The joys of shopping online!

[Jay-Bruce]

All you need there Eric are a few Cornettos!

All I really need is someone to take a lot of this stuff off my hands before it all gets put in a skip.

Allow me to offer my services as an expert scrounger, I'll even pay the postage

[Jay-Bruce]

Browsing Autodoc for fuses, thought "I've never seen one of those before!"

Even the bigger picture didn't quite give the game away

Spoiler: show

In the interest sharing the knowledge, it seems I have lived a sheltered life and there really are 3 legged fuses!

This strikes me as an incredibly stupid idea all the same - when one leg blows= change the whole thing, how wasteful!

When did you get so good at photoshop?

[Jay-Bruce]

i've always felt the answer to the erosion of standards arising from "grey" e-tail imports could bolster British employment, go protectionalist, and have customs check goods for conformity to our standards, and charge for doing so. If the goods are pukka they'll get through, if they are as dangerous a the fairylights in that big clive video that Matt shared, they get recycled and a stroppy letter from customs/standards to the consumer "your eJunk has been disposed of to protect you from your idiotic buying habits" This would price third world fourth rate commodities out the market and make UK manufacturing viable again, offering a benefit to the employment market and our GDP. This policy isn't banning internet trade, it just makes it safer for the consumer, and leaves the door open for a drop shipper to import a pallet of goods, get one approved by customs/standards, and sell the rest for little more than the sticker price as the validation by customs/standards costs would be spread over 500 units, it's negligible.

[MattBLancs]

I agree, in theory.

However, as a counter point, here is my bought from UK retailer, fully CE marked, plug in night light. Which until Friday evening was plugged in a socket in my 3 year old son's bedroom:

And this is why it made my blood run cold when I noticed it was a little wobbly:

Spoiler: show

This is what I was presented with upon unplugging it!

Oh!

Discussions ongoing with the supplier.

[MattBLancs]

All you need there Eric are a few Cornettos!

All I really need is someone to take a lot of this stuff off my hands before it all gets put in a skip.

Allow me to offer my services as an expert scrounger, I'll even pay the postage

Oh beaten too it, and it was me seeking fuse supplies!

[myglaren]

I agree, in theory.

However, as a counter point, here is my bought from UK retailer, fully CE marked, plug in night light. Which until Friday evening was plugged in a socket in my 3 year old son's bedroom:


And this is why it made my blood run cold when I noticed it was a little wobbly:

Spoiler: show

Discussions ongoing with the supplier.

I'll see if I can find it again, Big Clive tested something recently with a fused plug but the fuse wasn't actually connected to anything, did absolutely nothing.

[Gibbo2286]

All I really need is someone to take a lot of this stuff off my hands before it all gets put in a skip.

Allow me to offer my services as an expert scrounger, I'll even pay the postage

Oh beaten too it, and it was me seeking fuse supplies!

Shall we have an auction?

[Jay-Bruce]

I agree, in theory.

However, as a counter point, here is my bought from UK retailer, fully CE marked, plug in night light. Which until Friday evening was plugged in a socket in my 3 year old son's bedroom:


And this is why it made my blood run cold when I noticed it was a little wobbly:

Spoiler: show

Discussions ongoing with the supplier.

I'd get banned if I typed the words I uttered when I seen the pic in the spoiler!

[CitroJim]

However, as a counter point, here is my bought from UK retailer, fully CE marked, plug in night light. Which until Friday evening was plugged in a socket in my 3 year old son's bedroom:


And this is why it made my blood run cold when I noticed it was a little wobbly:

Spoiler: show

Discussions ongoing with the supplier.

That is horrendous Sadly, this is by no means uncommon these days... That alone makes it even more horrendous. What's worse is many once famous and high quality brands are now now of very poor and questionable quality. One example of this is MK electrical fittings and plugs. Once the absolute benchmark but now just a shadow of its former self.

A lot of old famous makes would appear to have been revived in order to sell low quality tat in a potentially deceitful way.

Facebook car groups carry reports of modern MG cars being nothing more than cheap poor quality tat with atrocious spares availability and poor reliability.

And what with rampant counterfeiting...

I think there will become a tipping point when a large majority become wise to all of this, reject the tat and demand a return to being able to procure genuine, quality items that are fit or purpose, last a reasonable time and are safe.

Jay-Bruce, your plan may just be what we need!

[MattBLancs]

When did you get so good at photoshop?

The advanced image processing qualities of Microsoft Paint is extent of my image manipulation skills sadly!

Spend all week on the computer for work - even more so of late now I've to be "connected into the matrix" for long periods (i.e. Microsoft Teams meetings) so a quick tip-tap of the screen on here mostly in my own time is about all the enthusiasm for more PC interaction I have left!

[MattBLancs]

I'd get banned if I typed the words I uttered when I seen the pic in the spoiler!

Think I did very well not to inadvertently teach William some choice phrases too!

[GiveMeABreak]

Most know how I feel about the tat from AliExpress after my post on a range of stuff I ordered and tested, but I did like the leather fob case with stitching that I ordered a few years ago, so ordered another one for my spare fob and just received an email from Ali:

God only knows what a floozy in a dress, a wig and a plastic woman could possibly have to 'pair' with my fob case!

[MattBLancs]

I think I would quite happily go for the frock or long brown wig / replacement mop head off the top row - on the basis I'd be reasonably happy there was only a slim chance of either of those giving me an unexpected interaction with mains voltages during their use!


Bottom right, I like how they've found a mannequin who looks as displeased with the quality of what they provide as a potential customer may be!
"You too could look like this!" Never a truer word spoken!

[GiveMeABreak]

Indeed Matt - included destructions for many items are often worthy of a read for a good chuckle too!

[MattBLancs]

Indeed Matt - included destructions for many items are often worthy of a read for a good chuckle too!

Oh yes, I love a set of garbled instructions! An unintentional bonus treat when buying cheap tat online!


Sometimes the amusement starts before you even open the box, e.g. one I received a while back, captured for prosperity