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I’ve bought hardware and software like this. And if a guy with a degree in electronics and another in computer science can’t figure out how to use a piece of tech effectively, what chance has grandma got?
Sure, all these gadgets are cool, but do they work? If past history is any indication, often, they often won’t. Here’s that dirty little secret, unearthed by the group of consultants from Accenture: Product returns cost the tech industry $14 billion each year, a huge chunk for a $200 billion business. The Accenture group will be releasing a study on gadget product returns later this week, but I got an early peek. Their main finding is this: Consumers often can’t figure out how to use many of the gadgets they buy, and a sizable portion of those gadgets end up right back at the store.
[…]
Return rates are as high as 20 percent in some product categories, he said. For a gadget maker, return of a perfectly working device simply because the buyer got frustrated is something just short of a tragedy.“And this problem is only going to get worse,” said Delattre, after watching Bill Gates’ glitzy keynote address Sunday evening in which automobiles merrily talked to MP3 players and Web sites flawlessly communicated with cell phones and cameras. In fact, everything will be connected in the “cloud,” the Microsoft founder said to rabid fans.
Not so fast, says Accenture.
Add this 7% return rate to whatever percent defective (Xbox 360, anyone?) is a lot of returns.
BTW, I heard the guy who wrote this article, Bob Sullivan, on NPR Monday discussing his book, “Gotcha Capitalism” which talks about how businesses have figured out ways to make you pay hidden fees and such. Example: because most people have cell phones and don’t use high-fee hotel phones for outgoing calls, some are charging you to call another room in the hotel from their phones. Amazing stuff!
[Comment deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
What about the high return rate? Most of the returned products will end up being sold overpriced in other markets, with 24 hours to make returns or exchanges for the same products, if you are lucky. The exchange conditions that exist in the U.S. and other countries don’t reflect the situation in most of the world.
Very good point that I think many technology designers fail to address.
Some examples are remote controls, cell phones, VCRs. I think better software has helped some of these by giving users a simple function screen that allows the software do the complex part. Bill Gates makes a good point that interacting with technology is important. Voice, touch and view. I think already a lot of current technology in products go unused because the end user does not know how to use it. Even complaints about manuals are part of the problem. Unfortunately we are to take some of that blame because we fail to read the manual in the first place. How often, I see a complaint in a product forum about something not working when in fact it’s the user who failed to properly read the directions.
Absolutely agree with respect to the complexities of some devices (the GPS units in cars scare me), but it wasn’t necessary to put President Bush’s picture at the head….
(Although it is funny….)
I have a great cellphone. Moto Razr (older version). Unfortunately, the engineers apparently didn’t talk to each other. Sometimes the left soft button (so named because it’s function changes as needed, so it’s not formally lableled) does “Erase”, and sometimes it’s the right-hand one….
Or the Bluetooth headset. Almost childishly easy to turn on once you do an initial (and fairly simple) setup, but take the phone out of the room without the headset, and it takes a five minute button dance to turn the fool Bluetooth interface off before you can use the phone….
Being more into software (Consultant/Developer/Programmer), I tend to be more upset about software that refuses to work, has a Help file that doesn’t understand the error message, and publishers who won’t answer their email…. (V-Com System 8)
Or folks who drop simple, but useful features, that I’m using, because they are old, and they don’t want to support it anymore…. (QIF files in Intuit’s Quicken a few years ago.)
My absolute favorite, though, is when I use a web-based “page” to send an e-mail to a supplier (much more fun to use my own e-mail client, and I don’t have to type in a box about two lines high, or within 50 characters, not to mention destroying my pagination), and get a response, and want to follow up, only to find that the e-mail address that sent the response isn’t monitored, and I have to go find the web page again…. (Or “put your response between these lines”, which at least almost works….)
Also high on the list of “don’t recommend this stuff” are the Help Desks in Mumbai or wherever, where the response has nothing to do with the question….
(My absolute “goofy e-mail support” used to happen on CompuServe regularly. Send ’em a “I can’t get into the “MS-DOS” Forum, but my mail and other forums work fine” email, and you’d often get “check your modem settings” as a response….)
I do get tired of being an unpaid beta tester…. I also hate the hassle of a piece of hardware being DOA. (I’ve got a new wireless router here that happily connects all of it’s WiFi guests to the web, but won’t let ’em talk to the rest of my network, even though other wired devices can see the whole network and the web, and the wireless devices…. The one it replaced was working the other way – the wireless devices couldn’t see the web anymore…. I think it’s a firmware bug, but….) Then there’s a cute little Olympus pocket audio recorder…. You can’t put your own music into the thing (it’s got some capacity, and will plug into a USB port, and allows stereo listening), and, for some reason, it eats the battery whether the unit is turned on or not. They seem to last about 24 hours…. Olympus happily offered to fix it if I could find all the paperwork…. It’s probably here someplace, but my time is worth more than what it’ll take to find it, given this was a $40-ish toy in the first place….
AARGH….
I have no problem buying a refurbished device (at a hefty discount), if I know it. What frosts me there is when I don’t know it…. A lot of stuff comes back these days because the initial purchaser can’t deal with making it work and there’s nothing really wrong with it. I don’t like it when those items are re-boxed and sold as new, but that’s another story. I’ve got an old TV here that lasted about twelve years. It was a post-Christmas return with a minor defect (the picture was a mess for about two minutes after power-up). I didn’t know about the defect – it was “open box”, and came only with the remote; no manuals, etc. It needed a trip to a repair shop about five years into it’s life, and finally stroked out about three months ago. Probably repairable, but I ended up just picking up a new one. One of these days I’ll try to fix it…. I probably saved enough on the initial purchase to pay for the repair, much later on, and way past the warranty….
Sometimes you do win….
Regards,
Stu.
Price, that is what we base our decisions on, and how we got into this mess. Instead of buying the product our neighbor produces we run out and look for the cheapest. Blister packs make thing seem more nonreturnable. Instead of selling a quality product for a few bucks more, silly glitz is added to the same shoddy merchandise to justify a higher price.
Good picture. Every time I see the man I remember the old comedy routine, “Here come da judge, here come da judge.”
My Fav CNET comment on a hi-def wide screen TV :
(true)
“I returned the unit because it makes people look fat”
This from a person that actually takes the time to find that very product on CNET reviews, and post a comment.
Yet is unable to grasp that TV broadcasts are in 4:3, so zooming the image to force 16:9 will distort the image.
Despite that the TV’s are in default 4:3 for analog signals, for digital the TV’s always make the correct choice.
My father-in-law complained to me how Hi-Def digital sports from the US was not displaying in 16:9, he had to do the zoom, and either stretch or have heads cut off.
He wasn’t happy.
I turned the black to gray in the TV’s settings, for the unused pixels, he seemed happier.
I am so glad I am smart enough to be my own tech support for the most part. When I do call support I have a really low tolerance for stupid. Escalate me baby!
#3 – How often, I see a complaint in a product forum about something not working when in fact it’s the user who failed to properly read the directions.
You aren’t wrong… but the other side of that coin is the manual itself. Many manuals are pretty poorly written. Companies don’t see value in it so they don’t invest in it. Then there is the company I work for. We make some of the very best products in our category, yet release manuals that only address 20% of the product’s functionality.
In fact, my company does not employ a technical writer at all… which sucks for me because I am a technical writer.
So I am not quick to blame not reading the manual when customers fail to understand the product.
#6 – “I returned the unit because it makes people look fat”
This from a person that actually takes the time to find that very product on CNET reviews, and post a comment.
And THAT is the amazing thing. But here is the thing about stupid… Stupid doesn’t know it’s stupid.
The link to the NPR piece: http://tinyurl.com/2ryomn
#8: re stupid. As I’ve said before, there’s a difference between being ignorant and being stupid. Ignorant just means you don’t know something and can learn it. Stupid is forever.
Lets see:
DVD players, that are ALL different, and stores dont stock the BEST models. Look up DivX.com, and try to find a good one thats SOLD in the USA(philips SUCKS thay die in 14 months)
EVERY DVD player works differently.
Heres a remote, now Figure out the buttons…Heres a MULTI-remote, that doent have ALL THE BUTTONS, esp the MENU button.
Sales person UP-sold my mother a remote, I TOLD her the one to get(it wasnt the one the sales person SOLD HER), The one she brought HOME didnt work for ALL the devices, BACK it went.
remotes fault? nope.
Sales persons FAULT? Nope?
FAULTY info the corp TOLD the sale person?? YEP… Theres a better markup and the CRAP(sony) then other products.
Computers… HOW MANY types, forms, speeds of RAM are available?? How many CHEAP companies are SELLing CRAp to the stores for LOW prices over the better quality products.
How many stores are willing to sell to you the HIGHER MARKUP products, then to sell you something that works.
But, also, is the concern, of HOW COMPLICATED can you make something. There are alot of folks out there that STILL dont know about DRM, and DONT want to CARE about it. Until there COPIED music WONT PLAY on their NON-DRM player.. That was sold to them at the Family Dollar Stores…for 1/10 the price of ANY other Mp3 player.
#11 – YEA!!!!
#3, jescott,
How often, I see a complaint in a product forum about something not working when in fact it’s the user who failed to properly read the directions.
If the instructions are so convoluted or difficult that ordinary users can not understand, then the product is defective. Don’t blame the customer for a poorly marketed product. Don’t forget, the product includes the manual as well as any hardware or instructions and necessary cables and other crap.
***
Why is it that we can build and sell products that have no problem with people using them but another similar product has all sorts of problems? Most software companies Beta test their products. How many of them beta test the Help section? An example is Roxio. Their Help section and on-line support is worse than useless. If you email tech support, sometimes they get back to you right away with a useless answer and sometimes they just don’t get back to you.
On the hardware side, I use a D-Link wireless router. Yes, I followed the instructions and changed the password, etc. Every time the power goes off though, it resets itself to the default. I live in the country. The power goes off a lot. I left it on default. We don’t use the wireless. It stays on when set on default.
Or our cell phone. When it arrived there was a note attached that there were fees not in the original agreement. By using the phone I agreed with the new terms. When I called Verizon I was told too bad, I had to pay the new fees. I said fine, cancel the contract then. A month later They billed me $180 for the cancellation. No, they never got the money.
Or my kid’s MP3 player. It will only load using YAHOO Music. Ya right, like I want to be bothered with their bullshit. The advertising only said I needed Windows. (Actually, my wife picked it, I just mumbled OK)
As Star Trek’s Scotty said,
“The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog up the pipes.”
What do you do when your $50,000 iBed screws up? Sleep on the floor?
From podcastingnews on the 2008 CES:
http://tinyurl.com/yuu6ze
I love the notes that are usually the first thing you find when you open a new TV, router, hardrive etc. They usually go something like this:
“PLEASE DO NOT RETURN THIS ITEM TO THE STORE! If you have problems please chaeck our useles website. Spend a few hours downloading and installing firmware. If that doesn’t work, call our tech support line. The nice lady in Bangalore will tell you how to check our website and download firmware. If that doesn’t work, we will issue you an RMA, so you can carry your shiny new product down to UPS and start waiting. It may even come back someday! Isn’t this easier than getting your money back at the store??”
I think product manufacturers need to do task based manuals. Instead of explaining all the knobs and buttons, it needs to be organized around “how do I …?” And instead of categories like “Synching Your Digital Camera” it needs things like “Getting Your Photos From Your Camera to Your Computer.”
And on general usability issues. Two recent personal examples:
(1) I recently bought the first series of “Heroes” on HDDVD (don’t pity me – I am dual format;-) ) The first disk froze up my Toshiba A2. Back it goes to Borders for an exchange. Same result. Deciding this is not a coincidence, I check the Toshiba web page and discover that there is a firmware upgrade available. I did not jump to this conclusion earlier, because I had some other HDDVDs that were just as new and worked fine.
One downloaded and burned CDROM image later, and I am watching Heroes in glorious 1080i. a less tech-oriented (or patient) person may have just given up.
(2)I stopped by the Apple store to grab some Apple in-ear headphones for the iPhone. while I am there I grab an adapter because of the iPhone’s annoying recessed headphone jack. at the counter the girl says she is not sure if the Apple phones need the adapter, and spends about 5 minutes poking around on the computer to check. (I don’t care myself, because I can always use the adapter with another set of head phones I have.) Finally, she decides that they do need the adapter and both are purchased.
I get home and sho nuff, the ear buds do not need the adapter. this is a fact that the Apple store girl could have easily discovered if (1) it was possible to open the box without annihilating it; or (2) Apple had accurate data about their products available to their store personnel.
there is the problem with the tech industry in a nutshell – cryptic problems that require quasi-technophile solutions (firmware upgrades for a DVD player), bad packaging and inaccurate information.
#17. Oh, and one more thing – if a product has problems that can be fixed by a reboot, it should have a hardwired on/off switch, not a softswitch, not a CTRL/ALT/DEL -like combo key-press. Just a switch that cuts the power to the electronics and starts it up again.
how many iPod problems could be fixed if it just had a little recessed reset button that you could push with a toothpick or something …
Yep, while there’s no shortage of manual writers who haven’t the least bit of common sense, it must be said that there are definitely two sides to this issue and one of them is the invincible intellectual laziness of Americans.
“Why won’t it do what I want it to do?”, in a whiny voice, of course.
Well, you idiot, it’s because the fucking machine CANNOT READ YOUR MIND. YOU have to learn how to tell it what you want it to do. You bought the thing because it does all these cool things, so how is it supposed to know which of those things you do and don’t want?? Why didn’t you buy the simple one?
Many, MANY, American morans expect, through some electronic voodoo / magic / whatever, for a complex device to have one single, great big red button on it, and all they have to do is press this button and everything is done for them. “Whaddaya mean I gotta have all these buttons?” Because, Mr. Idiot, if we put fewer buttons on it, then each button will have to perform more functions, which will, as it’s been proven, confuse you even more than you already are.
If you don’t – and millions don’t – understand what the major functions and options of the thing are, and what they do, it usually because you want instant gratification with zero mental effort. If you can’t be bothered to learn what 16:9 and 4:3 mean, then get used to “people looking fat”, you mental sluggard. If you can’t grasp that the speakers in front of where you’re sitting are labelled ‘front’ and ‘center’ means the one in the fucking middle, you need to go back to your old Magnavox with the one 4″ speaker and nothing but power/volume/channel on the remote.
I say, from long, long experience with these matters, that, on the whole, the problem is far less from hard-to-use equipment or obtuse manuals than from don’t-want-to-be-bothered-to-lift-a-mental-finger users.
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