Expiration Date

This weekend marks the new beginning of Daylight Savings Time. This is being widely publicized because the date was moved up and we will need to change all our systems and clocks manually. Even time comes with an expiration date.

Open your refrigerator and you will see a number of products from milk, to fresh squeezed orange juice, to opened jam: all with an imprinted expiration date. Soda and water come with a "bottled on" date on the containers.

Now go to your medicine cabinet and you find a lot of the same: boxes, (if you're like me very few), containing various pain relievers and cough syrups -- all with their nicely imprinted expiration date. All these products communicate a set of expectations: they will be good for a certain period of time and then you will need to replace them.

What do you experience when you come back from a trip and find that you forgot to dispose of that carton of milk? You throw it away without a second thought. The same happens with medications, especially with those.

Now tell me what happens when your appliance, let's say your water heater goes. Hopefully no harm done, you expected it because everyone knows that a heating coil sitting in water inside a heavy steel tank can last only so long before it corrodes beyond the sacrificial anode rod. Same for roof tiles: you know what the deal is when you make your purchase.

Consumers learned about some of these times from the manufacturers *and* from helpful neighbors and friends, including Consumer Reports. What happens when you make a purchase and do not have that critical piece of information at that time? Would an expiration date make a difference in your buying habits?

My iPod battery just gave in completely: it won't hold a charge at all. I was not an early adopter; I bought it in July 2006, just before I started blogging. It helps me time my running, including the sprints on specific songs of my playlist, and I need it to stay on for a little over one hour at a time. The staff at Best Buy asked me quickly if I wanted to pay for a warranty plan on the device, less than $50, I remember him saying. I was clueless and answered politely that there was no need.

Well, as it turns out there is, isn't there? Now my experience is very diminished by the hassle of having to give up the device for a length of time to have the battery refitted, etc. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the fact that I might get a "used" iPod back while mine was new. Maybe it's another way to encourage customers to engage the "I want, now" button and go buy a new device.

My experience is not unique, somehow my expectations where not managed well on the onset. And now I'm feeling a bit cheated. If you consider that I come from a culture where Cathedrals from centuries past are still standing, I do wonder about our post industrialist culture. Everything is more convenient, yet things last much less so we can sell more. What do you think?   

Comments

[Joe Raasch]

Hi Valieria,

I know of few people who buy the warranty for anything. Feels like they're sellin' ya something ya just don't need.

Good news: this is one of the first positive comments about Best Buy I've read in the past month.

Bad news: helloooo Walmart and Thomas Kinkade prints; goodbye handmade shirts and Degas.

Sigh.

But enough about me. Valeria, you've hit on the economic engine that fuels America. Until we as consumers vote for more experience, more design, more purpose and intent, more value - we'll get more short-term satiation and long-term frustration.

I still have my Nike running jacket I bought while training for my last marathon...in 1999. The very next year, Nike introduced a new jacket - same material, same style, different 'cooler and edgier' colors. Why would they do that? I know several people who bought new jackets and donated or closeted their old ones. You can hear the economy humming from here!

[Matt Dickman]

Valeria,

I'm with Joe here. I never buy the warranty because I have faith in the brands I interact with (although this is sometimes misguided). I think a big difference is the complexity of the machines/systems has grown like wildfire as the expectations for dependability and durability stay the same. The more technology that is involved, the more points of failure there are.

Look at something as simple as a clothes iron. When they were introduced you plugged it in, the current in the wire fed the heating plate and viola, you had crisp clothes. I think about my iron today, it has five independent buttons, two dials, three steam settings, loads of wiring and some ceramic thing on the bottom (it was a wedding gift). The thing is, my expectation of my new iron is still the same as the original iron. I plug it in and I want crisp clothes.

Secondarily, I think the cost of the investment is a large piece of expectation. If you spent a couple hundred on the iPod, you think it should last for 5+ years delivering quality sound. The reality is that it's very complex with lots of parts from different vendors and things do go wrong. On the manufacturers end, they *should* have a warranty in place that sets a realistic expectation and covers the normal device.

[Joe Raasch]

Right on, Mark. And that clothes iron costs next to nothing. Remember when there were TV and small appliance repair shops? It is cheaper (environment not withstanding)to throw away the iron and buy a new one than to have it fixed.

Part of the consumption culture and vast prosperity.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Joe -- well, if describing the Best Buy sales rep as apathetic while going through the moves is positive, we have truly lowered our expectations! Ah, another marathon runner, I do the Broad Street run every year. It's not even a marathon, but it feels like one.

Matt -- you got it: the cost consideration really hurt. There should be some proportional element to a manufacture warranty.

You both remind me of that IKEA ad, the one with the old lamp sitting at the curb under the rain, while a new lamp shines warmly inside an apartment. "Relax," says the announcer, "it's just a lamp." Well, it might be... and in the process we've eliminated the trades. How hard is it today to find a good tailor, a reliable shoemaker?

[gianandrea facchini]

thanks god i live in italy where small shops still exist.
but it's true what joe says: it's easier to replace than fix and this is the engine of the western economy.

[ann michael]

Valeria - I never used to buy insurance or warranties on anything Ipurchased.

Then I had three teen-agers with cell phones and started buying the insurance on their phones (which I have had to use no fewer than 4 times in about the same number of years!).

I bought computers expecting that they would last 2-3 years - but they didn't.

I now buy extended warranties on my computers (with accidental damage on my laptop - I travel a lot).

The products are more shoddy and we (I know my kids with cell phones) are not as careful with things as we used to be - perhaps, because we have a "we'll just get a new, better, cooler, one" mentality!

This has become a disposable economy - and as a result an opportunity may exist for the companies that will stand behind their products (for at least a year or so) and fix or replace them (without having you shell out more cash) because they are investing in quality.

A laptop provider that did that - would get my business.

Great post!

[Chuck]

Don't know if you heard but you can now get a ipod battery with a 10 year warranty from www.ipodjuice.com - past customers that bought before the announcement are included in the upgrade WOOT!!

[Valeria Maltoni]

Gianandrea -- that is one of the things I love most about being in Italy: the ability to visit small stores and boutiques where there may be less choice, but much more heart. And I always bring whatever needs tailoring, the work is just superb!

Ann -- I like your idea of a company that stands behind its products. It's refreshing to think that one would have such confidence in its craftsmanship to do that. Often we sacrifice speed for quality.

Chuck -- thanks for the tip.

[gianandrea facchini]

ann, the definition disposable economy is great.

valeria, this post of yours is getting so entangled with mine about time. i just posted an answer to your comment. speed replaced quality because is in someway more accountable. our world seems to depend upon quantitative measure and to have lost the capability to define quality. how many of you have ever tried the fabric of a sweater before purchasing it? or ask to taste a cheese before buying it?

[Valeria Maltoni]

Gianandrea:

You're onto something. Speed is more easily measurable than quality. Perhaps we've reduced productivity to a series of box-checking activities that could potentially be done by anyone -- to the detriment of the quiet tasting and truly experienced eye of the connoisseur.

If we go back to your great posts about luxury goods, part of what we crave for are those delicate experiences. Those instances in which we feel part of an elite *because* what we experience is rare. Quality used to be the hallmark of craftsmanship. Could things be rebalanced back? Are our expectations so reduced that normal support is seen as extraordinary effort?

[gianandrea facchini]

valeria, in a world where wal-mart rules we have to find our own niche. the old tag value for money is still true: you buy something today, pay almost nothing and get back to replace it in few months.

lately, some italian fashion brands begun to bring back their production in italy. mid 90s the trend was to go to produce in china, india, east europe countries, but quality was suffering.