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One of the main value propositions for retailers in a world of endless cheap garbage being sold online, is to vet products so customers can trust that what thei
by al_borland 3mo ago
One of the main value propositions for retailers in a world of endless cheap garbage being sold online, is to vet products so customers can trust that what their buying is from a legitimate company and not junk or stuff like these streaming sticks.
This is the problem with being an “everything store”. “Everything” includes a lot of things most consumers would like to be protected from, and assume they are due to the long history of retailers standing behind the products they sell. That history seems to have come to an end. They only stand behind it enough to offer a refund if there is a problem, not to ensure it’s good before selling it.
- ephemeral67 3mo agointeresting bit of information: most EV mower companies now do not provide replacement parts - if a mower dies within warranty, a 'certified' warranty repair shop does basic troubleshooting, and if it's beyond a piece of cheap plastic, the mfr just ships a new mower to the 'repair shop'. Once out of warranty, you're on your own.
- drnick1 3mo agoThank you for reminding us that electric mowers are garbage.
- Gigachad 3mo agoEverything is garbage now. It’s the end state of unrestrained capitalism.
- exe34 3mo agoSurely not, the invisible hand of the market should crawl up their arse and make them do the right thing any day now.
- actionfromafar 3mo agoThe invisible hand crawled up the arses of Congress and seems to enjoy it there.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- nullhole 3mo agoI mean, not all of them? Mine's a fancy-pants Stihl battery mower, but it works quite well and has been doing so without problem since I bought it ~4 years ago. The other battery stuff from the same brand (trimmer, chainsaw, kombi-tool) have the same story.
- bluGill 3mo agoStihl is a commercial product (mostly). They design for people using them as a full time job. You pay the price for quality.
- nullhole 3mo agoYeah, mine are the AP ('professional') class ones. What matters is the amortized cost per year, I think - more expensive up front but cheaper in the long run.
- zrobotics 3mo agoNo, they definitely have homeowner grade tools available. For instance, the MS182 [0] is a $270, 2.2cu in saw with a 16" bar listed "For homeowners and light duty work". Meanwhile, the MS201 [1] is $1100 for a 2.1cu in saw with a 16" bar listed as "The lightest professional gas chainsaw from STIHL Perfect for delimbing work in forestry". Service interval on the 201 will be much longer, and it's expected to last longer but is priced accordingly. I ended up having to buy one of their homeowner grade saws 10 years ago when I was up in the mountains and my saw died, that was all that was available locally. I'm certainly not a professional, but at the time my primary heat source was wood and I had always used the stihl pro-grade saws. However, that cheap stihl was an absolute piece of junk, it was half wore out after cutting 2 cords of firewood that first time. Terrible ergonomics and poor power to boot, even after reserving the saw for light-duty work it only lasted 2 years and was miserable to start and run the entire time. At least they explicitly say that they are for light duty though, a less honest company would market everything as pro-grade. But don't just buy the name, while they make good quality products they also sell cheap crap under the same name. It also isn't that clear in a retail store besides the price which ones are the homeowner grade saws. [0] https://www.stihlusa.com/en/p/chainsaws-ms-182-gasoline-chainsaw-1027406#ms-182-1027406 https://www.stihlusa.com/en/p/chainsaws-ms-182-gasoline-chai... [1] https://www.stihlusa.com/en/p/chainsaws-ms-201-gasoline-chainsaw-1027285#ms-201-c-em-1027285?aID=11452000284 https://www.stihlusa.com/en/p/chainsaws-ms-201-gasoline-chai...
- newAccount2025 3mo agoWhy? Mine is great. And light. And QUIET.
- bigstrat2003 3mo agoThey really aren't particularly quiet imo. Yes, there's no motor, but it turns out that the whirring sound of blades rotating and cutting grass is quite loud even without a motor. I would say mine is perhaps 3/4 as loud as a gas mower, which isn't a very impressive reduction in noise.
- maxerickson 3mo agoWith logarithmic perception, it's about a 50% reduction in sound energy. My battery mower is quiet enough that I don't feel terribly rude mowing at twilight.
- astura 3mo agoI love mine.
- classichasclass 3mo agoMy wife derides my Home Despot special plug-in mower as a Tonka toy, but it's basically just a motor, a blade and a bag, and I don't have a lot of lawn to mow.
- timc3 3mo agoMy Makita one is excellent.
- bdamm 3mo agoMy electric mower has lasted longer than the gasoline mower before it, which literally had plastic valves inside the carbeurtator.
- zdragnar 3mo agoCounter anecdote, I've had gas mowers survive decades and EV electrical equipment (in this case, a chainsaw and a battery pack for a mower) both die within 14 months of purchase.
- Slash65 3mo agoThis is my experience as well. String trimmer battery went out (still in warranty and replaced) but my gas string trimmer I use at a bigger property came home with me and worked great. She’s only 15 years old, the battery was 6 months. I love my battery blower and string trimmer, but the gas ones are going strong but typically stay at the ranch property due to it being a bigger property to maintain. I would also need 3-4 battery’s out there to keep up with maintaining it, the gas is a whole lot cheaper than a grands worth of battery’s.
- taneq 3mo agoCounter counter anecdote, I was just tidying up the yard with my 18V whipper snipper and contemplating the fact that I bought it in 2012 and it hasn’t skipped a beat.
- HDBaseT 3mo agoI have a mower that my dad gave to me, which his dad gave to him. It is in rough shape, but it still cuts grass perfectly fine. I have a wippersnipper from before I was born which runs perfectly today. It was left out laying sideways in the rain for about a month. Quick clean and a new plug and it was going again. I'm sure the electric devices can run a long time, but when they fail, they tend to be not repairable.
- markdown 3mo agoMakita, amirite?
- MostlyStable 3mo agoThese are the kinds of products I now just straight up refuse to buy.
- taneq 3mo agoI think that’s “most mass produced item manufacturers”. It’s just cheaper to ship a new one than waste time trying to troubleshoot.
- omilu 3mo agoCostco vets their products very well, if I see something at costco and its something I need I just buy it. No need to research and I've never been burned. They only sell good quality stuff.
- altruios 3mo agoCostco isn't perfect, and things slip through still. For example: this is a minor annoyance, but comes readily to mind. https://www.costco.com/p/-/orgain-organic-protein-and-superfoods-plant-based-protein-powder-vanilla-bean-27-lbs/100393228 https://www.costco.com/p/-/orgain-organic-protein-and-superf... The problem is labeling conventions leading to inaccurate assumptions of what's even IN that "protein powder"... you would think the protein, being the largest in print, is the primary ingredient but no. A serving is 51grams, and the protein makes up 21grams of that serving: less than half, that's not a 'protein powder' if the primary ingredient isn't protein. It should be labeled "SUPERFOODS with protein" not the other way around. There have been other things similar in scope less readily recalled. It may seem minor to some... but labeling accuracy and transparency is something we had to fight for collectively.
- al_borland 3mo agoIngredients are listed in order from greatest to least amount. Protein is listed first. It seems it’s the creamer that throws off the ratio you’re looking at, which I’m assuming is there for consistency/taste.
- tejohnso 3mo agoA 51 g serving might contain 40 g of the protein blend, making it a protein powder as the primary ingredient is protein blend. However, this is plant-based protein, not pure way isolate. A plant-based protein powder from mung beans for example isn't going to be 100% protein. Chickpea powder contains roughly 20% protein. So I don't know if that helps at all, but it doesn't seem as bad as you and you might be suggesting.
- tiltowait 3mo agoThe first ingredient is a plurality, not a majority.
- Aerroon 3mo agoYou go to an online store to buy a hard drive. It's listed as "in stock" and you buy it and pay for it. A week later you get an email from the store that the specific hard drive is now available at a third party warehouse and they can order it from there, but the price is about 10% higher. The above actually happened to me. That's what online retailers were like before Amazon's reach properly extended here. That's also the main value proposition for these retailers for me. Also, online retailers are far more likely to accept returns compared to regular stores. If you get a bad product from a regular store you're often just screwed.
- swatcoder 3mo agoThe late-Amazon process for this is to just send you whatever's marked as the hard drive in their warehouse, which may be that actual product, a counterfeit, or a brick in the hard drive's package. Later, when you want to try the return, a black box algorithm asseses your transactional value to Amazon and decides whether your concerns are worth attending and to what degree. Maybe that really is better than whatever you were used to in your own market, but it's a profound regression on the traditional retail experience for most of us here.
- zombot 3mo agoCrooks will be crooks, but that the lawmakers let them get away with it is something that should change.
- jon-wood 3mo agoAmazon even have big "people commonly return this product" warning on some product pages. Anywhere halfway sensible would maybe reconsider stocking a product worthy of that but because they've set themselves up as a middleman without any of the risk they can just churn junk out of their warehouses.
- deaton 3mo agoOnline it still seems like for the most part if you buy from something a bit more specialty (e.g. McMaster, Digikey, etc) you still get really good vetting and high quality stuff, but amazon is more than happy to be filled with absolute garbage.