The Consumer Warning thread

The only redeeming quality Pizza Hut had going for it here were their all you can eat restaurants. Bugger all of those left nowdays :(

Both Pizza Hut and Dominos pale compared to the two local independent pizza shops nearby in my suburb. Any other Aussies here rate Pizza Haven though? They were ok for a major chain.
 
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Vistaprint, great for business cards, shocking for anything else.

I order two colour shirts, with a colour logo all ticked off on the 'online proof approval' stage. The image, which is still on the VistaPrint server shows my products as being identical to this:
mbU2YZ8.jpg

Last week, all my embroidered products on my account became black and white, I send off an email asking if this would change my existing order and I'm told no, it won't, it'll be exactly as I ordered.

Got this today:
ZNpTFzQ.jpg

Wankers.
 
Vistaprint, great for business cards, shocking for anything else.

I order two colour shirts, with a colour logo all ticked off on the 'online proof approval' stage. The image, which is still on the VistaPrint server shows my products as being identical to this:
mbU2YZ8.jpg

Last week, all my embroidered products on my account became black and white, I send off an email asking if this would change my existing order and I'm told no, it won't, it'll be exactly as I ordered.

Got this today:
ZNpTFzQ.jpg

Wankers.

Got a full refund after days of harassing them on the phones, so not so bad, I got two free shirts after all!
 
This may be me feeling entitled, but: As well you should!
 
If you're thinking of buying a cheap toy helicopter, be careful:


It's such complete and utter junk that, eight hours after unpacking it, I've put it back in its box ready for the return. The major issues are:

There is no battery indicator of any kind. So you can't tell when or if it's fully charged and you certainly don't get any information on the charging time in the "handbook".

There are three motors, one for each main rotor and one for the tail rotor. Trouble is: the two flight motors don't behave the same as the battery runs down, which (obviously) happens very quickly. So one moment, you're managing to keep the thing in the air and the next, it's starting to go in circles. And when you use the tail rotor to control the pitch, it uses so much power that the helicopter can hardly stay in the air... when the battery is full. When it isn't, you're lucky to get it off the ground in the first place.

and finally: A small plastic cogwheel that rotates a bigger one on the drive shaft for the upper rotor is not properly fixed to its own drive shaft. So it simply won't stop slipping until it loses contact with the bigger wheel. Which means that the upper rotor will suddenly lose all power in the middle of flight. And then the whole thing will plummet to the ground in uncontrollable circles from whichever altitude you've managed to get it to, depending of course on your luck with the battery and the controls.

Of course, I didn't expect much for 25 Euros, but neither did I know that you can make something this atrociously bad. I literally hadn't thought it possible.
 
This goddamn thing was probably the most unpleasant food experience...and I'm even counting getting sick from food. This tasted sooooo nasty.

It wasn't "because Taco Bell" (Taco Bell is a guilty pleasure of mine) and wasn't even because it was spicy or something.

The "lime" flavor was...hmm...imagine if someone made a lime version of lemon pledge, mixed it with mouth-burning acid, sprayed it out on a big tarp, let it dry to a powder in the sun. Then, dusting it onto the taco shell.

S418_K1_1.2.jpg


They replaced the Volcano Taco with this?!?!
 
That's too bad, because I liked the Volcano Taco.

Of course, Del Taco > Taco Bell, and Jimboy's > both of them. (Although I'd understand if you'd rather not drive to Stockton or Fairfield to get your taco fix.)
 
If the cheese is yellow, it's not real mexican food.
 
If the cheese is yellow, it's not real mexican food.

Not once have I ever called Taco Bell "real Mexican food." If we even use the word Mexican in the description, it's "Mexican fast food" or "fake Mexican" (which also includes Chipotle).
 
If you're thinking of buying a cheap toy helicopter, be careful:

I bought one for $25 once that had an iPhone/android app to control it. It was very cheaply made but it actually worked and made a perfect Christmas swap gift. For the price I'd buy it again.... I guess it's a crapshoot.
 
I guess this video belongs here, considering that it is from a consumer awareness programme.

Basically, "superfoods" are crap-
 
I've just moved to a bigger apartment and thus have been buying quite a number of new lamps lately. It's become difficult to avoid LED lamps, they're everywhere. But I can only warn not to buy them. They sure are good looking and save energy, but they are very expensive to buy. But more importantly: should one inbuilt LED fail, you're either forced to rip the lamp off your ceiling and send it to the manufacturer for repair or to throw it away. LEDs are known to live very long, but that doesn't mean that an LED won't ever fail. It could also be an electronic component that fails.

You're usually much better off with buying an optically comparable normal lamp (with sockets) and put in LED bulbs. In total that often comes cheaper, you save just as much energy, you have the option of selecting wattage and, most importantly, you can replace single LED bulbs if they fail.
 
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You also end up with a product that is quite comparatively bulky.

What types of LED lamps are you buying? What's their warranty like? My only real experience is with desktop task and under-counter lighting, and I've yet to have a bad experience, after selling thousands from many different manufacturers...but not going cheap.

I don't know what other warrantees are out there, but I have this one, and it has a 5-year warranty. 2 years ago I sold 1,100 of 'em, and not a single issue with any of them has been reported. :dunno:
th
 
You also end up with a product that is quite comparatively bulky.
That depends. Most of the LED lamps I see do not make use of the compact nature of LEDs and look exactly like their normally-lit counterparts. Mind you I'm mainly talking about ceiling lamps.

What types of LED lamps are you buying? What's their warranty like?
I've been buying the most different LED bulbs and lamps: LED strips, G4 bulbs, G4 downlights, G9 bulbs, GU10 bulbs, E14 bulbs. I've not had a single failure as of yet, though my experience with some cheaper ones have been mixed (some flickered, the light output of some was quite far away from the manufacturer's claims). I've been buying no-name, Sebson, Philips, Toshiba, Trango and Osram. Most of those manufacturers give between 3 and 5 years of warranty, which for itself is fine, but may be useless when sending the lamp in for a warranty claim is the actual problem.
In my experience, the better known manufacturers generally make more realistic claims in terms of perceived light color and lumen output. If you take that into account for the cheaper ones, you can find acceptable quality there too if you take some time and look around.

My only real experience is with desktop task and under-counter lighting, and I've yet to have a bad experience, after selling thousands from many different manufacturers...but not going cheap.
Going cheap is the main problem. Most people don't want to spend too much money on a lamp because it is something they simply need to "not look too bad and produce light". Because LED lamps are much more expensive than normal lamps (between twice and thrice as expensive in my experience). As a result, people buy the cheapest LED lamp they can agree with and end up with poor quality which breaks after a few weeks or months.

I don't know what other warrantees are out there, but I have this one, and it has a 5-year warranty. 2 years ago I sold 1,100 of 'em, and not a single issue with any of them has been reported. :dunno:
th
A desk lamp is not so much of a problem because in case of failure, that is quite easily sent to the manufacturer. Also, of course there are a lot of quality products out there which do live up to their claims.

I'm not saying that buying a lamp with inbuilt LEDs would never ever make sense. I'm simply trying to raise awareness that the illuminants of such lamps can not be replaced, and that this fact is cloaked by the manufacturers claiming that LEDs easily live 10,000 hours and longer. That is true, but it doesn't mean that every LED and the attached electronics live that long. And because you can not replace the illuminants, you will be forced to either send the lamp in for repairing/replacement (which is quite annoying if we're talking about ceiling lamps or a large uplight) or to throw it away and buy a new lamp. Given the high cost of an LED lamp compared to a normal lamp, that doesn't make too much sense.
 
I've been buying the most different LED bulbs and lamps: LED strips, G4 bulbs, G4 downlights, G9 bulbs, GU10 bulbs, E14 bulbs. I've not had a single failure as of yet, though my experience with some cheaper ones have been mixed (some flickered, the light output of some was quite far away from the manufacturer's claims). [...]
I?ve switched the whole appartment to LED end of 2011 when the technogoly became available for most lamb-sockets ... and now after 2,5 years - I have had the first failing LED bulbs in the kitchen that replaced Halogen Spots (about 30% of the LEDs in those bulbs started flickering, giving a sort of "strobe-light" feel) ... sadly no 3 year warranty on those ...

Don?t missunderstand - I?d buy LED bulbs again - but they are not without fault. I think I will be looking at bulbs with a longer Warranty now.
 
As I see it this warning isn't about LED bulbs which simply replace normal bulbs in old lamps, but new lamps with non-exchangeable LEDs. If just one of them flickers you effectively can't use them anymore since the flickering is going to annoy you.
 
As I see it this warning isn't about LED bulbs which simply replace normal bulbs in old lamps, but new lamps with non-exchangeable LEDs. If just one of them flickers you effectively can't use them anymore since the flickering is going to annoy you.
This is my point exactly, my apologies if that did not come across clearly!

Technically there is still a long way to go until LED bulbs become the affordable everyday replacement item which light bulbs were, but if you look around there already are a lot of good quality LED bulbs out there.
 
I?ve switched the whole appartment to LED end of 2011 when the technogoly became available for most lamb-sockets ... and now after 2,5 years - I have had the first failing LED bulbs in the kitchen that replaced Halogen Spots (about 30% of the LEDs in those bulbs started flickering, giving a sort of "strobe-light" feel) ... sadly no 3 year warranty on those ...

Don?t missunderstand - I?d buy LED bulbs again - but they are not without fault. I think I will be looking at bulbs with a longer Warranty now.

To that point, I will say that LED lightbulbs have come a looong way, even since 2011.
 
Basically, "superfoods" are crap-
I wouldnt say crap, usefull nutrients when used but not some miraclous food that does magic. They are just advertised poorly. Like everything in this world.
 
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