Not 100% accurate. Consumer law says that a product should last as long as normal person would expect it to last.
For instance If you by a refrigerator with a 12 month warranty and it breaks down in 2 years, most people would agree that a refrigerator should last around 10 years and that would be a reasonable expectation.
In Australia consumer law goes beyond the warranty. That's why companies that sell you extended warranties are charging you for something that is already covered by consumer law. If you have an extended warranty go back to the store and say you want to give it back and they will most likely refund you the money of the extended warranty. All you have to say to them is that you were misled that you were getting protection that didn't exist under consumer law.
Unfortunately, if you tried to return something after the warranty, some retailers don't know consumer law and would rather cut their right arm off than be wrong and you'd have to go through the crap of getting ACCC to go into bat for you.
This only applies to products that are made in Australia and not to temporary diverted land fill that is brought in by trash merchants under WTO regulations that are only required to be of "servicable quality" when purchased.
Thus a lawn mower sold at Aldi for $ 175 is not expected to last for the same time as one bought from a mower shop for $ 750.
And just so you know, I am an independent mower technician so there is no turf protection written into the response.
There was talk about a mandated service life which went nowhere & the EU tax on short lived consumer durable items just vanished along with the tax on no recyclables .
I think the end of life disposal tax is still there but am not sure.
I but some parts from China. China now has more satelities in orbit than any other country despite the USA, the EU & Russia having a 40 year head start.
Just like factories any where else in the world, Chinese factories can make good stuff or they can make junk.
Chinese factories make what we ask them to make so if we order garbage that looks like a quality product to sell in our chain of shops that is what we get sold.
I have nothing against a lot of good quality engines that come out of China other than there is little to no service information available and no spares.
The same for a lot of whole good.
However it is greedy selfish wealthy Australians who seek to steal money from their fellow Australians by importing garbage that is unfit for it's intended use that is the problem.
Under WTO rulings, if the product is sold in other WTO countries then the Australian government can not prevent it being sold here except under a very limited and specific set of circumstances, containing asbestos is an example.
People continually bring me junk they have bought at a tool store ( mostly ) or a hardwear store that is out of warranty.
I have repaired 4 Ross chainsaws all fitted with neoprene fuel lines so they leaked like a sieve after 18 to 24 months. You can check this problem by looking at the posts on Not Good Enough or Product Review.
Three of them had a chain that was bent at the joining link, ( defective from new ) thus the chain ( counterfeit Oregon) , bar ( suspect counterfeit Oregon) & sprocket were all trashed, the carb can not be cleaned because the solvent to remove the rubber will also wreck the check valve which is not available.
Certified parts to repair the saw plus my labour at $ 60/hr for the scheduled service time ( a lot less than actual service time ) in most cases exceeds the original purchase price.
And don't start me on all of the "ebay only" brands of chain saws.
There are a dozen chippers, compressors & generators with Chonda engines that have come in for new starters because the original ones , melted , metal cracked through, drive pins bent backwards or cords broke.
Most can be repaired with a Honda pull start but it has to be modified to fit .
So do I do it for free for the $ 10 mark up on the $ 40 starter or expect the customer to pay for the 1/2 hr I spend modifing the starter that the counter staff would "bolt strait on" ?
Then you get the strait out & out criminals who send an item to China with the instruction to "make 10,000 that look exactly like this as cheap as possible " then sell the defective products door to door generally using back packers as the sales people.
A lot of this stuff is both defective & dangerous, as an example, I had a customer with a problem Honda/Onga fire pump.
The Honda was actually a H.Onda and the governor was nothing more than a shaft ( no seal) through the crankcase internally bent over and secured with a spring on a self tapper, thus when a load was put on the engine it just stalled.
The generator engine was the same story. Honda was aware of the counterfeits and Onga was aware of the counterfeits , three container loads of them but no one had been prosecuted over them.
IT takes the same amount of energy to make junk as it does to make a quality product and the extra cost of better materials is minute.
The logistical costs are identical between a quality product knocked down & junk
If we could stop trash being made & sold then we would not have to worry about Carbon pollution because it would be reduced by 30% overnight .
And this goes for anything from a cloths peg to a motor car.
Using raw materials of which there is a finite amount of to make land fill is just about the most destructive thing we can do to the planet shot of a nuclear war.
