[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Desperadoxx

Another thing that I regret buying is my Treadmill, which after a couple of weeks came to use as a "very expensive cloth hanger" for no fault of the machine. I am sure that many of you would have the same story.

For a couple of years, the treadmill just sat there as a very expensive clothes hanger. After that, we figured that the space around the treadmill was too little, and we couldn't be bothered to fold down the tread to start using it (too much exercise ). Once it was moved to another location where it could be parked with the tread in the unfolded position, it started being put to a fair amount of use. Glad we didn't give in to the initial urge to junk it after the first year.

[highwaylover]

i regret buying a Phillips 5.1 home theater. It worked fine initially. Then i had to put it on shelf as we did not use it for some time. After 6-7 months when i tried to use it again, it just refused to play DVDs. Took it to a Phillips authorized service center. They said the motherboard is damaged and a new motherboard is not available in the market. Now its a peace of junk. Little consolation i have is i can buy a cheap DVD player for 2k and use the speakers from Phillips home theater.

Originally Posted by Desperadoxx

Another thing that I regret buying is my Treadmill, which after a couple of weeks came to use as a "very expensive cloth hanger" for no fault of the machine. I am sure that many of you would have the same story.

Yes. Exactly the same story. Just replace "Treadmill" with "Exercycle". We are still using it as a expensive cloth hanger

[Chipz]

1. I regret buying a scooty in 2002, it worked well for one year. after that the rear wheel axle's bearing gave way and the axle rubbed against the chasis and cracked it since I had to drive it to the workshop. had to aluminium weld it. And that welder did not allign both holes well, so it cracked again in a week. finally sold it after repairing.
2. Brought a second hand yamaha rx 135. Not much or a problem, but it came fitted with kinetic gs 170 disc brakes in the front. Since kinetic is no more, there is no way to get the pinion wheel for the speedometer.

The threadmill is a similar phenomenon everywhere. Luckly I dont have one, but it is a pretty expensive shoe rack or cloth hanger for my friends. Similar is the case with my cousins Sauna belt

[Proxima]

A second hand Tata Safari TCIC 2004 model bought in 2007 and sold in 2009, bought with a second-hand car loan! Spent quite a bit on it but what I hated was the pathetic pickup and the poor mileage, can live without the latter but if a car makes a fuss to go above 100kmph, what's the point? You cant even tour properly!

Lessons learnt:
1. Don't buy a second hand Tata
2. Don't just buy a car because some people are fans of it (sometimes, the negatives are not highlighted and something is portrayed as near-perfect which is completely untrue)
3. Try to avoid buying a car that nobody else in your family can drive, it will not serve it's full purpose
4. Buy a second hand car only if you can pay cash outright, second-hand car loans are killingly high on interest making the deal not worthwhile.
5. Don't be in a hurry when scouting for second hand cars.

[raj_5004]

A sony LCD TV- i bought it just 1 week back & 3 days back i saw a TV ad stating that sony has launched its new range of new-gen LCD TVs.

Originally Posted by Proxima

Lessons learnt:
1. Don't buy a second hand Tata
2. Don't just buy a car because some people are fans of it (sometimes, the negatives are not highlighted and something is portrayed as near-perfect which is completely untrue)

i totally agree with you on this one, especially the second point.

[vinaydas]

well all my cars and phone's were bought with calculated research hence i absolutely love my car's.
well one thing i regret buying was close to 10 years ago a cycle Ranger Swing instead of Top Gear. Well Then i bought the top gear and regretted buying that too then was finally satisfied with a kinetic

[Maxwell Arthur]

Bought a Dell Inspiron 1525 in 2008. A piece of S**T. Exactly after one year, the Mother board died on me. Boots up slowly and the repair cost according to Dell is 12500. Might as well buy a new laptop and discard this piece of junk.

[androdev]

We all make certain assumptions while buying a car and in some cases we find ourselves proven wrong on certain factors. I thought it would be interesting to share our experiences here.

In my case, I bought a petrol car (Fabia) as my 2nd car assuming it will have a very limited usage. Now I wish I had bought a diesel (not necessarily Fabia) because the usage is no longer remains limited.

[VW2010]

In hindsight just for the sake of petrol vs Diesel usage, i feel i should have got a Civic or Accord. But no regrets getting the Jetta knowing i use it almost 1500kms a month easilly without considering any long trips.

[WhiteKnight]

Since this thread is in Shifting Gears, I assume I could post some non-automobile decisions. I never had issues with choosing cars so far- touch wood!!

However there is one purchase that went massively wrong- buying a mobile phone. A change to my phone was necessary as the existing one's batter was not lasting much.

My mandate was to buy a phone that could be used for another three years without it being obsolete. So, I researched, talked to tech-gurus and arrived at the decisions listed below
1) OS has to be Android
2) Mobile would be Samsung or HTC as both have mid-range android phones

Eventually I settled for Galaxy 3. To cut the story short, the phone spend roughly 50% of the first 3 months ownership in the service center. Its mother board went dead, which got replaced with another which was faulty as delivered (We tested it at the service center and found that there itself- so, no down time due to it). I am running on third mother board now. The phone also had some other parts like receiver got replaced.

My mistake- While buying, I did have a checklist. But, I tested the phone's high end features, such as GPS, internet etc. I didn't bother to test the bluetooth thinking that this technology is already perfected. Bluetooth and wi-fi was not working from day 1, eventually leading to replacement of motherboard.

Mistake # 2- Android. For once I went with the advise of my tech gurus. Later I realized that Android OS enables Google to get too much information about me. Even an innocent application such as Bible has access to my sd card, can technically delete my contact list, can track my location, and even needs to access internet. Secondly, GPS usage is charged, as maps are not downloaded and stored in the phone. Adding to it, there is virtually no protection against hackers.

Finally I realized why my friends who are at high positions always have two phones. One which is dashing, classy and costly, which they always hold in hand and show off while they talk. the same this they carefully uncover and keep on the table while in a meeting, as if it is a pistol and he is in a mafia meet. Second phone is the old button one which is hidden somewhere. This phone is taken out only for one use- To make a call. Isn't that all phones supposed to be used for

PS; If anyone is having issues with Samsung, do let me know. I have very good connections with their Service center and some managers

[PatienceWins]

My regrets:
Sony Ericsson Z550: I bought this for wife as it was a sleek flip phone which she can easily carry in her handbag. I usually go for Nokia. The phone started giving regular issues and the battery also died soon. After seeing the rush in customer case, I confirmed that it was a bad decision and vowed never to buy a Sony Ericsson again.

Beetel Cordless phone X69: The intercom started ringing on its own and it started giving problems. I am still using the phone, but the cordless phone and intercom for which I had spent 3.5k five years back was not used. The build quality was flimsy. I have decided to stick with Panasonic or Sanyo.

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

Finally I realized why my friends who are at high positions always have two phones. One which is dashing, classy and costly, which they always hold in hand and show off while they talk. the same this they carefully uncover and keep on the table while in a meeting, as if it is a pistol and he is in a mafia meet. Second phone is the old button one which is hidden somewhere. This phone is taken out only for one use- To make a call. Isn't that all phones supposed to be used for

Good one .I have noticed the same.

[chevelle]

Regrets:

Iphone 4: Got it in Nov 2010- had terrible call drop issues. Gave it back. Was bought on popular demand (if you know what i mean)

On similar popular demand, was bought again, 5 months back.
2 months later,

problem 1: dead pixel appeared on screen,

problem 2: phone got so hot while using it, a message came up saying, its too hot to continue. had to switch it off.

problem 3: camera app won't open. will return back to home screen.

the phone was returned to Apple store and was given a replacement. 2 days later, the phone died. It is not starting.

Another replacement. Seems good as of now. But utterly disappointed with the iphone.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

I confirmed that it was a bad decision and vowed never to buy a Sony Ericsson again.

Went through this thread from the beginning and was wondering how come SE did not figure in a regret list. Finally found it on the last page.

I am the kind that will spend days researching brands/price/shops using excel/paper/parchment before making every purchase. Did the same before getting an SE phone each for me and wife. Wifey's prirority was music, while I wanted a way to combine phone with decent 3.1MP cam so that I need not lug around a digiCam and phone (I need to have a camera with me always). Got her the slim walkman phone from SE, while I got myself the K810i. Crappy phones to say the least - you are talking on the phone and suddenly all you hear is screaming kind of gibberish, press a key and some other key's action happens, UI starts running on its own without userInput etc etc.

The only saving grace is the camera, which provides decent image quality. Here too, I learnt that a phone-cam cannot replace a digicam. In digicam, you focus and click - you are done. With the phone cam, you click, but the output will not necessarily be what you had in mind while framing the shot - there is quite a gap between click and final image.

Needless to say, I will never ever buy a Sony Ericson phone again.

Have always used only basic phones with objective to only make calls or send rare SMS, starting with Nokia 3310, Motorola C350 and then MotoC168. From my experience with the 3 makes, Moto stays high up there - battery lasts for days, phone itself lasts for years (I still use the C168 as a spare phone and the stock battery is still good after some 4 years) etc. Nokia comes a distant 2nd, while SE is not in contention at all.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Went through this thread from the beginning and was wondering how come SE did not figure in a regret list. Finally found it on the last page.

Needless to say, I will never ever buy a Sony Ericson phone again.

Have always used only basic phones with objective to only make calls or send rare SMS, starting with Nokia 3310, Motorola C350 and then MotoC168. From my experience with the 3 makes, Moto stays high up there - battery lasts for days, phone itself lasts for years (I still use the C168 as a spare phone and the stock battery is still good after some 4 years) etc. Nokia comes a distant 2nd, while SE is not in contention at all.

Somehow, i have totally opposite experience to what you had. I have 3 SE phones - c905, w580i (white & pink). All 3 are super reliable with good quality and good battery life. OTOH, had terrible experience with moto razr and krazr.

I use to have Sony T100 way back in 2003 and it was a good reliable phone back then.

Never faced any problems like you have mentioned.

[sachinj12]

Bought a Nokia 6630 around 4 years back. Phone died within 6 months.Got a replacement and sold for a loss of 8k.

Ironically, my uncle's N6630 (bought on same day at same dealer) still works like a dream