Buried under a mountain of junk

My house is filling up with knackered junk, and I'm getting angry and frustrated. Why ? Because most of it is just of out of guarantee, yet fit only for the bin.

There's that fibre mat from India you see in the picture above. It has faded to antique beige, but is still pristine blue on the underside. It wasn't cheap - 44 euros from a national chain. Then there's the reading lamp with halogen bulb for which we had to place an order, hand over 75 euros, and wait 2 weeks for delivery.




It began flickering the other day. When I opened it up I discovered that heat from the bulb has charred the insulation on the wires where , infuriatingly, they are inaccesible . No, it can't be repaired. I've tried tape (yellow in the picture, which does not work); neither is it possible to feed fresh flex through the support, since the base is a sealed unit.
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Then there's the dining room set - a table and 4 chairs, made of enamelled steel.

One of the chairs has a broken back, and, as before, is essentially unrepairable. What is more, I passed one just like it recently, sitting forlornly in the local rubbish skip.
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There's the rowing machine (see top picture), with a dangerously wobbly seat that does not glide. Thinking I had assembled it incorrectly, I returned to the store to look at the display model. Its seat was even worse than mine.
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We have toasters that don't toast evenly, coat hangers with trouser clamps that snap as soon as you open them, click-clack beds in which the wooden slats break first, and then the welds on the steel frame.

Also in the top picture is an ironing board that we inherited from someone else. I gashed my finger on it the other day: the flanges on the underside have vicious sharp edges. But there is no manufacturer's name, no importer's name, no retailer's name. There is no one to whom one can complain. Why not ?
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Most, if not all, of the goods I have mentioned are imported from India, China and elsewhere in the Far East. Most are priced to undercut local competitive offerings (assuming those firms haven't yet been forced out of business).
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But I know from a recent TV programme that it's our local retailers - like Conforama, Carrefour, Castorama etc - that make a fat margin with huge markups on what they pay. The manufacturers and importers usually operate on pretty slim margins.
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The EU presently runs a huge trade deficit with the Far East. I shan't bore you with the figures, but really, I ask you, does it make sense to import goods from so far away if they are shoddy, dangerous and quickly destined for the bin ?
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From a website, I see that Chinese consumers are just as fed up with shoddy goods as we are.

Where are you when we need you, EU ? Maybe Peter Mandelson needs to make the EU protectionist for the right reasons - to keep out junk, and to encourage the Chinese and others to raise their standards. That's if they want us to continue buying their goods. But few of us can resist a bargain, can we ?

Update Tue 18:00: email from Louise on Chocs and Cuckoos:

Instead of throwing stuff away, Colin, why not telephone Emaaüs and get them to take away what you don't want. It is a great organisation and they will do their best to restore stuff and resell it or it will be sold for scrap

Comments welcome: emails to sciencebod01@aol.com

Shoddy goods: what's the EU doing about them ?

We saw a spotlight we liked in Antibes' Conforama store. It was floor standing, attractively gold-lacquered, had a small powerful halogen bulb, and could be angled. So they ordered one in, we payed our €75 or thereabouts, and thought we should get at least 10 years of use, if not longer.

Imagine my surprise on having to replace the bulb after a few months - they are not cheap. Then it began to flicker the other day. On opening up the lamp compartment, I found to my horror that there's been overheating, which has roasted the electrical insulation such that bare wires are visible. In fact the only thing that prevents the exposed wires from touching the metal casing - making the whole appliance live - and probably lethal - is a tiny plastic sleeve.
And suppose the bare wires had made contact ? Would we not be protected by an earth wire ?Nope, because the appliance, despite having a metal casing, comes fitted with a two pin French plug, with no earthing socket. In Britain, the only metal appliances that are allowed to be sold with a two-pin, unearther plug are those deemed to be "double-insulated". I hardly think that a tiny plastic sleeve separating live electrics from casing would be deemed "double-insulated".

So what do I do ? Traipse back to Conforma. Demand a refund ? Well, there' a problem. I've mislaid the receipt, and it's probably out of guarantee anyway. But there's a wider issue at stake here. The appliance in my view is badly designed and potentially hazardous. And we have bought other stuff at Conforama, as well as Carrefour across the road, that is frankly shoddy. And despite most if not all being imported goods, mainly from the Far east, they have not been particularly cheap.

We also bought a table and four chairs at Conforma, with a fairly rustic but attractive hammered enamel finish. After a couple of years, had to throw one of the chairs out - a broken back, clearly unrepairable, and later spotted another identical chair in our local skip.


There was the Indian carpet with a label that reads "Sun...". Yet after a few months it looks ancient due to bleachig and yellowing , while the underside still looks new. One assumes that some local dye, possibly vegetable in origin, has been used that is not light-resistant. That's another €45 wasted.

Then there's the rowing machine from Carrefour, which you put together yourself. But the seat does not glide - there are no runners, and in fact tips dangerously from side to side. Thinking I might have assembled it incorrectly, I returned to the store to look at the display model, and found it to be in an even worse state than my own.





There's a pattern then, of buying goods, invariably imported, that are simply not fit for purpose. It was the same in England some 5 years ago when i was trying to upgrade our house to ensure a quick sale. We bought and installed a B&Q bath, the only one available off the shelf, that was "shell style". But as soon as water splashed over that raised shell rim, it had nowhere to go except the floor. B&Q refused to give a refund. We ended up taking it out and down to the local dump, and replacing with anothher bath. I bought packs of wood tile flooring for the kitchen, made from "Rhodesian ". Within weeks, all the parts exposed to direct light faded, so one was left with a mottled effect. Again, not fit for purpose. One could go on - B&Q ceramic wall tiles that were a mixture of two entirely different shades, a pull cord light that was absurdly noisy, etc etc