Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?

I seriously thought it would be another fad hobby that I drop immediately. But now I’ve gone as far as learning 3D modeling which I never really expected to do. I actually have more projects going on than I have printing capacity for sometimes.

I wish I had perfect advice for getting the most out of it.

Maybe this one will help: remember that even cheap plastic products are often more expensive than printing your own. That $10-20 doodad from the store is still more expensive than a LOT of filament. I’ll list out some stuff I’ve printed:

- Planter pots

- Knock box (for espresso)

- portfilter stand for tamping (espresso)

- espresso machine mod kit enclosure

- A loom for a friend who weaves

- “neon” LED signs with custom words (designed by me based on YouTube tutorial)

- Same concept but used to make might up address numbers for the house

- A triangle-shaped piece to guide the extending kitchen sink sprayer hose so it stops getting caught on stuff under the cabinets

- A replacement clip for a Packit reusable container

- Designing your own wall or under-desk mount for any custom size object is trivial

- Tea bag organizer

- Bookmarks

- Name tags/3D labels (you can pause prints and change filament colors at a specific layer even without an automated material system)

- Bag clips

- Toothpick dispenser

- Toothpaste squeezer dispenser thing to keep the tube neat

- storage organizers, including a whole pegboard system hanging up all my tools and junk

- Contact lens storage boxes

- Replacement latches for plastic bins

I haven’t printed them yet but I’m very interested in some of the cool mini-racks, mini NAS systems, and small form factor PC cases you can print from scratch rather than buying them. For example there’s a design on makerworld where you grab a cheap mini PC, an nvme to SATA adapter, and an AliExpress SATA 3.5” backplane, and boom, you’ve built a consumer NAS alternative for a fraction of the price.

Hopefully some of these ideas inspire you to get more use out of your machine!

Now, to their credit: The keyboard itself is of a reasonable build quality, aside from the fact that it will just occasionally completely die on me until I unplug it for a few minutes and try again.

On the other hand, their customer service was not only unhelpful but actively antagonistic and rude towards me. I gave basic feedback once or twice, and asked for an updated technical manual on the keyboard I purchased and I was treated like I shit on their cat.

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"Hello, I can only find (this) and (that) manual regarding the 360 SmartSet. One document appears to be an outdated version of the other, and the more up-to-date version is no longer accurate. Do you have an up-to-date manual I can work off of? I was able to parse out some other functions like XYZ by looking at manuals for (devices that are no longer for sale) but I think I'm still missing some crucial information."

"It's on the site, but since you can't find it yourself, here you go." (It's the more outdated manual that I already referenced by name and included already.)

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"Hello, I noticed it occasionally has issues when I use it with my KVM. Is this a known problem, or should I perform an RMA?"

"Well, that's why we say don't use a KVM!" (Take a wild guess at what information was not listed on any page of their website in regards to the 360 SmartSet.)

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"Hi, some of the marketing material on your site on (this page) is inaccurate. It would be good to update it to reflect how this thing work now. I've provided a few points to consider updating. (Two or so changes)"

"Too many people have complained about this! This issue is closed now!!" (The entire page is subsequently deleted, making it even less clear how things are intended to work, what future customers will be paying for, giving even less information about their products.)

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To be clear, I know that some times people will overstate things and make it sound much worse than it actually are, but I really am just trying to tell things as they were. If anything, I've probably understated how rude some of their responses have been. I have never had a positive experience interacting with any person at that company.

Moral of the story is: Never buy from Kinesis, even if it causes you physical pain.