The Consumer Warning thread

JimCorrigan

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HMCS Velvet Glove; The Last Samurai
Didn't see something similar, thought this would be fun. And useful.

Here's my inspiration for this:

noisehush-n600-bluetooth-handsfree-visor-large-285234.jpg

It's called the NoiseHush N600. Bluetooth handsfree device for the car. Comes with a nifty clip for your sunvisor and magnets that keep the device on there steady.

It worked great, too. For about 1 month. Now it can't hold a charge worth a damn, and it stops recharging after about 5 minutes. So it's utterly worthless. MSRP was 70 bucks but I got it on sale for 20. Not even worth that.

In the interest of completeness, I should mention that my wife bought one near the same time I did, and she hasn't had the same problem. Hers went kaput after barely 2 weeks.

Final Gear Top Tip: Avoid. :clarkson:
 
This KVM.

51T31rlPoLL._SS500_.jpg


http://www.amazon.com/2-Port-Switch...3?ie=UTF8&qid=1359041883&sr=8-13&keywords=kvm

Unless you want to use it something below 1080p. Even though it says it can do 1920X1440 @ 60Hz

My AOC display for the life of it could not stretch the image to the edge of the screen. I have no idea if it was me or the box...

But, when you open the box and most of the directions are in Mandarin and it smells of slightly burned plastic, I probably should not have trusted quality.
 
Razer Lycosa:

razer-lycosa.png


I love my Razer mouse and was really looking forward to this when I received it as a gift (complete surprise). It's awful to type on. Key stick and squeak due to the "rubberized" coating and you have to push absurdly hard to type on it. It was almost unusable, and I am not a picky/proper typist in the least. I don't understand how anyone could have thought it was acceptable for an expensive gaming keyboard.

But how is it for games, you ask? You say it's not a keyboard for typing? The "A" key doesn't depress if you push on it off-center. For example, if you push on the left side of it a bit. Which can happen sometimes, when you're using the freaking WASD key cluster because you're playing games. I just ended up going back to my old Dell generic thing.
 
BTGuard.com's proxy and VPN services.

The connection to the service was down more than it was up. When tested, I kept constantly getting alerts that my actual IP was the one I was using every 5 minutes. Completely useless and unreliable. Took their customer service department 5 days to get back to me on how I might fix the issue. You know what they did? Blamed it on my settings, even though they were the same as the configuration instructions on their own website. And they also directed me to try another domain for the proxy server and change my DNS setting to connect to the Google DNS server instead, as if this had anything to do with the connection to their proxy server failing randomly and connecting again a few minutes later.

In summary, absolutely useless, avoid at all costs. These people don't even know what they're doing, they're incompetent.
 
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http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tredsafe-Pepper-Unisex-Work-Clog


Those shoes. They're a pain and a half to get on + when you do get them on the non slip insides grip too hard on your socks so your toes always feel like they're being pulled on :(.

Alas I need them for work as the student manager was hinting that they'll start writing people up + i'm cheap and these were under 20 dollars.
 
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NoiseBlocker Slics

300x340entklopplerslicsblue-retail.jpg


Got them a year or so ago. They don't work, the little fuckers break before stretching to fit through fan holes. And I even tried heating them to get them softer.
 
Cheap generic iPhone cables sold in bulk on eBay (example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-x-USB-Syn...or-Apple-iPhone-4-4S-4G-4th-Gen-/350673450379)

Bought a 5 pack about a month ago so that I could always have a cable in my living room, bedroom, car, and at work (cables from my past iPhones and iPods all work perfectly but are frayed, and I'm OCD about that). One of them didn't work at all from the start (outlet, computer, car), none of them worked in my car, and now the 4 that did work at first are starting to fail. The wire connection inside the adapter turns out to be very poorly soldered, so they're all starting to fall apart when touched.

Perhaps seeing how an original Apple cable is $20, maybe I should just list 'Apple products' in general as shit to avoid buying.
 
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Westinghouse TVs. Probably expand this to any of these legacy brands that don't mean anything these days like RCA. I got what I though was a good deal on clearance from Best Buy, and the damn thing wouldn't display a 1080p HD input from my computer.
 
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Westinghouse TVs. Probably expand this to any of these legacy brands that don't mean anything these days like RCA. I got what I though was a good deal on clearance from Best Buy, and the damn thing wouldn't display a 1080p HD input from my computer.

Ouch, yeah Westinghouse is bad joojoo all the way around. :/
 
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tredsafe-Pepper-Unisex-Work-Clog


Those shoes. They're a pain and a half to get on + when you do get them on the non slip insides grip too hard on your socks so your toes always feel like they're being pulled on :(.

Alas I need them for work as the student manager was hinting that they'll start writing people up + i'm cheap and these were under 20 dollars.

I hope you work in some sort of food restaurant, which has to be the only reason you bought those. :puke:
 
I hope you work in some sort of food restaurant, which has to be the only reason you bought those. :puke:

I do, I work in one of my campus' dining halls. And yes, it's the only reason I bought these god awful things.
 
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Got one:

Kn2M6rk.png

Starbucks says:

Starbucks said:
Slices of real lime and real fruit juice make for a lovely, lively boost to your afternoon.

In reality, it tastes like drinking pickle juice. Not a fan.
 
That's why I go to Caribou or Panera for my fancy drinks...
 
That's why I go to Caribou or Panera for my fancy drinks...

It was on campus and I could use "flex" (aka: fake dining hall meal plan money) to pay for it. :p
 
Westinghouse TVs. Probably expand this to any of these legacy brands that don't mean anything these days like RCA. I got what I though was a good deal on clearance from Best Buy, and the damn thing wouldn't display a 1080p HD input from my computer.

I have a Westinghouse monitor as my 2nd one. It's a piece of shit and the HDMI port on it died. Have to use VGA now.
 
It's interesting trying to find the OEM for legacy products, in Europe legacy TV's can be traced to Turkey and companies like Vestel and such. For American brands I don't think you have any where to look but China, so open your TV's up (don't get zapped) and look for Shenzhen Golden Sunflower Unreliable Electronics Factory No. 963 Co. Ltd. or something like that. Could be slightly better such as TPV, which is the maker of Philips TV's, altough Philips themselves still don't like to think they're legacy, they are.

I bought a legacy TV once, a Grundig with the words "German Quality" on the instruction booklet and "Made in Turkey" on the model sticker and it has the worst sound reproduction of all time. Nothing wrong with the volume, you can make it loud as hell, just no matter what volume you have a hard time understanding the words coming out of the speakers. It's a bork-bork TV.
 
Just for clarification: everything you can buy today is made in China - often completely, at least the individual parts. Coming from China doesn't generally mean that something is of bad quality. You can get perfect quality products in China, but it will most certainly cost extra. Even the highest price offer from China will still be below the lowest one from your own country though.

Also, there are very good and very bad Chinese vendors. That does only connect to the quoted price at first glance. There are quite cheap smaller vendors which really make an effort and keep close contact to make good products. There are quite expensive big vendors who will mostly ignore you and your wishes unless you order a million units.

The "problem" with China-made products is that the Chinese have a quite different culture and thus also have a different understanding of 'perceived quality' (what a nasty phrase, isn't it?) as well as actual quality. So if you don't work closely together with your vendor and pay good attention to what they do down to the very detail, you may end up with a poor quality product, simply because they will solve problems in ways they deem good enough.
 
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Superdry jackets. On mine the stiching on the arms is coming off a year after I got it, plus the hook to hang it up with fell off after 2 weeks. They're not THAT expensive, but I expected a bit more.

Also Virgin Media internet. Horrible, horrible customer service, and they throttle your connection like F*** for the whole day untill 00:00. I don't care if you get a deal with them which includes naked dancing girls. Stay the f*** away.
 
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Virgin Media is just Cable and Wireless and all its previous names. I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole.
 
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