As consumers, we all know that we're going to buy something at some point that doesn't turn out to be as pretty or be as functional and reliable as the advertisements, supposed testimonials, and commercials lead us to think they will be.
But some products prove to be such a letdown, we might even wonder what this thing was made for in the first place, or who bothered to approve its production.
Redditor Stay-Thirsty asked:
"What product was so poorly designed that you suspect the team that made it never even used the product?"
The Seal on the Baby Wipes
"Baby wipes."
"Hey, you know when a good time to struggle with opening a package that says it has perforations but really doesn't? When you're dealing with poop."
"You want one? Here's a chunk of 20."
"You want a bunch? Here's a tiny ripped corner."
"You have 10 left on a trip and need to conserve? Too bad motherf**ker, here's the rest of the pack. Get your tired a** to CVS."
- Miklay83
Hard-to-Navigate Intersections
"Some road intersections make me wonder if the engineers have actually ever driven a vehicle."
- imdstuf
Not as Easy as Making Mac and Cheese
"The perforated corner of a Kraft Mac and cheese box."
- thebeast1022
"I want to start a guerrilla journalism YouTube that ambushes CEOs and makes them open one of their company’s products, and then asks them, 'Is that the first impression you want your company to make?'"
- Ferrous_Patella
Scheduling in Laundry
"The Bluetooth app connectivity for my washing machine (I didn't really want that feature, but it was a last-minute substitution)."
"If the wash cycle takes longer than the initial estimate, the start time changes rather than the time remaining estimate, so it's never clear how much longer the cycle needs to go."
"Now, I just don't bother with the app."
- dragon2611
Just Trying to Do the Laundry
"My clothes dryer. It has touch controls that are designed in such a way that you pretty much have to guess what you're supposed to touch (nothing visibly looks like a button), and when turned on has an inexplicable 10-or-more-second delay before the touch controls work."
"So then you have to basically poke it all over the place without even knowing if it's the right place to poke or if you simply need to wait for nothing to happen. I mean, that's what I think, at least, but can't be sure since there seriously is no visual indication of anything."
"There's also a numerical display which I assumed was related to the time left until it's done, but I've been using it for almost two years now and I still have no clue what those numbers are meant to indicate. They certainly don't correlate with any time units I'm aware of."
- malsomnus
Feminine Hygiene, Galling Design
"Sanitary pads."
"Especially ones advertised as 'zero bunching,' they most certainly do bunch up! They will go straight up your bum crack. They can only have been designed by someone who doesn't use them to have made that claim."
- ArcadiaRivea
"They’re also so short and not wide enough and never stay. If I wear one and I’m planning to sit, I have to layer two lengthwise and make sure both have wings to fold over the underside. And even then it will somehow shift by one millimeter giving the blood a direct escape route."
- 0techsavvy
No Commitment to Their Own Product
"I’m reminded of this book, 'Disrupted,' I once read by a former tech reporter who claims most of the industry is bulls**t."
"In one of the chapters, he talked about going to the Google headquarters for an event shortly after Google Glass came out. The event was centered around the product and lots of attendees were wearing their pair, but the author noted that not a single Google employee who was hosting the event was wearing Google Glass."
"That’s when he said he knew the product was doomed."
- srstone71
So Appropriate
"All iterations of Skype after Microsoft bought it."
- JoeS830
"Skype for Business."
"Never has a product been less appropriate or ready for business use."
- suivethefirst
Wheelchair Accessibility
"My mom's had three wheelchairs."
"They all suck. The brake lever mechanism invariably interferes with the footrests. On her current one, the brake lever mechanism is curved, so it's pretty good. I think it could still be better."
"I'm surprised they're not better. I definitely feel like given my experience I could design a much better wheelchair than anything on the market under $1,000.00."
- stevejust
Searching for Movies
"Streaming services search engines? You can literally have 10k to 50k things to watch, but there is absolutely no way to do an in-depth search."
"It doesn’t have to be through a mobile app, maybe an online connection through a website. But if I want to find a show that was running in the late 90s and I know it was science fiction, why can’t I do that?"
"So much content I might want to watch but can’t find it."
- Stay-Thirsty
"I can actually answer this one. They don't want you to watch all those old shows you love. They want you to watch one of the hundred new shows in the 'trending now' section that makes them the most money and best supports their interests."
- bird_man_73
Something as Simple as a Trash Can
"My kitchen trash can. It is one sold by Glad specifically for their bigger, extra-strong 20-gallon trash bags. It is not particularly cheap."
"It looks good, but the design of it is what you might expect if you told aliens what a trash can is and they designed one without ever seeing it. How it holds the bag basically causes you to lose four gallons of capacity and have to risk tearing the bag or spilling its contents every time you go to remove it."
"It also has a trash bag holder that is so narrow, you have to feed it trash bags one at a time, completely defeating the point. And if you try to compact the trash a bit, you're almost guaranteed to tear the 'tear-resistant' bag."
"Such a poor design."
- samanime
False Sense of Safety
"My new iron. Has a restart if you tip it over after it’s timed out. So if you accidentally leave it plugged in and it gets knocked over by accident (pet or child bumps the board, the wind knocks something over knocking the iron over) it starts up while face down."
- tangcameo
"That literally defeats the entire purpose of the time-out safety feature..."
- DrSchmolls
"It's a time-in unsafety feature."
- hockey_metal_signal
Needlessly Complicated Software
"Software drivers for basically any HP printer made in the last three decades."
- ThadisJones
"Holy crap, YES! I work in IT and I hate how bloated those stupid drivers are. No, I don't want 'HP Device Experience' or whatever the h**l that is, and I don't want to have to download a 300MB bloated pile of steaming crap when all I need is for Joe Q. Employee to send documents through to the printer on his desk."
"God, I miss the days of those LaserJet 2500s with their universal PCL drivers. So simple. And those were like the Volvo 240 of printers. Freaking TANKS."
- marcfonline
Excellent Waterproofing
"I just bought a waterproof cargo bag for the roof of my car that was fairly expensive."
"The Velcro that keeps the zipper protected was just GLUED ON, not stitched and sealed."
"The very first time I opened the bag all the Velcro came off because the attraction to itself was stronger than the adhesive bond to the vinyl bag."
"It’s like there was absolutely zero product testing, but I’m sure it was 5 cents cheaper to make it glued rather than stitched. How could something like this have ever been allowed to leave the factory?"
- Dustmopper
More Testing Time
"My vacuum cleaner. The hose is mounted at a downward angle and it's impossible to pull it along as you go; it keeps going to the side or even flipping over instead."
"It takes one minute of use to notice this, but I guess they only tested it for 30 seconds."
- DaoNight23
We've all experienced a flop of a product from time to time that was supposed to be really good, but some are so bad, we have to wonder how they were approved in the first place.
It's clear why these Redditors were so upset by the products they shared. From impractical use to unreliability, there's no wonder these consumers were questioning the product's quality check.
