91–100 of 178 posts
edit: I see a number of people have already suggested this. Clearly a very obvious answer.
> Electrolux washing machine I had to buy one a couple of years ago. Snarkily I asked the floor salesman if I could get the washer “without all the smart features”. He said “let me check”, which had me puzzled. He came back to inform me that they still had last year’s model which was before the “smart” features were rolled out. He said they can sell it on the same warranty, & since it was older I would get a signific…
I don't get why people care about about whether a TV is "Smart". I have a "Smart" TV and never use the features, and it doesn't bother me. I have a PiHole in case it tries to do anything funny, and that's good enough for me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who just replaced the bearings on a washing machine motor (carbon-commutator), I uhh… agree? The old machines are absolute workhorse beasts and they can work indefinitely as brand new with some maintenance here and there. However my expectation of people doing this are basically zero. So this is an anomalous post. By the time you write a blog post complaining about how a machine has a required IoT thing, y…
I've read somewhere, that washing machines need to be run on hotter programs (at least 60°C) from time. This dissolves detergent accumulation on the bearing, slowing it's wear down. Apparently bearing failure is more common with modern washing machines as eco 30°C programs are used more often.
It is a grease-lubricated bearing; 60°C detergent-laden water would be slightly worse than 30°C detergent-laden water, but neither is helpful.
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Huge competitive opportunity here. All you have to do is hire customer support who is empowered, knowledgeable and actually cares. Source: support is a competitive differentiator for $CURJOB.
> All you have to do is hire customer support who is empowered, knowledgeable and actually cares Those people you have to pay, because they can do well in other positions. But paying them contradicts the goal of minimizing cost. I'm not saying there isn't an opportunity to invest in top notch customer service as a product differentiator, but it's probably a safer bet to have barely-existing support and lower the stic…
Depends on the product and the size of the company selling. Sure, in certain circumstances it makes sense to skimp on customer support. In others, it absolutely does not.
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that can work out in large scale b2b or expensive consumer goods... but in mass market goods? forget it. people vote with their wallet and only their wallet, as evidenced by the shiploads of (sometimes life-threateningly defective) crap Temu and Alibaba have flooded most Western countries with.
Zappos got a huge exit by having exceptional customer service. Enough people notice.
> Electrolux washing machine I had to buy one a couple of years ago. Snarkily I asked the floor salesman if I could get the washer “without all the smart features”. He said “let me check”, which had me puzzled. He came back to inform me that they still had last year’s model which was before the “smart” features were rolled out. He said they can sell it on the same warranty, & since it was older I would get a signific…
I don't get why people care about about whether a TV is "Smart". I have a "Smart" TV and never use the features, and it doesn't bother me. I have a PiHole in case it tries to do anything funny, and that's good enough for me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get why people care about about whether a TV is "Smart". I have a "Smart" TV and never use the features, and it doesn't bother me. I have a PiHole in case it tries to do anything funny, and that's good enough for me.
Wait until TVs come with their own cellular modems so they can give the corporate middle finger to people like us.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My guess would be more that they don't have a support org in house. Were likely running very lean on a manufacturing pipeline and are adding a lot of other services on through partnerships.
But they don't have in-house capabilities precisely because of the above-mentioned enshittification cycle: CEO-monkey does not care about long-term. CEO-monkey lowers costs today. CEO-monkey moves on to new job soon.
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YES and I feel like "Planned obsolescence" needs to be taught to every engineer and web developer and tech people. They will understand why or how some corp. decisions are made and what is the aim.
I agree with you, but is awareness among that cohort really the problem? “Planned obsolescence” is engineered by tech people, after all. It certainly wasn’t divine intervention that came up with internal Li-Ion batteries (IMHO the most brazen example, where manufacturers effectively stick a 3-year timer inside your gadgets).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get why people care about about whether a TV is "Smart". I have a "Smart" TV and never use the features, and it doesn't bother me. I have a PiHole in case it tries to do anything funny, and that's good enough for me.
What counts as funny? Have you connected it to the internet? If so it's probably still spying on you and that is why people care.