Did you know that there is a lot of wickedness inherent in the design of many products and appliances?
What is Planned Obsolescence?
- Purposely designing products that wear out or become obsolete after limited use
- This is done to induce the consumer to purchase a new model of the product or to buy replacement parts
What does this light bulb have to do with you? Plenty! You'll find out here! Image credit
My Introduction to This Insidious Practice
Step One of The Dirty Tricks:
Several years ago I purchased a new Samsung printer for my business for about $200 and after a short period of time a message came out saying that the waste toner tank was filled and I needed to change it or the printer would stop working.
The waste toner tank is completely sealed making it impossible to empty but I drilled some holes in it, flushed it out and cleaned it myself. Afterwards I just covered the wholes with clear tape. The manufacturer could have provided a removable plug! This message and cleaning procedure was followed about every 6 months!
This is a screen shot from a Samsung video showing how to CHANGE the waste toner tank! What a farce!
Step Two of The Great Conspiracy:
After about a year a new message appeared saying that I had to change the image drum before the printer would work again! After some research I learned that the drum had a chip on it which only allowed the printing of a pre-determined number of copies! What thieves!
I found someone who sent me a chip that I taped on top of the old one and it worked for about another year. I then changed the chip again about a year later and in total I got many years of service out of that printer. No thanks to Samsung!
Here is a video from the the guy that I bought the chip from. Shocking!
What Was The Start of This Trickery?
There is a lightbulb in Livermore Califronia that has been burning for over 100 years. In fact when bulb inventors such as Edison and Adolphe Chaillet were designing the first bulbs their goal was longevity.
Then came the Phoebus cartel where major manufacturers such as Philips, General Electric and Osram decided to collude together! Not only did they get involved in price fixing but they purposely lowered the life-span of bulbs from the 1924 standard of 2,500 hours to 1,000 hours in 1940. Strict logs were kept and if necessary, fines were given in order to make sure that the low standards were kept! Can you say evil and wasteful?
All of this proved that putting the reins on innovation and quality was a proven way of sustaining continued consumption and profits!
Learn More About Planned Obsolescence
If you would like to learn more about this subject I highly recommend the documentary "The Lightbulb Conspiracy- Planned Obsolescence".
Beware! This film will shock you!
I always try to fix any broken products that I own and in a future article I'll discuss some more about this.
What Has Your Experience Been?
- Had you already heard about planned obsolescence?
- What examples can you share?
- How does this knowledge make you feel?
I hope that you enjoyed this article on "Planned Obsolescence Exposes The Dark Side of Product Design!"
Until next time,
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