Rant time. Warning: Brand Names Used.

[ameerat42]

You gardeners and yard-workers out there in AP-land. Here is a tale of woe.

I am in the market for an electric blower-vac (and mulcher) for the interminable leaves from the neighbour's trees.
Now I have an old RYOBI which needs new brushes - on order and arriving soon - and an old GMC, once from Bunnings.

So, being pleased with the performance particularly of the old 1800W RYOBI, I went to check out their latest crop of goods.

***From this point, RYOBI takes on a perjorative meaning***

Yesterday I bought the 1900W model. Today I returned it because of the way the bag is made I got covered in leaf debris
blowing out of an aperture they have not covered. That debris also entered the motor vents. In addition, the speed regulator
did not work. Now that model had the highest wind speed and mulching ratio of all 3 models on offer. OK, another useless feature was
that it has an extendible nozzle that MUST be fully out for the machine to work at all. Why? Nobody knows. Apart from those foibles,
it seemed to work efficiently at sucking up the leaves. Pity about the debris.

Today I took it back and got a full refund, and the store got a full story about its uselessness.

Later today I went back to the original store branch (another suburb) to get another model (local branch were out of it). I got
the 2200W model. This one has to have the nozzle assembled, and RYOBI provided some pretty weak screws for the job. The main reason
seemed to be so that it could be packaged more compactly. (The first one was in a long box.)

Well, yes, it was easy enough to put together and the bag did not leak dusty debris. [EDIT: The bag did fall off quite easily as soon as it touched the ground, so I had to reattach it a few times.]
TERRIFIC, I thought! But not for long. Alas, it was SO WEAK at sucking up leaves I couldn't believe it. I ran it for about 5 minutes to suck up what would take about 1 minute with
my older machines. And I had to poke the nozzle right down onto the leaves. Even then the leaves only rose in a leisurely flight into the nozzle.
And on top of all that, the stupid wheels that this model has at the front made it difficult to get close to the job. With the older machines I can be
10-20cm away from the leaves and they just fly in, even from a foot or so. Not so this one!!!

Insanely frustrated and sincerely disappointed, I rang the store (a few minutes ago at time of writing) and lamented in detail to them. I told them
I'd be back tomorrow to return it.

What now?

Well, the old GMC has some broken vanes in the fan, so it's pretty cactus - not good for cactus leaves, just cactus. The NON-PERJORATIVE "old RYOBI"
is waiting for new brushes. Both these machines are about 10 years old and have been great.

So what the hockey-sticks is wrong with PERJORATIVE ON new RYOBI gear that it is so useless?!?!?! Oh, there's one model left, but it's 2400W and I do not want
to run a machine that uses so much power. And anyway, it's wind speed and mulching ratio is less than that of the 1900W one. In addition, RYOBI makes OZITO
brand, too. But the good store staff assure me that these are not as well engineered as the RYOBI models. Why? Who knows. They are cheaper, but no matter what,
the only choice you seem to have is how to waste your money.

Well there now. That's it.

If you've heard of any good modern brands, let me know (dreamland!).

Am(quite and about to ).

[I @ M]

Am,
I reckon my thinking is correct when I say that the occurrence you are observing is directly related to -----

An importer releases goods onto the market some time ago (10 years) that work satisfactorily, undercut the known brands pricewise, last an acceptable amount of time (to most consumers) and don't make the importer a profit for at least 5 years.

Subsequently, the known brands have disappeared from the market place due to not being competitive pricewise to the new imported second rate brands.
The importing company then has new models manufactured that sell for a little more than the original versions but are only 1/3 of the quality and the importer is back in the black $ and consumers are frustrated by junk with no alternative products available.

Unlike you, I won't mention names when I say that the practice extends to most large supermarket chains and particularly to those associated with a hardware store.