Disposability
 

We know U.S. corporations have no compunction about firing workers in
order to further enrich their execs, and apparently they are the same
way about their products, too.

One of my computer printers is dying. A competent repair shop diagnosed
it and informed me a certain part needed replacing. The printer is a
couple of years old and parts are available, but the manufacturer will
not sell the part in question, even to its authorized service depots.

So I called the printer company Friday, and, after brushing off its
first line of defense, a barely English-speaking clown in India (I
asked, he told me where he was*), I got connected to a series of
U.S.-based service/technical folks.

At the end, the best deal I was offered was to buy a new printer from
the company at a "special price," which was *only* $50 more than anyone
could buy it for from any of at least 100 retailers.

The company I was dealing with used to have a stellar reputation. No more.

Anyway, this leads me to wonder if anyone is maintaining a list of those
U.S. companies that still provide good products and good service.




* I have nothing against India or people from that area, but when these
people are hired as the first line of service for U.S. corporations to
deal with U.S. customers, they ought to have decent facility with...English.

Disposability
 

"Harry " wrote in message
...

We know U.S. corporations have no compunction about firing workers in
order to further enrich their execs, and apparently they are the same way
about their products, too.

One of my computer printers is dying. A competent repair shop diagnosed it
and informed me a certain part needed replacing. The printer is a couple
of years old and parts are available, but the manufacturer will not sell
the part in question, even to its authorized service depots.

So I called the printer company Friday, and, after brushing off its first
line of defense, a barely English-speaking clown in India (I asked, he
told me where he was*), I got connected to a series of U.S.-based
service/technical folks.

At the end, the best deal I was offered was to buy a new printer from the
company at a "special price," which was *only* $50 more than anyone could
buy it for from any of at least 100 retailers.

The company I was dealing with used to have a stellar reputation. No more.

Anyway, this leads me to wonder if anyone is maintaining a list of those
U.S. companies that still provide good products and good service.




* I have nothing against India or people from that area, but when these
people are hired as the first line of service for U.S. corporations to
deal with U.S. customers, they ought to have decent facility
with...English.


We were watching Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' last night.
Unbelievable what American leaders and CEOs did to the middle class...
especially during Ronnie's years.
Anyone still around should be tried for treason and shot.

Disposability
 

On 8/1/10 8:35 AM, YukonBound wrote:


"Harry " wrote in message
...

We know U.S. corporations have no compunction about firing workers in
order to further enrich their execs, and apparently they are the same
way about their products, too.

One of my computer printers is dying. A competent repair shop
diagnosed it and informed me a certain part needed replacing. The
printer is a couple of years old and parts are available, but the
manufacturer will not sell the part in question, even to its
authorized service depots.

So I called the printer company Friday, and, after brushing off its
first line of defense, a barely English-speaking clown in India (I
asked, he told me where he was*), I got connected to a series of
U.S.-based service/technical folks.

At the end, the best deal I was offered was to buy a new printer from
the company at a "special price," which was *only* $50 more than
anyone could buy it for from any of at least 100 retailers.

The company I was dealing with used to have a stellar reputation. No
more.

Anyway, this leads me to wonder if anyone is maintaining a list of
those U.S. companies that still provide good products and good service.




* I have nothing against India or people from that area, but when
these people are hired as the first line of service for U.S.
corporations to deal with U.S. customers, they ought to have decent
facility with...English.


We were watching Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' last night.
Unbelievable what American leaders and CEOs did to the middle class...
especially during Ronnie's years.
Anyone still around should be tried for treason and shot.


We need an emergency and temporary change in the tax laws that says that
if your corporation is making a substantial profit now, and you aren't
hiring Americans, your tax breaks...all of them...disappear.

Disposability
 

"Harry ?" wrote in message
...
On 8/1/10 8:35 AM, YukonBound wrote:


"Harry ?" wrote in message
...

We know U.S. corporations have no compunction about firing workers in
order to further enrich their execs, and apparently they are the same
way about their products, too.

One of my computer printers is dying. A competent repair shop
diagnosed it and informed me a certain part needed replacing. The
printer is a couple of years old and parts are available, but the
manufacturer will not sell the part in question, even to its
authorized service depots.

So I called the printer company Friday, and, after brushing off its
first line of defense, a barely English-speaking clown in India (I
asked, he told me where he was*), I got connected to a series of
U.S.-based service/technical folks.

At the end, the best deal I was offered was to buy a new printer from
the company at a "special price," which was *only* $50 more than
anyone could buy it for from any of at least 100 retailers.

The company I was dealing with used to have a stellar reputation. No
more.

Anyway, this leads me to wonder if anyone is maintaining a list of
those U.S. companies that still provide good products and good service.




* I have nothing against India or people from that area, but when
these people are hired as the first line of service for U.S.
corporations to deal with U.S. customers, they ought to have decent
facility with...English.


We were watching Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' last night.
Unbelievable what American leaders and CEOs did to the middle class...
especially during Ronnie's years.
Anyone still around should be tried for treason and shot.


We need an emergency and temporary change in the tax laws that says that
if your corporation is making a substantial profit now, and you aren't
hiring Americans, your tax breaks...all of them...disappear.


Too bad you aren't a law maker.
Why aren't you?

Disposability
 

In article ,
says...

On 8/1/10 8:35 AM, YukonBound wrote:


"Harry ?" wrote in message
...

We know U.S. corporations have no compunction about firing workers in
order to further enrich their execs, and apparently they are the same
way about their products, too.

One of my computer printers is dying. A competent repair shop
diagnosed it and informed me a certain part needed replacing. The
printer is a couple of years old and parts are available, but the
manufacturer will not sell the part in question, even to its
authorized service depots.

So I called the printer company Friday, and, after brushing off its
first line of defense, a barely English-speaking clown in India (I
asked, he told me where he was*), I got connected to a series of
U.S.-based service/technical folks.

At the end, the best deal I was offered was to buy a new printer from
the company at a "special price," which was *only* $50 more than
anyone could buy it for from any of at least 100 retailers.

The company I was dealing with used to have a stellar reputation. No
more.

Anyway, this leads me to wonder if anyone is maintaining a list of
those U.S. companies that still provide good products and good service.




* I have nothing against India or people from that area, but when
these people are hired as the first line of service for U.S.
corporations to deal with U.S. customers, they ought to have decent
facility with...English.


We were watching Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' last night.
Unbelievable what American leaders and CEOs did to the middle class...
especially during Ronnie's years.
Anyone still around should be tried for treason and shot.


We need an emergency and temporary change in the tax laws that says that
if your corporation is making a substantial profit now, and you aren't
hiring Americans, your tax breaks...all of them...disappear.

Does that mean that corporations that buy fine German screwdrivers
should be taxed out of existence too?

Disposability
 

On 8/1/10 10:03 AM, BAR wrote:
In ,
says...

On 8/1/10 8:35 AM, YukonBound wrote:


"Harry wrote in message
...

We know U.S. corporations have no compunction about firing workers in
order to further enrich their execs, and apparently they are the same
way about their products, too.

One of my computer printers is dying. A competent repair shop
diagnosed it and informed me a certain part needed replacing. The
printer is a couple of years old and parts are available, but the
manufacturer will not sell the part in question, even to its
authorized service depots.

So I called the printer company Friday, and, after brushing off its
first line of defense, a barely English-speaking clown in India (I
asked, he told me where he was*), I got connected to a series of
U.S.-based service/technical folks.

At the end, the best deal I was offered was to buy a new printer from
the company at a "special price," which was *only* $50 more than
anyone could buy it for from any of at least 100 retailers.

The company I was dealing with used to have a stellar reputation. No
more.

Anyway, this leads me to wonder if anyone is maintaining a list of
those U.S. companies that still provide good products and good service.




* I have nothing against India or people from that area, but when
these people are hired as the first line of service for U.S.
corporations to deal with U.S. customers, they ought to have decent
facility with...English.


We were watching Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' last night.
Unbelievable what American leaders and CEOs did to the middle class...
especially during Ronnie's years.
Anyone still around should be tried for treason and shot.


We need an emergency and temporary change in the tax laws that says that
if your corporation is making a substantial profit now, and you aren't
hiring Americans, your tax breaks...all of them...disappear.

Does that mean that corporations that buy fine German screwdrivers
should be taxed out of existence too?




German-made tools are fine with me *if* they are made by German workers
who are members of a trade union. I'd surely buy a set before I bought
any products or services that an un-edu-ma-cated moron like you had a
hand in producing.

Disposability
 

On 8/1/10 12:08 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 01 Aug 2010 08:20:41 -0400, Harry
wrote:

One of my computer printers is dying. A competent repair shop diagnosed
it and informed me a certain part needed replacing. The printer is a
couple of years old and parts are available, but the manufacturer will
not sell the part in question, even to its authorized service depots.

There basically is no such thing as repairing computers. You throw
them away and buy a new one. It is cheaper to have an Asian make a new
one than it is to maintain parts logistic support and training service
people. The writing was actually on the wall in the early 80s in the
enterprise business when IBM shifted from "parts" to "FRUs" (Field
Replaceable Units, the smallest assembly you could order). In many
cases, that was the whole machine. They used the above mentioned
logic. We were buying computer monitors from Korea for $39. Why would
you ever open one up?
"Parts" was IBM's second highest expense, behind salary. By
eliminating the whole repair business, they virtually eliminated one
expense and cut the other one to the bone.

With mass market products, the "lowest cost vendor" model makes parts
logistics a nightmare anyway. The same make and model machine may
actually be made by several different vendors over it's life span and
the parts may not be interchangeable. Even within a single vendor, you
have production changes that affect the parts. Add to that the massive
number of different models of machines that they sell and you can see
why nobody wants to stock parts.

Personally I think this is an area where we could bring jobs back to
this country. The consumer has to demand that the products they buy
are repairable but that would make them more expensive and that seems
to be against the way we think. We are a "buy it, use it up and throw
it away" society.
It sounds like your printer is "used up" and now has become hazardous
waste.


That's basically what the printer company told me...if I wanted, I could
"dispose" of it at their depot...

Fortunately, my experiences with Apple have been more than satisfactory.

Disposability
 

On Sun, 01 Aug 2010 12:08:19 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 01 Aug 2010 08:20:41 -0400, Harry ?
wrote:

One of my computer printers is dying. A competent repair shop diagnosed
it and informed me a certain part needed replacing. The printer is a
couple of years old and parts are available, but the manufacturer will
not sell the part in question, even to its authorized service depots.

There basically is no such thing as repairing computers. You throw
them away and buy a new one. It is cheaper to have an Asian make a new
one than it is to maintain parts logistic support and training service
people. The writing was actually on the wall in the early 80s in the
enterprise business when IBM shifted from "parts" to "FRUs" (Field
Replaceable Units, the smallest assembly you could order). In many
cases, that was the whole machine. They used the above mentioned
logic. We were buying computer monitors from Korea for $39. Why would
you ever open one up?
"Parts" was IBM's second highest expense, behind salary. By
eliminating the whole repair business, they virtually eliminated one
expense and cut the other one to the bone.

With mass market products, the "lowest cost vendor" model makes parts
logistics a nightmare anyway. The same make and model machine may
actually be made by several different vendors over it's life span and
the parts may not be interchangeable. Even within a single vendor, you
have production changes that affect the parts. Add to that the massive
number of different models of machines that they sell and you can see
why nobody wants to stock parts.

Personally I think this is an area where we could bring jobs back to
this country. The consumer has to demand that the products they buy
are repairable but that would make them more expensive and that seems
to be against the way we think. We are a "buy it, use it up and throw
it away" society.
It sounds like your printer is "used up" and now has become hazardous
waste.

Makes me sick. Landfills full of Walmart crap that lasts 1/10th the
time that a well-made product lasts at 1/3 the price.

Most American consumers don't give a ****.

Disposability
 

On 8/1/10 12:18 PM, jps wrote:
On Sun, 01 Aug 2010 12:08:19 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 01 Aug 2010 08:20:41 -0400, Harry
wrote:

One of my computer printers is dying. A competent repair shop diagnosed
it and informed me a certain part needed replacing. The printer is a
couple of years old and parts are available, but the manufacturer will
not sell the part in question, even to its authorized service depots.

There basically is no such thing as repairing computers. You throw
them away and buy a new one. It is cheaper to have an Asian make a new
one than it is to maintain parts logistic support and training service
people. The writing was actually on the wall in the early 80s in the
enterprise business when IBM shifted from "parts" to "FRUs" (Field
Replaceable Units, the smallest assembly you could order). In many
cases, that was the whole machine. They used the above mentioned
logic. We were buying computer monitors from Korea for $39. Why would
you ever open one up?
"Parts" was IBM's second highest expense, behind salary. By
eliminating the whole repair business, they virtually eliminated one
expense and cut the other one to the bone.

With mass market products, the "lowest cost vendor" model makes parts
logistics a nightmare anyway. The same make and model machine may
actually be made by several different vendors over it's life span and
the parts may not be interchangeable. Even within a single vendor, you
have production changes that affect the parts. Add to that the massive
number of different models of machines that they sell and you can see
why nobody wants to stock parts.

Personally I think this is an area where we could bring jobs back to
this country. The consumer has to demand that the products they buy
are repairable but that would make them more expensive and that seems
to be against the way we think. We are a "buy it, use it up and throw
it away" society.
It sounds like your printer is "used up" and now has become hazardous
waste.

Makes me sick. Landfills full of Walmart crap that lasts 1/10th the
time that a well-made product lasts at 1/3 the price.

Most American consumers don't give a ****.

Most American consumers no longer know the difference. Remember, this is
a country where a significant percentage of the population believes
Sarah Palin is qualified intellectually to hold high political office.

Disposability
 

On 01/08/2010 6:20 AM, Harry  wrote:

We know U.S. corporations have no compunction about firing workers in
order to further enrich their execs, and apparently they are the same
way about their products, too.

One of my computer printers is dying. A competent repair shop diagnosed
it and informed me a certain part needed replacing. The printer is a
couple of years old and parts are available, but the manufacturer will
not sell the part in question, even to its authorized service depots.

So I called the printer company Friday, and, after brushing off its
first line of defense, a barely English-speaking clown in India (I
asked, he told me where he was*), I got connected to a series of
U.S.-based service/technical folks.

At the end, the best deal I was offered was to buy a new printer from
the company at a "special price," which was *only* $50 more than anyone
could buy it for from any of at least 100 retailers.

The company I was dealing with used to have a stellar reputation. No more.

Anyway, this leads me to wonder if anyone is maintaining a list of those
U.S. companies that still provide good products and good service.

There is none that I know of except Costco. Buy most of my stuff there
too. One of the few retail chains I will deal with. Used to deal with
Sams Club but they don't have an aoutlet around here.

--
We are all self-made, but only the rich will admit it.