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They don't make them like they used to

We have one of those nifty cordless phone systems with a base station and several "satellite phones" scattered throughout the house. They all have rubber button keypads, the kind which eventually just wear out and require harder and harder presses to make the buttons work. It's reaching a point where the phones are almost impossible to use, so I guess it's time to sacrifice another hundred bucks or so to the great gods of obsolescence.

Given what I do for a living — and the era we live in — I see a lot of that. Earlier this year, a broken DVD player forced me to decide whether to buy a cheapie DVD player and use it until the price of Blu-ray players dropped some more, or just take the next step and go for Blu-ray. I went with the cheapie DVD player. It cost $40 and lasted about six months, an effective price of $6.66 per month. And there's no fixing these things... you just get a new one. In this case, it's now been replaced by a a Blu-ray player. If the price were right, though, you could lease your equipment and do just as well, get newer stuff as it came along, and not worry about anything breaking.

Take the phones, for example. We got them about six years ago and paid $300 for the set (yeah, they're nice), an effective price of $50 per year, or $4.16 per month. That's not too bad. If they were leased from the phone company, though, I could call them up and say, "My phones are broken, bring me more." And they would. But I bet if that were the case, they would be made to last longer by design. That way, the phone company would have fewer service calls and arguably would make a greater profit from the lease arrangement.

As a matter of fact, it used to be exactly like that. Phone equipment was indeed leased from the phone company for a monthly fee — and this is back in the days when the phone company was The Phone Company, and if it was a phone, it had the word Bell on it somewhere. They were well-made, lasted for years and years, and were heavy enough to bludgeon someone with. In fact, there's an old Bell phone in the bedroom which still works, and it's at least twenty-six years old. It has never been used for bludgeoning purposes to my knowledge.

For an interesting read, check out the Bell System Memorial Page. It delves into the history of Ma Bell all the way through the 1984 breakup. Another interesting tidbit: Ma Bell's lease program is still operating, though not under the Bell name, and with lease prices that make my calculated $4.16 per month for lots of cordless phones (which I'll actually own) a much more attractive deal. So the lease arrangement isn't always a good deal. Sometimes it's not so hot for the leasing company either. Just ask one of the old Bell companies... leasing phone equipment to its customers is one of the many reasons the Bell breakup happened.

Which raises an interesting question. Right now, I'm leasing a cable box from the cable company. It's the only way I know of to get the channels above channel 99, not to mention decrypt the movie channels I subscribe to. Other TVs in the house show no picture on any channels above 99. And, the lease price of this little box is $6 per month. Something about this deal smells rotten to me. Since I'm already subscribing to the service, why do I need to lease the magic box too? Sounds like it's just another way to siphon an extra $72 per year from every subscriber. But having no other way to get all the channels I'm subscribing to, I have no choice. Technically it can't be considered a monopoly because I can cancel the service and sign up for satellite service instead, so in that, I do have a choice. But I think the arrangement is a bit unethical, breaking the spirit of the law but not the letter.

I'll add that I lease a cable modem as well, a device which has been in service for eight years, has never failed, and has been paid for many times over. I no longer think leasing the modem is a good idea since it's trivial to replace, and I can buy one for $60 and recover the cost in about a year, assuming a new one will last that long.

And that's just the thing — things really aren't built to last, especially where technology is concerned. It's almost like the world is designed to make you spend a certain amount of money in exchange for a certain kind of lifestyle, whether leasing or using until it breaks. Thus, all ownership is an illusion.

Posted December 3, 2009 @ 22:07:21 EST. 1 comment.

Comments on "They don't make them like they used to":

I got cable internet in 2003, and leased my modem for a long while. I then got tired of the $5 a month, and outright bought the modem in 2006. Since it was 'older,' they sold it to me for $30. I have never had a single problem with it since. However, is that even an option with cable boxes? Right now we are leasing two of those, one with DVR and one without, at $5 each per month. (I do wonder why you are being charged $6?)

The whole obsolesence (sp?) thing is very irritating to me. I'm annoyed by the fact that I buy a cell phone, or a computer, and a year later everyone is like "oh, you still have THAT model. That's cute." Really?? I was raised to use things until they break beyond repair. The two TVs in our house are from 1993 and 1995, and still going strong.

# Posted by Lisa G on December 4, 2009 @ 08:46:14 EST.

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