I am sure that most of us have all heard of "planned obsolescence", the plan that company's and manufacturer's have in place whereby a given product will only last a given amount of time or will only be useful for a given amount of time before a new product needs to be bought. Well, let me tell you, I am not a big fan of planned obsolescence. A large part of me wants to go back 20 years to a time when things were made a little better, when you didn't have to worry about a relatively new product breaking down. Why am I writing about this today? Well, late last week our flat screen TV broke, or at least, something went seriously wrong. As my wife and I were watching a show, the picture spontaneously disappeared, while the sound continued. No matter what we tried, nothing worked. We called the company, and wouldn't you know, the warranty had expired. I think my wife was actually more upset than I was about the whole ordeal. I was frustrated, don't get me wrong, especially since we had only bought the TV three years ago, but I didn't get that upset. After all, its a TV, not a refrigerator, furnace, or water heater, any of which would require immediate replacement. A TV is luxury, not a necessity. But I digress. This TV from Vizio, a company I will not buy again from, is not essentially obsolete. When my wife called Vizio, they gave us the name of a local repair company that would be able to fix our TV. We called them and upon hearing the price started laughing. They wanted $357 dollars to fix the TV. Three years ago we paid about $750 for the TV, brand new, and today we could buy spend $450 to buy a bigger and better TV. Fixing it, unless the price is a hundred dollars or less, is a pointless proposition, especially when it is not guaranteed past 90 days. Unfortunately, this is becoming the way of the world, products being made with less attention to quality and more attention speed and a quick turn around in consumer spending.
This is why I wish I could go back 20 years. When I was in my freshman year of college, I bought a used TV with a few friends for our dorm room. It was relatively large for that time, but more importantly, it was already for years old when I bought it. That would place it as having been made in 1996. That TV from college lasted until we bought our new flat screen TV that lasted only 3 years. Old, box TV; 14 years of life. I guess it bothers me more that we spent the money we did for what was supposedly a good product and three years later are left with a piece of crap. I know it is probably something simple and stupid that needs fixing, and as such we will attempt to figure out how to fix it ourselves. If we can't fix it ourselves and can't find someone else to fix it for under $100 dollars, it will get recycled. Yet, if we have to go down that route and rid ourselves of a 3 year old TV, I am going to make sure that no one can fix it and profit off of it by reselling it. To ensure that it can't be fixed by someone else (if it comes down to it), I will take my drill and make it look like a sieve. It is what is. We luckily had a friend who was getting rid of an older TV, and ironically asked the day our TV broke if I wanted it. I said I would have to check with my wife, but as soon as ours broke that evening, it was a no brainer. Things always work out for the best somehow.
Planned obsolescence goes beyond TVs though, it goes to almost every other product out there. Unless you pay an arm and a leg for a product, chances are it won't last. Even if you do pay an arm and a leg for something, there is no guarantee anymore. We had a similar issue with our coffee/espresso maker a few years back. It seems to me that as time moves forward, I want to go back more and more, if for nothing else than the quality of products that were made 20-30 years ago. If you want to find the really good products, nothing beats those made in the 1950's or earlier when things were built to last, not to disintegrate and become useless in a short period of time. Oh well, there is no time capsule yet to bring us back in time, if only to buy products from back then and bring them to the future. (That would be pretty cool if we could do that though) For now, we must simply deal with planned obsolescence and its effect on our wallets. One good thing about it is that it forces the consumer to become more educated about what they are buying. At least that is my hope. At least for now, our 42" flat screen TV has kicked the bucket and we are now watching a little 23". Its a drastic change, but one that I am not overly upset about. Life goes on and I don't even consider this to be one of my problems or issues. My only hope is that no one else has to deal with something like this in the near future.
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