Tale of the Dead Staples Omnitech Shredder - Why Not Fix it Yourself? @ PCStats

Things have changed over the past 50 some years, to the point where things you buy tend to fall into one of two categories.  1) The item lasts for a long time and is user serviceable to extend its life, and 2) The item is inexpensive, built cheap and not designed to last for very long.  

These trends in product design often go against everything the average consumer wants from their purchases.  For instance the consumer doesn't want to spend a lot of money and is upset when their cheaply made product quits working.  Along the same lines you have products that last for a really long time, like cars, and offer no reason for people to upgrade or replace them.  In the end, shredder company = rich, car company = bankrupt.

PCStats has posted a short editorial talking about their quest to defy the laws of modern consumerism and fix a throw away product like a paper shredder. 

Funny thing I would have tried to fix it too.

If your consumer electronics break, what's stopping you from trying to fix it yourself? A few weeks ago our inexpensive $50-dollar Omnitech OT-EMC7A micro cut paper shredder from Staples.ca gave up the ghost and stopped working. Being out of warranty, I took a stab at fixing the wee beastie.

Consumerism today is all about buy buy buy.  When you are done with the item you have to decide if you will simply throw the item away, give it to someone, "sell" it to someone or recycle it.  Personally I find it difficult to sell an item that has lost its usefulness and hate the idea that 1000's of dead paper shedders are sitting in a pit somewhere out of the public eye.  Recycling is the "popular" choice but I see the option as greedy on the side of the recycler.  Here I am giving them something, that I cannot claim on my taxes, that they use to make money from before throwing most of it into the landfill.

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