5 ms·

As many are aware, this sort of "manufacturer parts only" tech is everywhere. First printers, then k-cups, now water filters and I'm sure the list goes on. Whil

As many are aware, this sort of "manufacturer parts only" tech is everywhere. First printers, then k-cups, now water filters and I'm sure the list goes on. While, initially I share the outrage at massive upcharges on parts that should be super cheap, there's another problem they're fighting. The consumer will often buy the cheapest appliance regardless of continued cost down in the future. If you can offset that loss in profit with something else that's less prevalent on consumer's minds, you can compete with other sellers. Best Buy has to sell a TV for a couple bucks profit margin but then ask $50 for an HDMI cable to make up the profit. Why? Because if WalMart has the same TV for $40 less, the customer will go there to buy. If given the option, I bet most customers would not pay an extra $200 for a fridge even if you told them the filters are $35 cheaper. I state the above not to give these companies an easy excuse out, I still think this is not the ideal solution. But what should they do instead? I witnessed this first hand years ago when I worked retail, people would come in and ask me questions about a printer and then drive to WalMart and buy the same printer for $15 less.

Diederich 7y ago
Right. After having nothing but small and relatively low tech TVs over the years, we bought a nice, expensive 1080p projector in 2009. It looked great, worked great, we were quite happy with it. But a few months later, it told us that its bulb needed to be replaced soon. And the replacement was going to cost a couple hundred bucks. I knew that projectors needed bulb replacements from time to time, but I didn't think it would be that frequent. We just let it complain until the projector refused to work because of an 'expired' bulb. I got online and bought a super cheap 'clone' for the bulb from China. After installing it, all was well. That same bulb was working fine from 2009 until we got rid of that projector in 2018.
- stan_rogers 7y ago
  The bulb thing is about colour changes over time - which, admittedly, you may not notice, or may not notice enough for it to bother you at all. (As an old-timey film photographer, I dealt with bulbs both as light sources for shooting and as enlarger light sources. A 100° colour temperature shift isn't all that visible to the unaided eye, but it does make a huge difference where colour criticality matters. My bulbs tended to be good for 10 to 50 hours before they really needed to be swapped, even though they were still clearly bright enough.)
  - Diederich 7y ago
    That is true, we did notice a slow color shift over the years, but that was fine by us. (:
  - Dylan16807 7y ago
    Sounds like something that, in the use case of a projector, you could compensate for in software 90% of the time. (With a sub-dollar chip to crudely measure color temperature.)
pbhjpbhj 7y ago
>Because if WalMart has the same TV for $40 less, the customer will go there to buy. // It used to be ready paying meant getting more quality, longer life, easier to replace parts. Now, it seems unrelated. The cheapest one may well be the best one, or a at least the expensive one has all the corners cut too. There are situations where this isn't the case. And this may be a middle vs bottom of market thing. But expensive stuff is often the same crap with a brand logo.
- pergadad 7y ago
  I've given up on premium products. I'll either buy things that are for small offices/businesses (eg OKI printers, Karcher vacuums, etc) or simply the cheaper ones. Bought e.g. s €2000 Samsung fridge - only problems and complications. Now I've got mold in the water dispenser with no way to remove/replace it. Same with a >800€ Samsung washing machine - internal damage that magically wasn't covered by the warranty.
notSupplied 7y ago
This is why manufacturers wish they could set the price and prevent retailers from undercutting like this. That regulatory battle is long lost, so I think we end up with an environment that sacrifices service for price.
113 7y ago
It's because people are poor, trying to get more money out of people that are already poor isn't going to work either.

Diederich 7y ago

Right. After having nothing but small and relatively low tech TVs over the years, we bought a nice, expensive 1080p projector in 2009. It looked great, worked great, we were quite happy with it. But a few months later, it told us that its bulb needed to be replaced soon. And the replacement was going to cost a couple hundred bucks. I knew that projectors needed bulb replacements from time to time, but I didn't think it would be that frequent. We just let it complain until the projector refused to work because of an 'expired' bulb. I got online and bought a super cheap 'clone' for the bulb from China. After installing it, all was well. That same bulb was working fine from 2009 until we got rid of that projector in 2018.

stan_rogers 7y ago
The bulb thing is about colour changes over time - which, admittedly, you may not notice, or may not notice enough for it to bother you at all. (As an old-timey film photographer, I dealt with bulbs both as light sources for shooting and as enlarger light sources. A 100° colour temperature shift isn't all that visible to the unaided eye, but it does make a huge difference where colour criticality matters. My bulbs tended to be good for 10 to 50 hours before they really needed to be swapped, even though they were still clearly bright enough.)
- Diederich 7y ago
  That is true, we did notice a slow color shift over the years, but that was fine by us. (:
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  Sounds like something that, in the use case of a projector, you could compensate for in software 90% of the time. (With a sub-dollar chip to crudely measure color temperature.)

pbhjpbhj 7y ago

>Because if WalMart has the same TV for $40 less, the customer will go there to buy. // It used to be ready paying meant getting more quality, longer life, easier to replace parts. Now, it seems unrelated. The cheapest one may well be the best one, or a at least the expensive one has all the corners cut too. There are situations where this isn't the case. And this may be a middle vs bottom of market thing. But expensive stuff is often the same crap with a brand logo.

pergadad 7y ago
I've given up on premium products. I'll either buy things that are for small offices/businesses (eg OKI printers, Karcher vacuums, etc) or simply the cheaper ones. Bought e.g. s €2000 Samsung fridge - only problems and complications. Now I've got mold in the water dispenser with no way to remove/replace it. Same with a >800€ Samsung washing machine - internal damage that magically wasn't covered by the warranty.

notSupplied 7y ago

This is why manufacturers wish they could set the price and prevent retailers from undercutting like this. That regulatory battle is long lost, so I think we end up with an environment that sacrifices service for price.

113 7y ago

It's because people are poor, trying to get more money out of people that are already poor isn't going to work either.