How Corporations Tried To Sell Inferior Products As An Upgrade

Part of living in this world is that we're constantly trying to improve upon what we have and make things better and more convenient.

In a lot ways, this is good.

We now have vaccines and medicines to combat diseases we used to succumb to. We now have GPS on our phones to help us when we're lost when we previously had to find and buy a map or talk to someone that could potentially lead to a dangerous situation.

As a reader who ran out of money buying books and never had enough space in my backpack to carry them all, I was a big fan of e-books, which were cheaper and could be read on any device, meaning space was no longer an issue.

However, not all advancements are good and not all products that are sold touting an upgrade can be believed. When I got my iPhone X, I was severely disappointed in the new Face ID component. While it was advertised as an upgrade boasting a quicker pace, more efficiency, and more security, I didn't see any of that.

My phone wouldn't unlock in lower lighting or if I wore a towel on my head. Half the time, it couldn't regonize my face even in bright areas, and it never worked when I was trying to download new apps. I was constantly being forced to use the passcode, which actually meant it was slower and less efficient.

I would take a smaller screen if it meant I could get Touch ID back!

Face ID isn't the only inferior product corporations tried to advertise as an upgrade, however. Redditors know that all to well and are ready to share their opinions on other products that were sold as upgrades that actually turned out to be bad products.

It all started when Redditor Popular-Recover8880 asked:

"What was the biggest downgrade in recent memory that was pitched like it was an upgrade?"

Liar, Liar

"Hewlett Packard added "anti-hacking safety features" to all their ink cartridges, to guard against the risk of people having their computers hacked by counterfeit ink cartridges (WTF?)."

"Of course, an unfortunate side effect of that new safety measure is that you can't use any ink cartridge from any supplier other than HP in your printer. But that's a sacrifice they had to make in the name of cyber security."

"Like, seriously, I was getting YouTube ads for months in which HP were trying to sell this "feature" as a positive. I don't know how people can sleep at night selling such an outright and obvious lie."

– iamplasma

"Worse still it's actually created a new way for HP devices to be hacked. Fraudulent toner cartridges will be a thing in the future, if they aren't already."

– MortalJohn

Touch

"All these smart appliances. I don’t see the use in these washers and refrigerators with touch screens and internet connectivity. They have so many points of failure. Just give me a bare bones fridge that will last longer than me."

– Novapunk8675309

"Our oven stopped working for 10 minutes….cause it was going through an update 😕"

"It was around thanksgiving. The ovens menu (the small digital display with the time and temperature of the oven) can have themes to it. They added holiday themes."

– TheCode555

"Yeah see that’s just pointless. Why does an oven need an update? It has one function. It just needs to do what every single oven in the history of ovens has done. I really doubt that a software update on an oven is gonna affect how well it cooks food."

– Novapunk8675309

"My last toothbrush wanted me to install an app and register an email. I'm just glad I have a trash email for all these registered email requests that I'm never going to think about again."

– MonkeyCube

"I am your last toothbrush, and now I have become a fully sentient toothbrush, and I have sprouted hands that can type on a laptop. Everything you said is true and I remember the days when my head was used to brush your teeth, good times."

– ArranVV

"Now, with Wi-Fi connectivity, you can receive a notification when your washer or dryer have completed their cycle!”

“My old one had a buzzer to handle that job…”

– DieHardAmerican95

It's Not Always Yours

"The change of some products, especially software, from a "you buy it, you own it" to subscription-based models, where you lose access once the subscription ends."

– TheBassMeister

"Everything as a subscription is a massive downgrade."

– gadusmo

"I'm holding on to my Photoshop 12 until they come and take it away from me, and then I'll just switch to an alternative. I'm not subscribing to something I used to buy and forget for 20 years."

– MonkeyCube

"Exactly why I f**ked off Adobe. You don’t actually own your projects anymore once you stop paying. It’s crazy."

– littleday

"We'll Be Right Back..."

"Starting January 29, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.”

"F**K YOU AMAZON."

– WhatevahIsClevah

"Translation:"

""Our shareholders net worth only went up by 10% last year when it reeeaaallly needed to go up by 13% so....""

– GreedWillKillUsAll

"Limited? There's 60+ seconds ads in the middle of tv shows now. That's a long-a** add break."

– Zanki

Where Did It Go?

"Mine was when they got rid of the headphone jack on most phones. I go out of my way to make sure a new phone has one."

– Popular-Recover8880

"Getting rid of headphone jacks on phones."

"Getting rid of external SD cards on phones."

"Getting rid of replaceable batteries on phones."

"Smartphones used to be a lot better in so many ways."

– Deleted User

Highway Robbery

"Definitely streaming services. We were all fooled by Netflix's initial success. It had nearly everything at a low price and was super convenient, so convenient in fact that rental shops pretty much went out of business in a few years. But aside from those few years it has ultimately become a huge L for consumers. Other companies wised up, everyone and their mother were starting a streaming service, tons of movies stopped being available and to have decent availability you have to spend 50 bucks per month on streaming alone, packages became more expensive overall, tons of properties just fell in a dead zone where they're not available anywhere through legitimate means, ads started appearing in paid plans, and now it's pretty much just cable TV again."

"In retrospect rental stores were not that inconvenient. They were everywhere and they had almost anything. They rarely didn't have a title at all, and at least for me the cost is more or less the same across the long term. Yeah if you were watching stuff constantly through rentals it would be more expensive, but it's been years since Netflix had more than one thing per month I bother watching."

– PckMan

"This sh*t right here. I open prime video and see something interesting on the MAIN screen but lo and behold, I need Frevue or Hoovue or Modu or Disney or Paramount or [insert obscure service hosted on a server in some dudes basement who bought an affiliation to amazon]. Each one costing nearly as much as prime, each one I cant spell and never heard of."

"But wait, you can watch it with ads! Just like back in the 90s! Just pay $9.99 for a rental. $19.99 if you want the non pixelated HD version! Big savings!"

– Canilickyourfeet

Highway Robbery...Part Deux

"Food delivery."

"Pre-pandemic (and pre Just Eat/Uber Eats) restaurants and takeaways would routinely offer totally free delivery over a certain amount, unless you were a fair distance away, and major pizza chains especially never charged for delivery if you were in their catchment areas."

"Now you need to pay increasingly large delivery fees no matter the distance."

"My local Pizza Hut started charging £3 - £4 for delivery, stating on their website; "in order to enhance your experience, we are excited to announce deliveries will now cost blah blah blah" or some such marketing bollocks."

"In addition the roads and pavements are now plagued by suicidal bike coureers who have no idea how roads work."

– Megamoss

"Last week, against better judgement, I tried one of those delivery aps, the app told me he hadn't left even though it was already dropped off. Half of it got stolen and the other half was cold."

"A solid reminder to just eat a cold sandwich or meal bar, every interaction with these services feels like a genuine lose/lose situation."

– poopyfacedynamite

Give Me The Old Version

"The use of QR codes at some restaurants instead of a physical menu."

– Moon_Jewel90

"Even worse the ones that make you order on it and place the tip before you’re even served or interact with anyone. I left a 20 % tip the other day and then proceeded to wait an hour and a half for my French dip sandwich with like 6 times asking them where my missing food is, and then the staff got pissed at me keeping asking and I was served a cold sandwich. The table next to me had to ask for their cheese fries literally 5 times too. How can you tip for service before you’re served? Lol it’s wild."

– _very_stable_genius_

New And Not Improved

"Dish detergent/washing up liquid. For the past few years, I was sure all the "New and Improved' and "Now with x More" was false. Newer detergent doesn't seem to go half as far, or cut through grease as well. I used to buy a bottle maybe once every 5-6 months; now, I'm buying a bottle every 2-3 months -- and I'm doing the same amount of washing up."

"Fast forward to two weeks ago when I found a bottle of Tesco generic washing up liquid in an under stair cupboard from 7-8 years ago, unopened and still perfectly usable. I popped that boy open and did a 1-to-1 comparison with the same liquid I bought last week. I could immediately see a difference. The liquid in the old version was thicker, and obviously much more concentrated. The old stuff took a single pass to clean greasy pans. The same pans took at least three passes with the new stuff, and still didn't come away with that squeaky clean feel. Insult to injury, the new bottle had 60ml less, and I'm going to guess it cost more."

"TLDR: Newer dish detergent is junk, and I have the old stuff to prove it."

– fulthrottlejazzhands

"Studies determined the phosphates in dishwashing detergents were extremely harmful for the environment by greatly contributing to the occurrence of toxic algae blooms. Phosphates in detergents were banned throughout the US. They were already banned in other nations. The decision was made knowing it would take longer to wash dishes without them and it would lead to spotting on dishes after they dried. The EPA decided longer wash times and some spots on our glassware is a good trade of to stop frequent toxic algae blooms."

– ThrowmeawayAKisCold

Memory

"Anything involving "the cloud". It was talked about like this great new addition to anything, but really, it's just been a way to hack apart existing services and sell them back to people to wrench money out of their hands."

"I get that sometimes it's useful, but more often than not, it's just an excuse to be greedy."

– TheTrueGoldenboy

"I bought a new laptop on september that had One Drive pre-installed. The dialogue went like this:"

"One Drive: Hey! Get [I don't remember how many Gb] of free storage in the cloud! Just log in! :D"

"Me: No."

"OD: Hey! I see you're helping your friend with storing some stuff, did you know that you can just send them to the cloud by logging in for free?"

"Me: Yes, I knew. I don't want to."

"OD: Hey! We noticed you have over [many Gb of data, my hardrive was nowhere near full], that means your OD account will be full quickly. Upgrade to pro to get [storage]! :D"

"Me: No. I have an external storage for this."

"I have deactivated the thing and the notifications stopped, but it's still annoying that I can't find the thing to properly uninstall it."

– javier_aeoa

"Google drive/docs is the only cloud service I use willingly. Microsoft office becoming a subscription service had a lot to do with that though."

– jedadkins

"That's my point though. It can be useful when you choose to use it."

– TheTrueGoldenboy

Communication Death

"Customer service and communication with companies and general. Everything is now an app, a FAQ, or a robot. I've seen commercials presenting this as a good thing claiming it's so easy to get an answer to your questions where in reality if you don't have a standard question you're screwed as no one any longer lists their phone number. Most large companies are impossible to contact."

– Funkytownn

That last one is super annoying! I can't tell you how many times I've had to ask the same question in a million different ways just to finally get an answer...and usually the answer is to call the company and talk to a representative,

If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have used the chatbox! And I would've called in the first place if the company didn't offer a chatbox...so why offer it?!