I think we need to start a thread about products that we find defective. Maybe we can save someone some money. Or maybe just a category and we post particulars under that heading.

Here's a product that I have found defective:

Hinged clothespins made in China:

I have been using these for a couple of weeks and I have already had 10% breakage. They are not very sturdy, not long enough, and do not support the weight of wet jeans, even if you use three of them.

I know, I know, small, but to me significant! I get @^$* mad trying to hang laundry with these things breaking and zinging past my head and my clothes falling to the ground!!

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Answers

Are they wooden, or plastic?

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Wooden. They are also shorter than the Mexican-made ones that I have been using (successfully) and the wood is really light-weight.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

Well, I looked at my bag, and mine are made in the USA it says. I haven't been using them for clothes -- holding other things on, shut, etc. Want me to find you a bag and send them to you? I'll measure one later. How long do you think they should be?

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

Sheepish, I hate cheap clothes pegs as well!!! We only hang our laundry (house looks like a chinese laundry in the winter as we run lines over the stoves!!!). I've found one of the best sources of pegs is garage sales (actually house clearances). No one seems to want the pegs and you get the old really heavy duty ones! Kim

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001

Joy, maybe you could just give me the name of the manufacturer (if you can recall) and I'll shop around at a couple of other hardware stores (maybe ACE...I think they have more USA-made products (?) I pretty much have enough good ones for laundry (but of course I use them for holding bird netting over things, etc., etc., too.)

Kim, good idea. I'll check the garage sale circuit. However, not very many people dry their clothes outdoors around here: 1) too wet most of the time, and 2) (I love this one!) Covenants in neighborhoods against clotheslines! Not where I live, though!

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001

Hi Sheepish ~ 50 wooden clothespins for $2.89, at True Value hardware here. 3-1/4" long.

Penley Corporation
PO Box 277
West Paris, Maine 04289
penly@megalink.net


-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001

This isn't exactly a "defective" notice, but what really frosts my cookies is buying a shirt with buttons that fall off almost after the first washing. To counteract this I put a drop of clear nail polish on each button as soon as I buy at new shirt. Also, DH tends to keep his keys in the same pocket of his pants and soon wears a thin spot or hole in that spot. As soon as I buy his pants, I'll put an iron- on patch over that spot and that usually lasts as long as the pants do.

Thanks for reading.

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001

Pencils! You cannot buy good pencils anymore! I love pencils. All the pencils break when you shapen them anymore. Why do they bother to even make them! I get really good old fashioned pencils from my bank and Farm Bureau, love their pencils. Seems if you can get a pencil that has been monogramed, it's a keeper.

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001

Joy, how thoughtful of you! There's a Tru Value store around here that I will check out. Thanks! ( I was thinking of this thread today as I was once again breaking those clothespins!!!!)

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001

You're welcome, sheepish. I see I made a mistake in the email addy -- should have been penley (not penly).

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001