How to get stuff repaired when the manufacturer don't wanna: take 'em to court • Hacker News Board

Re: How to get stuff repaired when the manufacturer don't wanna: take 'em to court

#321

Post by surge » Thu, Jun 20, 2024, 8:40 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #238

surge wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rule of thumb I've found with light bulbs is similar to the Boots Theory ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory ), which is you need to spend at least $8-$10 on a bulb to get something that will actually last. Feit is good but its hit or miss on life span, especially when I get them close to the same price and incandescent, often times its the little A/C to DC converter that dies (really need DC light circu…

Having lived most of my life with incandescent bulbs which you could buy at four for a dollar if you watched for sales, the idea of paying $8-10 for a light bulb is insane to me. I have probably close to 50 bulbs in my house. But yes, the reasonably-priced LED bulbs don't last any longer than incandescents. I am replacing a few every year around the house. The saving grace is that they generate a lot less heat. I was…

You'd have to do the math, but similar to boots theory, if you're spending 2-3 times as much for something that lasts 5-10 times as long (50k hours for a good LED vs 1.2k hours for incandescent) you will save a lot more money in the long run (lets assume the 4/$1 deals are a thing of the past with inflation and reduction in production). Also cheap DC converters create more heat than the bulbs with decent ones. It's worth slowly buying expensive bulbs, at least start with the most used lights in your house and replace those with the expensive ones. You can keep cheap bulbs in your closets, spare rooms, etc assuming you don't forget to turn them off often (then you should get the most efficient/long lasting or get one with a motion timer).

I actually swapped out my shower light because it got so hot the insulating wire melted and it created a short. Took forever to figure out, but once I did, I got a nice $30/$40 shower light fixture that went right in the same spot and its much nicer now. I'm just glad the short was running through metal wire/fiberglass and never started a fire.

Re: How to get stuff repaired when the manufacturer don't wanna: take 'em to court

#322

Post by eadler » Sun, Jun 23, 2024, 4:05 AM UTC

gosub100 wrote: post #319

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arbitration is great for companies for multiple reasons: - it avoids costly class actions in "big" cases - it avoids costly discovery in "big" cases - it avoids sky-high damages claims in extreme cases - it allows small everyday fuck-ups to be handled more cheaply than a court However, I'd argue that for this kind of issue, arbitration isn't necessarily worse. Especially in a clear-cut case, you don't need the court…

I admit I'm too lazy to Google, but are arbitration services regulated, so that if they flagrantly refused to rule in favor of a plaintiff in a case where (999/1000) lawyers would agree, can the arbitration service be sent to review the same way a doctor or lawyer could be disciplined? I can't imagine how you could legally sign over the right to sue to an agency that fails to apply basic principles of justice.

The standard is "manifest disregard of the law" - which, roughly speaking, means the arbitrator “understood and correctly stated the law but proceeded to ignore it.”

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Bobker, 636 F. Supp. 444 (S.D.N.Y. 1986)

There is no regulation of arbitration services.

Re: How to get stuff repaired when the manufacturer don't wanna: take 'em to court

#323

Post by eadler » Sun, Jun 23, 2024, 4:07 AM UTC

gosub100 wrote: post #256

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #7

I predict that this is going to get more and more common: Companies enshittify their service, hiding behind impenetrable walls of AI chatbots and useless outsourced template-reply service centers, customers respond by taking one attempt to resolve it with the company and then straight to court. If you have a working small claims court system, I can recommend giving it a try. It can be way less frustrating than trying…

They're rolling out the arbitration clauses like mad recently though. There was an HN post a few years ago about going to arbitration and winning, so it's not a complete lost cause but I guess the damages would be less.

pre-dispute arbitration agreements is still worse for consumers in almost every possible way: https://arbitrationinformation.org/docs/problems/

Re: How to get stuff repaired when the manufacturer don't wanna: take 'em to court

#324

Post by gosub100 » Sun, Jun 23, 2024, 4:26 PM UTC

eadler wrote: post #322

gosub100 wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admit I'm too lazy to Google, but are arbitration services regulated, so that if they flagrantly refused to rule in favor of a plaintiff in a case where (999/1000) lawyers would agree, can the arbitration service be sent to review the same way a doctor or lawyer could be disciplined? I can't imagine how you could legally sign over the right to sue to an agency that fails to apply basic principles of justice.

The standard is "manifest disregard of the law" - which, roughly speaking, means the arbitrator “understood and correctly stated the law but proceeded to ignore it.” Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Bobker, 636 F. Supp. 444 (S.D.N.Y. 1986) There is no regulation of arbitration services.

thank you!