Within the past 12 months, we have, for various reasons, purchased a new refrigerator, a new cellphone and two small digital cameras. We’ve also replaced our Sirius radio receiver. None of this was planned or desired. The refrigerator we replaced was 11 years old. We bought it new with a 10-year warranty.
We have a 25-year-old refrigerator in the garage. It runs just fine. The recently expired younger and much more expensive refrigerator parted ways with its compressor. A year ago the ice maker failed.
The two digital cameras failed in less than a year. We paid extra for insurance and are replacing them that way.
The cellphone and Sirius receiver are much more blatant kinds of forced replacement. The cellphone stopped doing some of what we bought it for. We were halfway through a two-year contract for that service.
The Sirius receiver quit after four years. One tech said that is about all they are expected to last. Coincidentally, we were midway in a two-year contract with that service, too. Our choice was $100 for a new receiver or try and cancel the contract. Seems like a plot.
There are some people who have their entire lives logged into their hand-held devices. All I want of mine is a calendar, the ability to make and receive calls, and to read and reply to email.
When we bought the first phone, it let me do all of those things. Then something somewhere changed and I could no longer read or reply to email. I called the cellphone carrier and was told the Internet provider was the source of the problem. I called an Internet tech and was told the carrier was the place to find remedy. This went on for several weeks, back and forth, always with a final summary that only the other provider could resolve the problem. I was even put in touch with a representative of the cellphone manufacturer. That produced no help.
Of course, each call to the cellphone carrier ended with a reminder that I could buy a new phone, and it would do the things I was trying to re-establish on my old phone. This old phone was a modest 13 months out of its original wrapper. Conveniently, that is one month longer than the warranty.
In the meantime, the phone kept retreating. There finally came a day when it would do none of the functions for which it was purchased.
Stubbornly, I tried to avoid buying a replacement. I went to a real store with in-person technicians and everything and was told that the phone could not be repaired. I could, of course, buy a new one. I got a mite loud at that point. Reflecting on it, I’m surprised I wasn’t escorted unceremoniously from the premises.
The fussing paid off, at least a little. Several downloads, uploads and maybe side loads later, the tech handed me my phone in semi-repaired order. I could open and read email again but still could not reply. What could not be repaired was, amazingly, almost back to normal.
I finally capitulated. My wife found a replacement that would bring me into the 21st century, she told me. All we had to do was extend our contract for two years and pay $28. The catch was I needed to call a tech (by now I was on a first-name basis with all of them) to help me link my new phone to emails. That required me to download a special app, whatever those things are. It was free.
Now, several weeks later and with the help of more techs and my son, I can just barely use this new smartphone. I’m still unsure, when I attempt to send or reply to a text message, that I actually have.
The touch-screen keyboard and my fingers are of oppositional sizes. The 30 or so icons on the screen don’t mean much of anything to me.
It could have been bad luck that all of this occurred in such short order or, maybe, it was designed obsolescence. I hope it was the former but suspect it was the latter.
Hawkins is retired after 35 years as a construction industry association manager. He was a broadcast reporter and news anchor in Denver. As a Navy officer, he saw action in Vietnam in the River Assault Squadrons and is the recipient of a Silver Star and Purple Heart. He can be reached at george.hawkins@sddt.com.
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