Hi Jim,

My comments are based on my own observations and experiences in the
consumer electronic repair industry over the last 10 years or so. I am
a repair shop owner in Australia.

To answer your first question - YES. Fifteen - twenty years ago it was
not uncommon for the family CTV or VCR to live as long as other
appliances such as the fridge or washing machine - ie easily 10-15
years. Now, with all our advances in manufacturing technology we can
have our domestic electronic goods fail in as little as two years.

Rarely have i seen a DVD player live past it's third birthday without
major reworking, laser or motor replacement, mpeg board failures etc.
Entry level VCR's are in the same boat with only three or four (at
best) manufacturers in the world make a unit that is of any real
quality.

CTV sets are also failing earlier than I would like to expect with
most falling over between 5 and 7 years.

I am a warranty repair agent for a number of brands and have seen this
trend of change across all brands in competeting for market share.
Some brands in Aust now dont service VCR's or DVD's under warranty.
They have determined that it is cheaper in the long run to simply
replace any faulty units that are returned with new units thus saving
on repair costs, cranky customers, expense of carrying spare parts,
etc. It's an idea which appears to be working for them although it
doesn't do my future much good.

I wouldn't like to say that manufacturers are deliberately engineering
consumer electronic goods to fail prematurely but it is interesting to
note that most of the faults found in these goods stem from power
supply failures caused by underated components, poor quality
components or glue left on the PCB's during the manufacturing process.

With the exception of DVD, I would say that CTV sets have advanced the
most over the last fifteen years. They have gone from a wooden box
full of boards and wires down to a small siingle PCB with a hand full
of IC's and a power supply. This makes for easy servicing (If you have
the diagnositc gear) and all is well during the warranty period and
the manufacturer can supply replacement IC's. But sadly I'm starting
to notice a trend where after the warranty period has expired, the
supply of the essential IC's also stops or they are priced so high
that nobody will pay to have their sets repaired.

All this and I'm the one that gets abused and sworn at as they slam
the down out of my shop on the way down to the supermarket to get
another cheap CTV.

Go figure!!!

Sam T.
Australia.

PS: Just a personal note jim. My own home entertainment gear consists
of 1x cheap and nasty DVD player (AU$60 - 12mth warranty - has been
back three times for replacement.), 10yo 68cm CTV (A proven design
which I maintain myself), 15yo VCR (Bullet proof design - way better
than today's machines), 12yo Amp and CD player (proven design - very
reliable). It's not that I don't like the new gear - It's just that I
cant justify spending all that money knowing that in five or six years
I'm not going to be able to repair it if I wanted to because the
boards are unworkable or the parts No Longer Available.



On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 05:34:46 GMT, (RMD) wrote:

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 22:53:17 GMT, "Jim Conley"
wrote:

Hello,

I'm a journalist writing a story for Mobile PC Magazine on the decline of
quality in consumer electronics. I sent Sam Wasserman an e-mail regarding
this topic this morning and he recommended posting to the newsgroup. I'd be
interested in the thoughts of sci.electronic.repair readers about whether
the quality of electronics is genuinely on the decline and if so, why?

Here's some of the questions I hope to answer with this article.

Has there been a quantifiable decrease in the life span of consumer products
over the last fifteen years?
What segments of consumer electronics seem to be hardest hit?How long are
consumer electronics meant to last?
Are they any documented cases of electronics being intentionally crippled to
reduce shelf-life?
Does the concept of a manufacturer's warranty mean anything anymore or has
point-of-purchase warranty become expected of consumers?

I appreciate your input.

Jim Conley

Jim,

Unlike the other Jeremiahs here I hardly ever expect anything I buy to
ever fail.

I'm surprised if anything does actually fail. Most of the stuff I buy
just works and works without any trouble.

I've had the odd VCR fail on some functions, but not after 1-3 years,
more like 7-8 years. Otoh others I own (and I own quite a few) are
still going fine in every respect. I use them regularly.

Presumably all the posters feel cars are way worse too? Not in my
universe. Car repairs used to feed lots of families, they sure don't
do that now. I have a cheap Hyundai car. It has done 130,000Km over 9
years with only normal services. Nothing on it has broken or burnt
out. Great car, in my book.

Of course, most of this stuff won't resist serious useage abuse. I
keep my electronic stuff clean or stored properly, and I don't load it
with dirty or dusty media. I also service the car regularly, which
services aren't needed very often these days, and I don't belt the
living crap out of it when driving it.

Ross



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