Planned Obsolescence and Disposable Products in Today’s ‘Feel Good’ “Green” Society

Planned Obsolescence and Disposable Products in Today’s ‘Feel Good’ “Green” Society

“Cheap” versus “Inexpensive”

This post is somewhat off-topic however my ongoing problems with my Permobil M300 power wheelchair had me thinking about quality or perhaps today, the lack of quality in the products we purchase and use daily.

I was delighted to find that Motion Specialties, my current wheelchair repair company had hired a repairman from the now defunct Shoppers Home Healthcare.  My experience with Shoppers was a total nightmare, however their one and only bright spot was that they had an excellent field service technician.  One of my many troubles with Shoppers was the difficulty in getting Shoppers to dispatch any Field Service Technician to repair my wheelchair.  I know he will be a great asset to Motion Specialties.

When this technician arrived at my door, we began to discuss the lack of quality of my wheelchair and in a wider scope, the lack of quality in many of the products and commodities sold to the consumer in today’s marketplace.

I was disappointed to learn that the wheelchair motors are not refurbished and the electronic modules are not repaired but that they are thrown into a bin and either disposed of, or they are crudely recycled for metals and such.  It seems like such a waste of resources and energy.

As I mentioned in a previous post, an electronic module controlling my wheelchair or that found in any television, may have stopped working because of a defective resistor or capacitor.  In bulk it may cost the manufacturer one-thousandth of a penny to purchase, yet when damage, it is not repaired but replaced with a new module is sold to you usually at hundreds of dollars.

It is no longer financially prudent to hire an electronics technician to diagnose and repair these items.  It is cheaper to trash the item and sell the client an entirely new unit.  If not recycled properly, the rare heavy metals often used in these components may be lost.

I asked, “Why aren’t wheelchairs made from military or medical grade components?”  It is not cost effective for the wheelchair company.  It seems the manufacturer need the chair’s components to break down so they can sell you replacement parts.  The bottom line is that it is more profitable.

The technician went on to explain that when a new wheelchair is developed, their financial “bean counters” scrutinize the chair from top to bottom asking “how much did this screw cost?”  “Can we replace it with something cheaper?”   And so it goes…

And make no mistake: “Cheaper” does not mean “Less Expensive”.  Cost reduction translates into an extra bonus for the CEO and increased profits for the company shareholders.

 I think about the household products I have bought, used and had to replace after only a year or two.

I am on my third Cuisinart coffee maker.  Suddenly one day, it just stops working with no obvious reason.  So I purchase another (still a good make according to reviews) and cross my fingers.  I could purchase another brand but in this world it is just a game of ‘musical appliances’.  They are all made to fail after a certain period of time.  If I decide to try another brand, someone who has that broken ‘other brand ‘now tries mine old brand.   And so it goes; by continuously having to buy replacement appliances, you are keeping the appliance maker in business.  If your toast lasted thirty years, toaster sales would grind to a halt.

Plastic is a fine product but it is used in the wrong places perhaps ninety percent of the time.  My toaster's plastic sides are warped and discoloured.  I have encountered worn plastic gears and broken plastic hinges.  But plastic is inexpensive to the manufacturer and cheap so it will break requiring the purchase of a replacement.

My RCA television has failed for the second time.  First time it was a module which cost over $150 to replace.  Now the module is no longer available as my TV is considered old technology.  

I have an issue with the cordless tools currently on the market.  It is wonderful not to be tethered to a wall with an electrical cord.  But anyone who buys a cordless tool must realize that the batteries do not last forever.  After a period of time, they will no longer hold a charge and will have to be replaced.  The problem is that (a) you find the replacement battery costs more than the appliance which requires it, or (b) the battery is no longer made for that particular model of appliance or tool.

My wife has a Shark brand floor sweeper and the replacement battery cost more than a new Shark sweeper.  A Sears department store salesman gave me his sales pitch stating that “This cordless drill is the last one you will ever need…it will last a lifetime!”  Well, yes… it just might, but I found out that they no longer manufacture the rechargeable battery after 15 years.  I found the model in the U.S. and purchased it, but even though it is for the same model, the U.S. battery has different internal wiring.  Different standards for different countries – it won’t work.  So now it is a useless piece of junk which I have to dispose of.

One manufacturer is currently advertising some 50 tools that can be powered by one battery.  All I see are fifty useless tools when the company suspends manufacture of the battery model.  And you know they eventually will.

The bottom line is this: If you have rechargeable batteries, they will eventually fail and  have to be replaced.  Will the manufacturer still be making the battery?....and will the replacement be reasonably priced?

So, do you bring your watch in to be repaired?  Do you take your shoes to a cobbler to be re-soled?  No, it doesn’t make sense to pay for the high cost of repairs (if even available) unless you have designer shoes or a Rolex watch.  Like the rest of us, you throw them out and buy another.

Society prides itself on extolling the virtues of going green.  Governments may mandate it.  A green disposal fee may be added to the cost at time of purchase and the local dump (sorry, environmental refuse and recycling center) may charge again for a disposal fee.

We all get a fuzzy warm feeling all over because we are “green”,  however, I wonder how many batteries, appliances, shoes, watches, batteries, televisions, plastic bags and bottles, cell phones, and on and on –get thrown away and not properly recycled.

In past years I’ve read stories of recycling centers being overwhelmed with items and finally sending them to the landfill without processing.  Plastic items have been reclaimed and processed yet there was no market for the item.  Companies preferred using virgin plastic bought from suppliers.  

Yet we all feel so very proud during 'Earth Hour' when we turn off our lights and text of BFFs in darkened bliss...

Still further aside: Currently our Province of Ontario is offering large incentives or rebates on those who purchase electric vehicles.  Just this week they announced plans to phase out natural gas, a relatively clean energy source with by-products of water vapour and carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas which is utilized by growing vegetation) to be replace with “clean” electrical heating.  However, this brainless group of ‘feel good greenies’ has not explained how this electrical energy is going to be generated. 

The government and citizens are generally opposed to expansion of our nuclear power plants.  Coal fired power plants were closed years ago.  Natural gas plants make no sense if you phase out natural gas for the general population citing green concerns.  All but one major river has already been dammed in this Provence –there are no more.  Niagara falls perhaps can produce a bit more at the risk of affecting the spectacle and tourism.  Do you claim agricultural farm land and replace crops with fields of solar cells and wind turbines?  (as the old joke goes, “who needs farms when we have supermarkets?”)  Cold fusion has not yet been accomplished.  Just how will we make this power?  It appears that only the brain dead run for political office…

It is about the money…It is ALWAYS about the money!

Unbridled Capitalism is just as bad as Communism...

...it is just the flip side of the same coin!

Update: June 25th,2016

It was just over a month ago that I posted this blog about planned obsolescence, where companies make products with purposely built in weaknesses, knowing they will fail in an approximate per-determined span of time.  That time period is always slightly past the length of warranty offered by the manufacturer.  I think we have all experienced this 'true-ism' at one time or another.

Someplace in the Cuisinart factory, engineers are doing a 'high-five' as my 3rd Cuisinart coffee maker (same model) has joined its predecessors and died.  Of course it comes with a three year warranty and my machine died yesterday, just short of the forth year.

So today we bought our fourth, thereby doing our part to keep the Canadian economy running along.  Why do we keep buying the same brand and model you ask?  Well, the independent reviews have this make and model always rated near the top in quality.  Also, most manufacturers, in the same price range at least, offer the same warranty.  Changing brand loyalty is like playing musical chairs - you simply give your money to a different manufacturer that will also self destruct in that same pre-planned time period.

Our fourth coffee maker;  each previous one failed right after the warranty expired!

So, what has this got to do with wheelchairs?  Same strategy!  The chair's components are manufactured to fail after a certain length of time or mileage so that additional parts and/or labour can be charged and shareholder profits extended.  I have replaced just about every component on my wheelchair and everything has failed after the one year warranty expired!

As for my coffee maker, it can't be repaired, at least not at a reasonable price so out it goes for the city waste pickup.  How much of it is actually recycled or reused is beyond me but as you can tell, life has left me cynical and I believe most will go to the landfill to be driven into the ground by a bulldozer.

So again, on 'Earth Day' we turn off our lights, turn on our iPhones and tweet each other about how 'Green' we've become!

  What a sad little planet we've become...

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Permobil Facilities and My Thoughts on Quality

My Permobil M300 power wheelchair has been a DISASTER.  There is no other way to describe it.  I have had to replace just about every part on this chair which is now approaching only its fourth year of service.  With all the parts and repairs (excluding worn tires), this chair has cost me well over $4000.00 to repair since I purchased it.  That is just about my total cost of the chair after Ontario’s Assistive Devices Program (ADP) subsidization paid for three-quarters of the total price tag.  That is not a good deal for either me or ADP.

It does not matter if I had a big legal settlement for some wrongful injury case.  It does not matter if I am financially well off and can afford it.  It does not matter if I have insurance that covers the cost of repairs.  This poor quality in a product is inexcusable whether for the average citizen, or the most vulnerable in society, the disabled.

I have previously asked “why are wheelchair components not made from medical or military grade components?”  Would the cost be so high as to be prohibitive?  Would the costs exceed what it costs to constantly fix and replace wheelchair components?  

Is it in reality “built in obsolescence”?  Are products deliberately manufactured to fail after a certain point so that the product has to be continually serviced or replaced?  You bet they are!  Companies aren’t worried.  If I’m angry at company ‘A’ and now take my business to company ‘B’, there is someone who is equally mad at company ‘B’ and swears to take their business to company ‘A’.  Status Quo!  You can’t win!

Why does Permobil, and to my knowledge all other power wheelchair manufacturers, only offer one (1) year warranty on their products?  Do they really have so little confidence in their products?  Probably, knowingly, Yes!  Company 'A' would say "company 'B' only offers one year, why should we offer more"?  Collusion!  Why not be better than your competition and draw more clients?  Compete for excellence, not mediocrity!  No, stay the course as there is more money to be found in planned obsolescence and frequent repairs.  My repair service tells me that motors are not rewound;  $650 faulty circuit boards do not have the malfunctioning 1/100th of a penny resistor replaced -parts aren't repaired, they are scrapped -discarded as there is greater profit in selling the client a new part at full price!  So much for a green policy...

Companies will tell you that if they built a ‘widget’ that lasted 25 years, that the product would saturate the market and nobody would buy ‘widgets’ any longer until theirs broke.  The company would go out of business!!  So feel good about your broken ‘widget’.  By constantly fixing or replacing it, you are keeping your fellow man employed!  What an exemplary citizen you are!!

Why doesn't Permobil keep an inventory of parts for their wheelchairs here in Canada so that parts can be supplied in a timely manner?  Why?  Probably because the parts are outrageously expensive and they don't wish to have 'money' sitting on the repair shop shelf until needed. Idle parts on the shelf are parts not making money; siting on shelves where they take up more space (real estate) that translates into greater rent.  'Fulfillment on demand' is the current business strategy which benefits the supplier and rarely the consumer.  That's how MBAs earn their keep.

Not one proprietary part required for my many repairs was stocked in Canada.  I wonder how many Permobil powerchairs are in use in Canada?  (See bottom of post where Permobil has a Facebook page.  They had to have given themselves a '5 Stars' rating as at the writing of this post there was only one entry and that was from a fellow in P.E.I. asking why it takes so long to get parts!!)  Shame!

I’m cynical after my years on this planet.  I believe they think that their money is in my pocket and that they want it!!

Still, until this last time (motor power control module), the chair has always gotten me to where I was going.  It has never left me stranded in public (though some close calls).  Then why, some ask, are you complaining?  Well, if you bought a new car from the dealership and soon afterwards the doors fell off, the trunk wouldn’t close, the windshield popped off, hubcaps and trim were lost –would you still be happy if someone piped up and exclaimed “what’s the problem?  It still got you to your destination”.  Or would you just run them over with your chair?

 

If Permobil feels they produce a superior product, then how do you explain my experience with their product.  A chair used almost entirely indoors on flat even surfaces?  My service person suggested the chair may have been manufactured on a Monday or Friday – implying that workers are either still ‘hung over’ from the weekend, or eagerly awaiting the weekend to get drunk.  I might have bought this theory if every component of the chair was made by the same drunk on the same day.  I strongly suspect that different parts are made by different facilities by different drunks on different days.

So, I began to wonder why every component that was required to repair my chair (except tires), had to be ordered from the Permobil facility in Lebanon, Tennessee, U.S.A.?

I look up Permobil’s Canadian address and am surprised that they occupy only one small unit in a tiny strip mall in Aurora Ontario, north of Toronto.  And this is the only Canadian facility!  From Sea to Shining Sea!!  It is probably the size of your local convenience store.  I suspect there is no room for parts inventory, but more likely, it is too costly for Permobil (or my service company) keep a stock of these overly expensive parts in Canada. 

 Permobil Canada -75 Mary Street, Aurora, Ontario Canada

So whether you live in British Columbia on the west coast, or Prince Edward Island on the east coast, or like me in central Ontario, Unit #4 in Aurora is your Permobil source.  Coast to coast, if you need a Permobil part it will probably have to be shipped from the U.S. facility in Lebanon, Tennessee.

I thought I’d Google the Tennessee Permobil site to see if it is larger than a convenience kiosk.  Sure enough it does appear to be a ‘stand-alone’ dedicated plant. 

 Permobil U.S.A. - 300 Duke Drive, Lebanon, Tennessee, U.S.A.

 

I really do hope that next time, as I’m  sure there will be a next time with my chair, they get the paperwork correct and the desperately required part is not turned around at the border as my power control module was.

I never had considered contacting them directly for an explanation.  Maybe I should.. 

Permobil has a Facebook Page –one entry, a complaint, as of this blog post

Permobil Canada Website – very impressive, even if my Permobil M300 wheelchair is not.

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Permobil Problems Never End

Second Motor on Permobil M-300 Fails Two Weeks after first motor replaced!!

At a cost of $1137.99 Cnd. each!!

I believe, other than the metal frame, 3 castor wheels and a handful of screws, I've just about had to replace or repair every component of this absolutely disastrous Permobil M300 power wheelchair.

Not even two weeks after having the right drive motor replaced at a cost of $1137.99 Cnd, the other drive motor has died.  I have no reason to believe the cost of the motor and labour will be any different than the $1137.99 paid out just weeks ago!!

The Permobil M300 Power Wheelchair is a Disaster!!

...and this Permobil M300 Power Wheelchair is only Three Years Old!!!

The Assistive Devices Program (ADP) which helps finance the purchase of these expensive powerchairs stipulates that you cannot approach them for a replacement chair for 5 Years!!  I have no confidence that this chair will last another two years!!  My bank account certainly will not!

Is this "planned obsolescence"?  Does the manufacturer purposely build in a defect or weakness that they know will break down in a given time period necessitating the continuous purchasing of repair parts from the company?  Is that ethical?...particularly when dealing with disabled clientele?

Not every disabled person using a wheelchair has a large 'wrongful injury' settlement and is swimming in cash.  Not every disabled person has a personal private insurance plan which will generously cover each and every replacement.  Not every person is independently rich!  Those of us on a fixed income with limited insurance must bear the cost of these ridiculously overpriced components ourselves.

And I do mean ridiculously over priced.  The motor alone is priced at $945.54 Cnd.

I might understand if this chair was constructed utilizing military grade components.  Instead parts, like the joystick are made by in China (Yes, I was informed as such) and most likely by the lowest bidder!

While the control unit has an elaborate display of coded lights which indicate what component is malfunctioning, they are all sealed components.  You know the problem but can't fix it!  Just like on the modular TV sets, you may have a resistor bulk valued at one-one-hundredth of a penny, yet when this resister blows, you have to replace the entire modular unit containing an additional 100 parts which are still working properly at a cost of hundreds of dollars.

The coded light display on the control unit tell me what is wrong within the motor - but the motor is sealed and because it is sealed, it cannot be fixed.  Cynical me - thought that the motor is sent back to the manufacturer where it is refurbished for resale at or near the full price.  The service technician tells me that they are not sent back but are trashed for scrap.  How's that for going green?!

What I've had to repair or replace so far on this 3 year old Permobil M300 piece of trash;

-Batteries died after about one year of use and had to be replaced. Although just after warranty expired, a sympathetic service technician managed to replace them at no cost.  (about $600 Cnd)

-Side arms swiveling mechanism broke numerous times - fed up I replaced the hinges with my own design - they have worked properly ever since. (Service costs not noted but no less that $100 each time; my own repair cost about $50 Cnd)

 -Right front Castor wheel Replacement Cost ~$150 Cnd.

-Seat post broke off from the frame presumably due to a bad weld - Cost = $530.22 Cnd.

-Right motor died;  Replacement Cost = $1137.99 Cnd.

-Left motor died; Replacement Cost = $1137.99 Cnd.

Other premature wear & tear or damage which I have repaired out of my own pocket has been the back seat cushion held on by sticky tape a velcro had come apart.  Screws holding the joystick unit to the frame had stripped and failed.  I replaced these with a better and longer screw, utilizing a 'pozi-lock' retaining nuts to secure the unit.  (Permobil used no nuts).  I've had to use 'lock-tite' screw compound to keep numerous screws from working free from the chassis.  Plastic end caps on the metal pipe frame have no set screw and are simply friction fit.  They were lost early on.  People have run after me with parts that have dropped off this chair.  It is all but self destructing!

I am able enough to do these modifications and repairs - not every elderly, disabled person is!

While I do have private insurance which has covered many of these costs, their generosity, if you will call it that, is not endless.  My benefits will run out, if they haven't already and then the burden will be mine.

Even if my insurance covers the cost of repairs, there is that inconvenience of having to deal with the repair service.  They need to schedule a visit for an assessment of the problem. Parts are expensive and not kept in stock so they have to be ordered from the parent company.  The nearest distributor for the Swedish company Permobil is in the U.S. State of Tennessee.  You would think that with faxing orders and overnight courier shipping, the needed part would arrive in a day or two.  Last motor replacement took several weeks, however, it was over the Christmas - New Years holidays.  Parts arrive and the wheelchair has to be picked up and taken to their repair facility as very little work, other than changing tires, seems to be done on-site.  The service technician charges a $60.00 flat fee for coming to your house to make a diagnosis or assessment of the chair's problem.

One more thing; This Permobil M300 Powerchair is used about 98% of the time indoors on smooth surfaces.  

I told my service provider that I want to take this chair out to my back yard and like some dying horse, shoot it!  My service provider asked if he could be present to witness the execution...

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