My old laptop's backslash key's retainer clip failed the other day so today I called Dell to see if I could get a replacement clip to put that key back in place properly.... SURE, says the helpful (HA) sales person on the other end of the phone. Unfortunately, it was $59.95 and ships with the rest of the entire keyboard assembly! Must be a lot easier and cheaper to stock and much more profitable to only stock one part number and sell in assembly for the slightest keyboard problem.
Frustrated, I told the sales person (in no uncertain terms) that I was definitely not interested in an entire keyboard for a three-cent piece of plastic clip.
Next stop was e-Bay where there were probably 15 keyboards on auction. Ended up buying an complete keyboard for $0.99 + $8 shipping.... go figure.
That's big business now days. An O ring on the outlet of my Campbell Hausfeld pressure washer went bad.. I had a hell of search to find one that fit. It turned out to be metric. Here's the letter I sent them. I don't buy their products anymore.---
"This is my second letter on this subject. I may have sent it to the wrong division but they could at least answer it and let me know.
I have a major complaint about your parts policy, and the quality of your product. I have a PW 1876 pressure washer. It has had very little use and is less than two years old. The O ring on the outlet high pressure hose has lots of cracks. I wanted to buy a couple of O rings. It is ridiculous to have a $20 minimum for what should be a $0.25 product. When I found out about the minimum I got the addresses of several local dealers. Two of them are no longer dealers and one told me the quit because your company was such a pain in the ass to deal with. They ordered some O rings and shipped them too me. Turns out they were the wrong rings. They tried again and wrong again. I'm sure glad I'm not dependent on this unit for a job. I had to drive 13 miles one way to get to this place for the initial order. It finally turns out that your company will not sell that O Ring separately! A thirty or so dollar piece ruined by an O ring that rightfully should cost $0.25. Yes, I know, you guys charge $3.60 for a similar sized O ring.
Why was this thing not designed to use a standard O ring that is available at a hardware store??? Was this a "Business Model" decision to make money by ripping off the customer? Not exactly a good practice in this age of the internet, automotive bulletin boards , and consumer shows like Clark Howard etc.
Why would you not sell the part to your customers thus ruining a perfectly good part?
Why did you use such a poor quality O ring in the first place? Something tells me that some MBA has given you some very bad advice. Please pass this up the line till it gets to someone with power to change this policy."
Rubber products from China (where most of 'em come from these days) suck big time. C/V boot replacements last two or three years where they should be good for at least ten.
Yet, the American sheeple lap up the cheap stuff everyday...
I gotta reply to this - it is not Campbell Hausfeld or DELL - it is every damn mfr period. Look at the newest car in your drive way - Given the chassis and sheetmetal you still can't reassemble that car for twice what it cost new. CH & Dell are like so many mfr today they buy subassemblies and put them together - when it goes bad you buy the subassembly, search ebay or throw it away and by another....
I have worked for the Semiconductor Industry for 42 Years. When I started companies had at least 2 suppliers for everything. Today noone does this. A single supplier will provide a part for less money as they get a larger order. Itt is their problem to deliver the part in quantities at the agreed to price. The supplier then has to insure he stays in business by building it as cheaply as possible.
This keeps cost low but repairable item are cheaper to though away.
Geno
64 R2 Avanti
64 Dayt> My old laptop's backslash key's retainer clip failed the other day so
My dog got excited one night and landed in mid-air sprint on my Dell laptop keyboard. Next thing I knew three keys were flying through the air. I got two back on and saw that the tabs on the back of the "a" key were broken off. Having 6-8 "parts" laptops at work I thought no big deal, I'll just steal an "a" key off one of those. Well I ended up taking all of the "a" keys off because the back of the keys were different and I wasn't sure which style I had on my laptop. Come to find out, none of the keys I brought home worked with my keyboard. So now when I type an "a", I'm actually pressing this little black cone where the key once was. So having to buy an entire keyboard was probably the easiest route to replacing a single key... just more of the "don't fix the problem, replace the entire assembly" solution... just like with modern vehicles. I replaced the entire fan assembly on a '92 Lebaron convertible because the fan motor burned out and I had the type (there were two types for that year, make and model) assembly where the fan, fan shroud, motor were all one unit... $400 to replace a burned out $40 motor.
Lee
"Lee" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@news.in.comcast.giganews.com...
Lee Aanderud wrote: I replaced the entire fan assembly on a '92
I'm so cheap / stubbborn / challange-reactive that one time I took a Ford Anglia fan and, after doing some work on both components, put it on the nose of a M-B motor. It worked fine for years and may even still be working.
Karl (I think that I was between jobs at that time) Haas
During my '83 Honda Civic FE project, the radiator fan would not work. (This car had been in a slumber for about 14 years).
Looking it over, I removed the fan blade (single bolt) then the three mounting bolts for the motor. Once the motor was out, I loosened the two bolts that held it all together, pulled it out far enough to see the innards where the brushes were and squirted it with some WD-40 followed by some electronic lube and put it back together. It's been working fine for the past six weeks.
BTW, the list price for the motor is nearly $200. I have four more (used units) in reserve...
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