So what they mean is we have received expensive garbage that had a short shelf life from the very beginning and they would now rather make a “quality” product and milk us dry for owning it? Sure sounds like a good idea for shareholders.
If i could choose one job it would be to fuck CEOs and shareholders with rusty razor blades.
OK, so, you’re right. Let’s be fair, though: this is capitalism. There are companies that make quality mice, and they are more expensive and don’t compete at the same scale Logitech does. If Logitech made quality mice, they’d be more expensive, and even more consumers would look at and choose cheaper mice from their competitors.
Part of this is absolutely “margins & profit.” Part is the veiled curse of online shopping: when you can’t feel and handle the product, much more of shopper decision comes down to simply price: this is the T-Shirt Effect: if two online products look identical, but one is less expensive, most people are going to opt for the less expensive one. It’s put established companies known for quality out of business, or driven their product quality down to compete. Part of it is that there are few reliable, authoritative review sources; many are barely disguised paid ads, or star-manipulation. The end sum is consumers voting with their dollars, and companies responding accordingly. Sales are down, your competitors’ are up, people are choosing products you know are cheaper crap, and so it’s obvious people prefer cheaper crap, so you make it.
It’s a lose-lose for everyone except those companies able to quickly clone reputable products, but with lower-quality components, and flood the online market with them.
Low-quality, low-cost mass manufacturing has put products in the hands of people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford them. But it’s also driven down quality, and driven waste up; the same decision process being used by low-income folks is also used by middle-class, and with nearly all shopping being online, consumers have few options for a better process.
The equation changes when you get to the wealthy, who can shop with companies who aren’t competing on volume, but reputation and margins: the Bang & Olufsens; the Breguets, and the Urban Jurgensens. People who can afford to shop with artisans shop differently, but all t-shirts look the same online.
I have no problem with buying more expensive, high quality stuff. The problem is that the higher price often simply means meaningless features instead of good durability. The mouse i am using right now cost me 150€ and i hoped it was more durable but the right click is already not working properly. Garbage.
If i could trust companies to actually put out stuff that lasts a life time i would love to have it. This however simply sounds like another move to increase the companies value for its shareholders.
Clothing is a whole other matter and again as consumer it is really hard to know whether your money goes to quality or simply marketing and “good feeling”.
When everything you buy as a consumer tends to break fast they will have no real choice but to go for cheap crap.
I guess I’m not surprised enshittification of physical objects is becoming more of a trend than an oddity, but it’s still happening sooner than I expected. :/
I have a (mostly) forever mouse already. It has high quality Omron switches rated for millions of clicks, an Aliexpress page bookmarked as well as a soldering iron for when they need replacing. Anything that is “forever” only needs good quality components and the ability to repair whatever may go wrong. Any company that claims to sell something that either will not break or wear out is one to avoid. A good example I can think of is BMW who no longer put drain plugs on their transmissions for fluid replacement, their reasoning: “The fluid is for lifetime usage.” while the small print states the “lifetime” is roughly 120k miles. Similar story with their “lifetime” timing chains too, except those weren’t even lasting the small print mileage. Didn’t stop them trying to sell customers the whole replacement engine too.
Source: God, don’t make me replace another BMW transmission. I’m tired.
What mouse if you don’t mind sharing?
My Logitech G602 technically has high quality Omron switches but only on left/right click, the middle click and the rest use crappy little tactile switches that last about 6 months before I need to replace them.
I’ve got a G502 Hero. I’d heard lots of complaints about the line after buying it but I haven’t had any issues despite having it for a good few years now. I also had a M305 for something like a decade. A very simple little thing but lasted a long time. I replaced the switches for higher grade switches than factory and only replaced it because the rocker mounting for the mouse wheel tilt snapped, which I’m pretty certain was caused by a house move than any lack of quality.
You can get rugged or smooth.
Lots of expensive brands prioritize smooth because their buyers will buy often and not care about resale or cost of new.
A Toyota Hilux and a Range Rover aren’t really made with the same priorities, even though both could go offroading.
Someone that buys a brand new off the lot beamer likely isn’t planning to still own it 120,000 miles later. Probably not even three years later.
Doesn’t mean we should open a revolving door to the scrap heap. Also this perception of pick one is extremely false. It’s more than possible to have a perfectly smooth transmission than can be maintained. Fill and drain plugs don’t effect any of the internals so it’s little more than self-sabotage (see: planned obsolence) to make it impossible to perform basic maintenance. Besides, no trans is going to remain smooth if the fluid isn’t replaced frequently.
If we were only talking about a transmission sure
I don’t how anyone would think that’s what I meant. But here you are.
Fuck off, Logitech
So if you miss a payment your mouse shuts off?
How is your standing policed, with an always online requirement? So if I move and need to wait to get my internet up, I can’t use my mouse?
Are they legally liable for lifetime support or are you signing away that right in the EULA and they can end support for your “lifetime” mouse on a whim?
I’d rather rent my furniture than subscribe to a mouse, but both practices are exploiting this world’s rampant financial illiteracy.
They could probably do that in windows by adding some service that checks if the mouse is valid… Since on windows it’s using Logitech drivers.
On Linux it’s open source so no way they can do anything.
Nah, you just have the mouse do a cryptographic handshake with the driver software and tie it to a server-side validation check, and thus if there’s no handshake and validation, there’s no working mouse.
Easy!
(Please don’t read this Logitech.)
Are they legally liable for lifetime support or are you signing away that right in the EULA and they can end support for your “lifetime” mouse on a whim?
What do you think? After they’ve sold all of them they’ll release Lifetime Mouse 2.0, and cancel all the support for these, bricking your mouse.
