In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 16 May 2021 01:50:46 -0700 (PDT),
" wrote:

I needed some garden hose of the right length to go with the
quick-connect I posted about weeks ago. I used one of those ends with
the 2-part plastic clamp like you posted and the hose shot off the
connector. This particular hose was thinner, or older, than some. Next
time I used an all-metal hose clamp like is used on GM cars and I could
make that much tighter.

https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Selizo-A...LRM/ref=sr_1_5

But other than not being able to clamp it on tight enough for one or
maybe 2 of them, I've used 3 or 4 of those hose ends that gave you
trouble and they haven't given me any trouble. Most were bought at
least 3 years ago, some 8 years. Except the brass one was bought this
year, however that's the one where the the hose shot off, so it didn't
get used much.

I ended up buyign a 10' hose. That's another advantage of the
online-buying. They had 10', 3' and I think someone had 8' hoses,
things you would never see in a store. Maybe you could get them to look
in a paper catalog and order it for you, but I'll bet demand was so low
they didn't even make many things that couldn't be mass-advertised
nationally.

But my question is had I returned them would they have looked at it for
redesign so the next person who buys them doesn't have the same problem?

Or do they just throw them in the trash?

I used to wonder what happened when you returned something to Kohl's for
Amazon, but the second time I returned something (in 10 years) I went to
UPS and watched her put eeverythign in bags with labels to send to them,
so I suppose they do.

I got my refund a couple hours later, when she hadn't checked afaik if
what I gave her matched the paperwork, and she certainly didn't check if
the ones in boxes were complete or worked (though they are and do.)

It used to be that finding the right storage bin would have been very
time consuming, making it more reasonable for Amazon to scrap it or sell
lots of "lost property" to the kind of guy who would then sell on ebay
(there are still Radio Shack products sold on ebay.)

But i suspect they do something like the Baltimore and Baltimore County
public libraries do now. Each book used to belong in a branch and if
you returned it to a different branch, they had shuttles to take it back
where it belonged, even though it must have taken several days. But
now there is a computer entry for every book and when they take it back,
they keep it wherever you took it and the computer knows where it is, in
case someone wants it from the catalog and not from a shelf.

It doesn't seem v. hard to do that with Amazon parts, even if they are
scattered all over the country.

If they packaging is not too badly damaged, they probably put them back
on the shelf and sell them to someone else.

Otherwise they probably throw them in the trash.

Yes, seems likely.

Leading to the Home Depot Rule of Thumb:

Never buy anything at Home Depot that has had the box taped
shut. It's quite likely to be a return and parts will be missing.

Cindy Hamilton

BTW, that quickconnect I asked about that leaked, I finally found my
container of O-rings, but not before I bought a 2nd one. I had 10
sizes of 0-rings, mostly one of each, from one bag I bought 20 years
ago, and I had exactly the right size. If anything, it fit better than
the 2nd one but that one was installed already so I returned the first
one, in better shape than they sold it to me.

For that matter, you can't easily tell it's been opened either.

But this situation is less likely than what you said.