasting, all that crap, working on people's lack of knowledge on how things work - so people fall for this crap all the time, those so called bulbs simply had lower consumption (lor lower lumens) some people could not notice to the naked eye, and this in itself added hours to the life of the bulb. Nowadays you have light bulbs with controllable temperature, colour, wifi, it's a crazy industry, and with today's electronics you can PROGRAM them to go bad.

valerie wrote: The real problem is.....people will buy it!

I've got a couple of those little round google talk things.
When I moved, I never bothered to get them out and plug them up.
They're around here some where. However, the other day I received
an email from google stating they now can turn your lights on and off.
All you gotta do is buy their light bulbs. Guess how much their light
bulbs are? I think it said they are $99.00. There is people that will
pay that. So dumb.

$99 for how many bulbs, not 1 I hope Yeah they are called SMART BULBS, you can control when they come on and off, all from your smart phone application Can even control the intensity, colour temperature, etc, you know smart homes, companies are pushing more wifi radiation into people's homes, smart this, smart that, even the washers and dryers are SMART now, with wifi, even your refrigerator will tell you when you run out of milk, even a toothbrush can be smart and dynamically adjust its bristles to your teeth So yeah get ready to pay 100 more on something so simple you lived with all your life so far - all in the name of so called technology and money making....... and now t he 5G technology that is going to take over, which is basically technology that will turn people into zombies, zap their brain cells to oblivion

The one thing though let's admit, that has been quite useful in terms of technology are mobiles - Remember the first generation of mobiles were big and heavy like bricks And those were a luxury item you had to pay $6k for a basic model. Now, you can carry your smart phone in your pocket, that's good and bad because it created a new craze where you see people GLUED to their phones all day, even when walking on the streets, in public transportation and yes driving

ANYTHING in the name of profits - They invent self driving cars, but they still cannot cure cancer or diabetes, why ? Because it would destroy a trillion $ industry - only when it suits greed and money interest will you see advance otherwise if it does not benefit the money interests, forget it, nothing will happen.

It is DISGUSTING !!! Soon we will have 3D printers, holographic projects and time machines in all our homes, and yet still no cures for cancer, diabetes and common diseases........ YET we are able to go in space, to the moon, look for other planets and E.T.s :/ But we can't take care of our own diseases on this decaying planet.[/quote]

Not lasting forever of course, Should have said they just lasted longer.

I saw a documentary about it, And in the beginning they wer'e made to last longer (not infinite)

But if they break faster, They'll of course sell more of them.