Recently I was thinking about my past job, and I realized that for the crappy products this company was producing, on a market prospective it wasn't a bad thing, since a faulty product generate more revenue in the short and long terms.
On the short term a bad product requires the customer to return to the shop, discuss with the staff directly or over the phone, if that's over the phone it's even better - since contacting a call-centre is a way to get some income from the phone-line, then a solution has to be found, sending the product to a repair centre, or adding new options (additional revenue for the store) etc ... Assuming the customer gets a replacement, or a refund - he's satisfied and will purchase again.
On the long term, a bad product will need the customer to buy a newer version, if it's a computer that's why every (more or less 3 or 5 years) you need to buy a new one - not because the previous one doesn't work anymore, but because you just need the newest version, to continue working ...
We (consumers) are spending loads of money either to get a newer product, or to fix the current one, you always need more stuffs (options, cable, add-ons, etc ...) and you're now hooked with a company - because everything is designed on this product to be incompatible with the competition... and that apply for laptop, mobile phone, digital camera, etc ...
But this absurdity works very well for many industries :
Let say you have a headache, you buy some medicine to cure it - but the pharmacist warns you that the product he just gave you will probably upset your stomach, then you come back a few days later with a terrible pain in the stomach, the pharmacist gives you some pills, but he tells you that this will cause some skin issues, you take the pill, return home - and return a few days later because you suffer from eczema then the pharmacist gives you a cream but warns you that this cream is likely to cause you headache ...
The system is made for you to consume more, and more - for every problem there is a new product that you need to buy to fix it.
The (only?) way to stop this madness is to stop buying ... to stop playing that stupid game...
