The Hidden Costs of Bargain Electronics

Fill Dirt writes "Mike Langberg of Knight-Ridder newspapers wrote an interesting article on the the hidden costs of bargain priced consumer electronics. I saw it in the Seattle Times business section with the title Can't lose with bargain DVD player, but low cost carries price ."

there's another evil

[SHEENmaster]

you can buy american, let the MPAA get their membership fee, and fund terrorism.

Hidden costs of slashdot

[venicebeach]

But there are hidden costs. Horrific working conditions on assembly lines in China...

And what makes slashdot so cheap are those barrels of trained elephants that make the homepages....

Good, fast, cheap.

[wheresdrew]

Choose any two.

Re:Apex...

[Bloodmoon1]

I personally will take back anything I have, no matter the cost of the item, if it breaks within its warrenty through no fault of my own.

That being said, you grossly misunderestimate how cheap people are. Having worked many a shitty electronics retail job, I promise you, people will bring back anything that has broken if they think they have even the slightest chance of getting money/exchange/repair/anything.

Doesn't matter if their DVD player (or anything else, for that matter) ran out of warrenty 3 years ago, their kid spilled a 2 liter of 7 Up in it and their dog somehow managed to take a shit in the open drive bay, they'll bring it back. And then they'll get mad at you personally when you refuse to give them anything. I've seriously nearly got into physical fights with people over my refusal to do anything for them in accordance with whatever store's (Circuit City, Best Buy, etc.) policies. Seriously.

And then you have the true top 1% of humanity who brings back stuff they think is broken but they just didn't turn on the power switch in back or turned down the brightness and contrast all the way, etc.

and the biggest hidden cost is...

[lxs]

The worst thing of these cheap players is their lack of decent region locking. Unwitting consumers may be exposed to content from all over the world. This must stop immediately.

Re:Pollution?

[HawkPilot]

Look who didn't read the article.

You must be new here.

Please update your facts.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have the same feeling about American cars... you're likely to have a Ford or GM last 5 years.

That is not true these days. The american industry is so efficient, so the cars are broken when they leave the factory.

Re:that article

[Andy_R]

You did steal it from us British people though, and didn't even have the decency to let us build deregulated casinos in the bits you didn't want!

Re:DVD Comes On Everything These Days.

[Mac Degger]

"DVD Comes On Everything These Days"

Dude....ewww!

Evil as linux

[smchris]

What's more, many Chinese DVD manufacturers don't pay the $10 to $15 in royalties due per unit for patented technologies -- penalizing established consumer-electronics companies that honor intellectual-property rights.

So, if I get this straight, people who buy cheap DVD players should be hunted down like dogs by the RIAA because they are the same filthy commies as linux users who want to _play_ a DVD on their computers?