Ripping off the customer by cheapening or reducing the amount of product.
Is the title of this vent. What inspired the vent was this:
When you live far enough North that you get truly cold in the winter, one way to save heating fuel is to put plastic film across and over the window frame. Some people put it outside as well as inside, especially if they have a really old home with single pane windows. I just use it inside. The plastic film acts like a 3rd pane of glass. It is especially nice when you put it up around the frame of a bay window. This reduces the surface area that your warmed air would otherwise be exposed to by a large amount. It was by noticing just how huge a "heat sink" the bay window in my living room was in the cold of January one year that got me motivated to try this product. I have been using it now for at least five or six years.
Every year I buy a 64" x 25' roll of clear vinyl in the form of a kit. You get the vinyl, more than enough two sided sticky tape, a cutting blade tool that is ultra safe to use by design, and even a cheap plastic tape measure. It costs between 30 and 35 dollars. I've been using a brand called "Comfort Plus" made somewhere in the good old USA. I've never had reason to be displeased with their product until this year. This year I opened the package to find that everything was the same as usual except that the two sided tape was now only 1/2" wide, instead of the former 5/8" width.
I saw a problem with that right away, because what you do after you surround the frame with tape and put up the vinyl is to
heat it with a hair dryer or heat gun on the low setting. Heating the vinyl makes it tighten up and become effective at stopping heat loss by simulating a sheet of glass. When there are no more wrinkles and the vinyl is as tight as a drum, the installation is done.
Well I balked at using the narrow 1/2" stuff on my bay window and my large kitchen window, so I used left over 5/8" tape from previous years. I did however use the narrow stuff on the large window in the dining room.
Big mistake. I thought I could really hear the tape pulling a bit as the tightening vinyl boomed a couple of times on its own. (You check that it's good by tapping. If it sounds like a drum all across the face, it's good.)
I put the stuff up on Friday, and last night I went into the dining room to check something, and noticed that it was very cold by the window. Sure enough, the vinyl tape had pulled away from the frame across the bottom. It's a good thing I didn't worry about the excess 2 or 3 inches of vinyl along the bottom. For neatness you ordinarily would trim away the excess off the sides when you're done. By being a bit lazy I saved money since I was able to put fresh
5/8" tape along the bottom and reseal the installation. (The half inch tape had pulled upwards about 2" since the vinyl was previously heat shrunken and could not be pulled back down.) I would have had to buy more vinyl otherwise, since the one roll just does the whole house if I'm careful.
However, I did have to take the curtains and the lace inner curtains down again to get at the window properly. That's a pain to do since you have to be so careful not to tear the lace curtains with the curtain hooks etc. I'm leaving the curtains down for a few days to see if my repair holds. I think I used at least some of the 1/2" tape on my bedroom double window too. So I'll be keeping an eye on it as well.
Needless to say if I can find them on the web, "Comfort Zone's" maker is going to hear about my displeasure. They will not be getting my business next year. They are not the only ones who make these kits in that size.
******************************************************************
The above vent was about the cheapening of a product. While I'm posting, I might as well vent about the dirty old trick of reducing the amount of product you get for the same price.
There's a brand of bread available here called "Dempster's". It's very nice bread, but a bit pricey. About a year ago they sneakily reduced the size of the loaf of one of their bread products from 24 to 21 ounces. It's a just noticeable reduction, but it is noticeable. It's something to do with the shape of the new loaf; it just looks smaller. Dempster's did NOT announce the size change. It was pointed out by a viewer of a local TV station who carried the story since the bread product in its many varieties is very popular. I never used to buy it unless it was on sale. Now reduced price or not, I feel cheated anyway, and have been boycotting that bread product ever since.
In both cases I really rather that they had just raised the price a bit. In the case of the two sided tape especially, I would be willing to pay more to keep the quality at the old level.
)
