What Have You Bought That Hasn't Turned out as Expected

What have you bought that hasn't turned out as expected? For example, I recently bought a roast chicken from Woolworths for a simple lunch. I tucked into a wing, and then another, and then pulled out … a third wing! The chicken didn't have three wings; a third wing somehow got into the bag.

Five plus years ago, I bought two fakes on eBay and it was a hassle/not possible to get a refund or replacement when it broke down (and the replacement was a fake) or when I found out after purchase - a fake Magnetix toy sold by an Aussie seller and an SD card sold by a Chinese/Hong Kong seller (I learnt this lesson very quickly so I won't hand in my OZB badge). The pendulum has probably swung the other way now for buyers.

Comments

  • Many moons ago, i bought a dud doorbell from Aliexpress. Now I won't buy any electronics from Aliexpress unless someone here has had good experience with the seller.

  • +1

    headphone from kogan "sale".
    rrp is $75 i think, went to $10/15 i thought wow a bargain.
    turn out should be $2 or less.

    5 mins after arrived and tested, it went to the bin.
    unforgettable memory.

  • +1

    A wife

    • +1

      from Thailand?

      • +4

        "That Hasn't Turned out as Expected" ;P

  • To keep this thread much, much shorter, the title should be: "What Have You Bought That HAS Turned out as Expected".

    LED corn bulbs from eBay, Hong Kong (they are known as "corn" because of cylindrical shape and LEDs arranged around). Bought 10 with Edison screw and 10 with bayonet mount. Left positive review after a few weeks of using them (the review can not be edited later). Within two month ALL globes started dying, one by one, today all are dead. But… later I bought different LED globes, not corn style, normal shape, from another eBay seller, based supposedly on CREE chips. Cheaper, as there is no "CREE" logo on them (hmm? so is it CREE or not?), and not even one died, they still perform very well for 1/2 price.

    • I think for the corn LEDs it is not the actual LED is dying, it is the transfer which convert 240V to the voltage that LED use is dead.

  • Most of the things on GraysOnline. Their photos are inaccurate and not representative of the product.

    For example one of their auction items had a photo of a Creative Muvo MP3 player 128MB with LCD screen. The item that was received in the mail was the previous years model without LCD screen. Couldn't get a refund due to GraysOnline's photo disclaimer.

    GraysOnline also has items which are also sometimes better than their description. Items described as refurbished, box damaged, factory seconds can sometimes be new models with their serial numbers removed for warranty purposes. This has become common knowledge and GraysOnline is no longer a place for as large bargains.

  • +2

    Bought some Cadbury chocolate blocks and entered a competition to win giftcards that were handed out everyday. I ended up winning one ($10) and thought "woo hoo, I won!". And that was the end of that.

    Or so I thought.

    Turns out I won another one thanks to a second-chance draw weeks after the winning the first. This all turned out better than I expected.

  • +1

    There is an earphone that I bought thinking, since people loved it, I would probably love it (consequently, said earphone is collecting dust in the cupboard). It's Xiaomi Piston 3.

    Gear VR and the experiences I had with it was better than I was expecting (being imersive) from experiences with Google Cardboard and yet worse (how many loops I had to go through with videos like naming it this, that before I realised Moon Player existed)? Though it's my gf's/she technically got it as a part of a promotion.

    This is technically not buying, but I was given a replacement unit for my malfunctioning Surface Pro 1 (had an issue where it wouldn't register covers) with Surface Pro 3. While it was an upgrade in every respect, the stylus wasn't as good as Pro 1's. Palm rejection is worse and it felt like as if I am writing with sharpie, not a pen when it comes to how it feels.

    The replacement pen I bought for Surface Pro 1 which costed me $10 was better than Surface Pro 1 pen (which was surprising). I even got play around with it and make "a rubber" for Surface Pro 1 that worked fine (from salvaging the said replacement pen because I broke it in half).

  • Chinese smart phones. Bought a couple and both failed within a few weeks.

  • +3

    My life.

    • +1

      The feels.

    • +1

      But you didn't "buy" it … it was free! So I would argue a bargain :-)

      • +2

        Beggars can't be choosers etc.

  • +5

    A lotto ticket. I expected to win big.

  • $2 stickers from the dollar shop, except they weren't sticky anymore (who would've thought).

  • +4

    The shareholders of Dick Smith.

  • I bought a down jacket from ebay from China for $60. Turned out to have a "The North Face" logo. Likely fake but the quality was very good. The sleeves were a tad short though

    I gave it away when I went overseas. That guy was happy as pig in mud.

  • Bought some cheap Philips earbuds to tide me over while waiting for a deal on a decent set. Had them several years now and can't fault them.

  • A Hyundai car. Bought a 1995 Hyundai Excel Sprint as a new car. Everybody expected these to be slow and disposable cars due to their price. Truth is they were excellent value and bang-for-buck. The engine is indestructible. Very reliable and mechanicals hold up to wear and tear. Warranty, recalls and accidents were low. They were the second most popular car for joyriding thieves behind the VT Commodore a rear wheel drive vehicle with modern suspension and safety features.

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