2d ago

I'm so tired of useless products

I have a chair that I got in March off of amazon. An hour ago the baseplate bent and now the pole that it sits on is just wobbling around. Cannot sit on it unless it is directly up. I found this out when the whole thing tilted back, slamming my head into a shelf and throwing me out of the chair. So I go to Amazon to at least leave a shitty review, maybe see if I can contact them for a replacement part. Product is de-listed and no contact information at all. So I contact Amazon who just instantly starts a refund process I didn't ask for, smugly telling me I'm not eligible when I knew that. First rep sent me to a 'special team to help'. That 'special team' was the front desk for Amazon.com instead of the Canadian one. She just did the exact same thing, another refund I never asked for and putting me on hold and refusing to listen to me. Asked to speak to a Supervisor who then started to say the same shit before I cut him off and said I just wanted the fucking contact information for the fucking manufacturer. He emails over a page for the manufacturer that is their warranty/refunds page.

It's empty.

It's literally empty.

It's fucking empty.

So I've got a chair I can't sit in without it causing personal injury, no way of getting a replacement part from the manufacturer without like buying a whole ass new chair that I can't afford and both Amazon and this fuckin Company are just like "You bought a shitty product? Aww. Poor baby. Cope."

I just wanted to LEAN BACK AND WATCH PORN BUT FUCKING NO.

I'd throw the fucking chair at the wall if I didn't need to still sit on it like a goddamn stool.

47 comments

The quality of consumer goods has gone to shit over the past 30 or so years. I remember the toys I had as a kid in the late 80s and early 90s..
I had this toy tractor that was made out of proper metal sheets linked together so that the backhoe could move. It lasted my entire childhood. I tried to find something similar to one of my kids a few years back, but the only options these days are plastic junk that breaks way to easily.
- I've been hooked on these videos lately of restoring old toys and tools from the 1920s-1940s. Basically just sandblasting, paint and a bit of lubricant is all that's needed to get any of it running again. But I have a chair for less than a year and it tries to fucking kill me.
  I know the toy tractor you're talking about too. I remember a friend of mine having one and us having a blast with it. Shit would disintegrate from looking at it the wrong way now. The sundamage alone would make it hyper brittle.
- A lot of stuff is much cheaper, relatively. I remember toys as a kid. They were like $20 to $30 for quality toys. Now cheap toys, 30 years later are $20:to $30. Thenproblem is you can only get disposable junk. Long lasting quality stuff either doesn’t exist or is so expensive it may as well not exist.
- Was that tractor a Tonka? That's exactly what I had in the 70s, and it was awesome. A lever for the functional backhoe, and a working steering wheel for the front rubber tires.
  
  Don't think so. At least the pictures of vintage ones don't match my memory.
That kind of stuff is why I mostly stopped using Amazon before I completely dropped them last year. I could see the quality of items getting worse and worse over the years, and I had been an Amazon customer since the early 2000s when they basically just sold textbooks.
Now, I go to stores and shop if I need anything. Even if I pay a little more, I get way better quality products. I’m also very fortunate to have a plethora of thrift stores in my area, so I can find good stuff for cheap.
I’m sorry you are going through this friend!
- I came from a country where Amazon doesnt officially operate. So, we kind of stuck with Aliexpress (before Temu, Shein and even before Joom and Wish).
  Once I moved to a another country where Amazon operates officially - I was stunned to realize that most if not all non-mainstream-branded stuff is actually the same shit that you can buy on Aliexpress. Like, exactly the same shit, 1 to 1.
  To add to that, same stuff on Ali costs slightly less over Amazon (providing that you'll have to wait a week or two longer over the same day/2 day delivery off Amazon). And what is even more interesting is that the same shit that I'd get off Ali that would be sent to my current residence would sometimes cost in multiple times (highest one was 10 fold) compared to if I request it to be sent to my homeland.
- Yeah, i live in a rural town and i quit Amazon a few years back when they refused me a cash refund on computer that straight up lied on their specs. Now i have to get most things from Walmart, which is somehow a more honest and less evil company than Amazon.
  
  Yeah, I've had to learn the hard way that sometimes taking a bus three towns over to go to an actual store is sometimes cheaper and easier in the long run than buying junk online. Which sucks. What's the point of corporate dystopia if it's not even convenient?
"Gaming chairs" are all hot garbage. You need an actual office chair. It's going to cost at least US$600.
- And if I could afford that, that'd be swell.
  I cannot.
  There's a reason I bought what I bought and it isn't because I chose that as the best option. It's because I had no other option at the time.
  
  The Sam Vimes theory of socioeconomic unfairness, often called simply the boots theory, is an economic theory that people in poverty have to buy cheap and subpar products that need to be replaced repeatedly, proving more expensive in the long run than more expensive items.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory
  I'm sorry that this comes across as the most unhelpful help possible but I don't know how else to phrase it.
  Sometimes it is worth spending more on a good thing and foregoing other items. Obviously, I don't know you and I don't know your situation so it may still not be doable. However, if you can do it, but it just means tightening the belt a bit, then try and get a really good chair over repeatedly buying cheap. It's worth it in the long run.
  I had a Costco office style one that lasted over a decade, the only reason I got rid of it was a mouldy damp flat ruined it beyond repair. I'm sure it was like £60 in around 2008. They might be worth looking at?
  My current one is about the quality of what you're describing (gamer style) but it was acquired through mutual aid and I care not that the pleather is falling off. So that's an option, just asking around friends and family if they have one they're not using/throwing out soon.
  Do you have a local freecycle page? You never know what you may find there.
  https://freecycle.org/
  
  https://m.publicsurplus.com/sms/browse/cataucs?catid=302
  Filter by your state and get a used office chair for tens of dollars
  
  Oh I get it, I do. I learned that the hard way myself, and it took several $120 chairs for me to finally suck it up and get a proper one. I've had this one three years and it looks brand new.
- You can get a good office chair for $80-150. Hell, you can get a bench seat for $30 and its guaranteed not to give you a bronco ride. $600 buys you a couch.
  I totally agree "Gaming Chairs" are for rubes, though.
- Gaming chairs are definitely back annihilators. I’m not entirely sure why I do so much better sitting in a shitty metal folding chair.
Literally the plot of The Chair Company.
This is either a horrifying "Life Imitates Art" moment or some excellent bit of guerrilla marketing.
- I wish. Have never heard of the show and after seeing a link posted from someone else, I know why. The lead guy is someone whom I don't personally find amusing. I'm just fucking tired. I just wanted a fucking chair.
- The post needs progressively more caps as it goes on. It’s sort of there, but to go full Tim Robinson comedy, you need to be screaming or using an uncomfortable voice by the end.
  
  Oh trust me. I'm fucking furious. I'm just so worried about other stupid shit at the moment that I don't have the energy to spare. I cried a little bit out of frustration but that's about it. I'm mostly just tired.
This happened to me with an apollo e-scooter. shit died on me 6 months into owning it, they have a 1 year or 10,000 km warranty and they denied my refund claiming I did something to it to make it fail. I filed a complaint with better business and honestly would have sued if I weren't in school and too busy to deal with the hassle. I had a quote from the repair guy, email trail rock solid case for a refund, it still drives me nuts. Shit product and even shittier company.
- At least that's another company I can get rid of.
I just read about a smart ring that takes voice memos. Once the battery is gone, there's no way to charge it. This is a disposable product. (It pairs via Bluetooth and can export notes, if you do this before it dies, or if it's paired while it dies, the notes go to the phone.) This is not a cheap product, either. It's $75 at launch and will go up to $100.
The inventor apparently thinks he invented something special here.
Note that even the Apple Watch can take voice notes. The SE (Starter Edition) is like $200 right now. Of course, the Android-based watches do a whole heck of a lot more. I don't know what they cost. Apple's the only one I trust for health stuff, since a couple years ago Samsung basically said "we're gonna start selling your health information to advertisers, agree or we'll delete all your data." And of course Google, well, that's basically their whole business. They are a data broker company. But beyond health? I think the other watches are leagues ahead.
But Amazon.... a lot of stuff on Amazon is from a few Chinese companies, and a big part of their business is to take their stuff down every 6 months, register a new name, and start over. This cycles out bad reviews and keeps people from returning stuff.
Also, it may be too late (8-9 months) but in more recent types of situations like this, this is what charge backs are for. Now I don't know if it's like that in Canada (but it should be because Canada is cool like that), but in the US, if you get ripped off and you paid with a credit card, and the company won't budge, in some cases you can issue a charge back. The credit card company refunds you, and takes the money back from the seller. Be real careful about doing that to Amazon — they might close your account. Given their close ties with the Fourth Reich though... maybe it's for the best? But the point is, nobody but your credit card issuer can rip you off and they generally don't stand for shit like this. So then it would be entirely on Amazon to track down the seller and seek damages from them. And if they're a scammer, they're probably not even going to ask for the chair back.
- I already contacted my bank but they said it was outside of the time range.
- The thing about that ring is that the one charge it comes with may very easily last more years than a typical smart watch/ring battery lasts before it can't be charged.
  But yeah, I totally agree with the rest.
It isn't even cached on archive.org.
Blew the whole budget on Technology cloth and couldn't afford Technology iron for the frame I guess.
That whole site is like a weird art installation of a company page. Why are the two categories "Adults" and "Girls"? Why is the one "Girl" product also listed in "Adult" with the four other chairs they sell? Why does the tab name switch to "Come back ⚡"? I feel like I should be looking for enigmatic clues to an internet murder.
I reached this point a few years ago. I was sick of cheap plastic being everywhere and marketing telling me a I need things to make my life convenient.
I like buying value but they have crept up in price. My small but enduring example has been kitchen utensils and cooking products(decent wooden chopping boards, oven trays etc).
I had to start my life again so I have been trying to thrift of buy 1 decent quality things one at a time as a treat. Sad but fulfilling. This is how it is now in most areas on my life.
I dont buy for matching. I buy for function and, and quality.
I like being in the garden it seems so much more acceptable to repurpose and tinker in that world but for homes it seems to be looked down on.
I know it’s not simple when you need something immediate but you can start replacing crap in small sections. The kitchen utensils was mine. 10 quality items only…in the utensils tub by the oven. 10 only. No plastic.
I bet that Company's website is vibe coded and AI said something like "here add your warranty&return's division contact information" and they just never did.
I recommend just buying used chair that is from a reliable brand (and has good reviews).
Also you can use the current one for a legrest by just taking everything but butt pillow from the top (and lower it all the way down).
- Will do when I can. Problem is that this of course just always hits at shitty moments and I'm tired. I just wanted a fucking chair I could fucking sit on but nooooooooooooooooooooo.
I would maybe contact your bank/cc company to do a chargeback.
!actually_infuriating@lemmy.world
If you were still in Toronto I would have said to go to UNRC in Markham, they sell refurbished office chairs that you could try before you buy (except not watching porn in the store 😏)
Has this ever happened to you?
That is so much bullshit and I am sorry. I have also had my full of just absolute garbage. Sometimes because I didn't have the means for something better. Sometimes because a high quality item doesn't exist. (Because why sell quality when you can sell cheap and make them rebuy?) But all around... Bullshit.
Brand new chairs that are cheap are almost always garbage. Are you able to source something second hand, like from Facebook Marketplace or estate sales? In the US, there are places that sell used desk chairs from offices, as well as government surplus (hit or miss whether you can get just ONE chair, but I've known a few people that have gotten small amounts of furniture from surplus). Is there a Canadian equivalent? Auctions are another good place too.
I hope you will be able to get something that works for you soon.
- Going to have to look for something on Kijiji or facebook marketplace or something here. I dunno how useful it'll be but I'll take fucking anything that has some lumbar support that I can sit on that won't try and kill me in the process. I'm just tired.
You should check second hand stores. We have a charity store that always has donated office chairs.

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