Technology

I haven't watched this video, but based on your comment I don't think I'll bother.

It is my sincere understanding that the degradation of quality is from the companies trying to leverage extended warranties as the true profit center of appliances.

edit: I should add in more detail. Sorry Avid, not trying to converse "around" you, it's just meant to inform other's on how I come to think this way.

The shit really hit the fan for quality when Maytag/Whirlpool bought Amana and restructured. They closed most of their manufacturing and consolidated. Really this meant that for all the "banners" or "brands" that various machines were sold under in the various stores, now for the most part they were all the exact same machines, literally made in the same plants, same pumps, elements, controllers, you get the picture. The drop in quality was precipitous from this point.

Oh, and Haier was trying to purchase either Amana or Whirlpool, can't remember which. But at any rate Haier was in the game walking the dog on consumers as well. Samsung, who had absolutely no fucking business making appliances, then jumped hard into the game because they're a major competitor. Businesses playing shell games and strategically competing.

All of this dovetailed with the larger industry-wide push to embrace the "extended warranty" profit stream. Companies everywhere were figuring out that the money was flowing like water with this scam. This slowly evolved into a quasi-subscription type business model where they are now designed and expected to fail in a specific time frame. Circuit boards by steam vents, changing key components to aluminum which corrodes. That type of obvious bullshit.

I think now they've got us by the nut sack. Buying an EW is almost automatic at this point. Nobody thinks for a second that their device is going to hit 18 months without a major malfunction.

They've managed to turn buying a washing machine into a Vegas Hotel type situation where the up front price is $47 but in the forensic accounting you're paying $160.