{"id":5214,"date":"2020-05-24T05:22:07","date_gmt":"2020-05-24T09:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ckms.ca\/?p=5214"},"modified":"2020-05-24T05:22:07","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T09:22:07","slug":"rca-microwave-thin-margins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.ckms.ca\/?p=5214","title":{"rendered":"RCA Microwave & thin margins"},"content":{"rendered":"

I commented on a \/r\/AssholeDesign thread about unservicable parts in consumer goods<\/a> (epoxy potted electronics in a washing machine, for example.\u00a0 While there are reasons to do this (vibration resistance, waterproofing), there’s also legal\/ip reasons (prevent intellectual property theft, although this is easily done with the right tools (X-ray) and potions (acids that dissolve epoxies), there’s also the “prevent the hobbyist from fixing it themselves”; but surely this is a very small user-case; 90% probably are onboard with the “junk it and buy another” consumerist mentality.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

In addition to the good comments already here, I’d add that very little of these sort of components are repaired. The company won’t have parts for the end-user or even certified repair depots. Just not worth the time to manage these penny-apiece components.<\/p>\n

I’m going thru an annoying issue with a CDN$100 microwave from a name brand I’ve always trusted. Cheap, basic, but problem free. Membrane buttons work intermittently, sometimes OK for days then nothing for a week. Doing the 1″ bounce test sometimes makes it chooch again, sometimes not. Likely a bad connection on a small component. Fixable with a tap of the soldering iron, or a replacement interconnect cable.<\/p>\n

But there’s no money in taking it apart, diagnosing & fixing the problem, re-assemble, test to be sure it’s fixed, and return it to me. They’ve already lost any profit they made, if it wasn’t a loss-leader to begin with. Instead, I have to destroy it and send video and photographic evidence before warranty will be honoured. Which might be a cheque or a replacement unit, likely refurbished.<\/p>\n

I know, I know… I’m to blame for this. I generally seek out the lowest possible price for most things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I commented on a \/r\/AssholeDesign thread about unservicable parts in consumer goods…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[183,126],"class_list":["post-5214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-consumerism","tag-my-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ckms.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ckms.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ckms.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ckms.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ckms.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ckms.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ckms.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ckms.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ckms.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}