| Product: |
Flymo Turbo Compact 330 |
| Date: |
04/06/03 (1507 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: idea is good
Disadvantages: but product is poor, doesn't last, heavy to use
In summary, my advice is don't buy one of these unless you're a shareholder!
I purchased one in June 01.
It lasted until the middle of August 01, being used weekly on a not very big lawn (approx 10x 29 metres).
It struggled (seemed to be gasping for air) if the grass was dry and especially if there hadn't been a lot of growth.
Finally it burned out (that horrible smell of burning palstic and rubber) so I took it back.
B&Q were happy to replace it without any quibble when I explained it had burned out.
The guy who was summoned to deal with me took one look from behind the barrier and authorised a replacement. I got the impression that he wasn't surprised!
That was my big mistake. I accepted a straight replacement and, guess what, that went the same way.
But it did last a little longer. It finally gave up the ghost in May 03, on it's second outing of this year.
I got, in total, one full season (02) from this product and even then it "gasped for air" as before. I hoped it would burn out during the year so that I could ask for a different replacement but no such luck.
Anyway, as the machine is technically 20 months old neither Flymo nor B&Q are interested.
When it worked it did an adequate job but nothing special.
The floating ball "full" indicator is a bit of a joke as well because it only takes a stray piece of grass to cause it to stick in the "full" position. I note that the design has changed on the "vision" models! I wonder why?
Funnily enough, when I was in arguing my case for a refund at B&Q because the product isn't fit for its purpose, the guy beside me was returning a vision model, one week old that didn't work!
I'm now happily cutting my grass with a mower that's not a flymo, does a better job and cost 40% less, but out of pocket to the tune of £100!!!
Summary:
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Last comments:
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- 01/05/06 I am a customer adviser at a large DIY store and I'm supposed to "advise" customers who want to buy this stuff.
Flymo has really gone down the pan. I have a 22 year old bog standard basic Flymo which is still going strong.
As we are less young and fit than we used to be, I took my wife into my store recently looking at Flymos that collect the grass so that we don't have to rake it up and bag it away. Having been a design engineer in my younger days, the look and feel of the flimsy plastic hinges, catches and attachments put me more in mind of something out of ToysRUs or MotherCare -- whose products actually seem far more robust.
Our old Flymo still working fine, the best approach I can advise to buying anything is to look thoroughly around the web at sites like this, scanning forums and reviews. Then take a look at the products you narrow down to.
You don't have to be an engineer. All you need is some basic spatial imagination with an eye for detail and a good sense of feel in your finger tips.
Further to that, you don't have to have a degree in economic philosophy to realise that the existing world market economic system is at a point where it is showing its un-sustainability.
Thus, if Flymo made a mower these days that would last 20 or even ten years, they would soon go out of business and sell very few more mowers. It is essential to continuing in business to deliberately build obsolescence into modern products. This goes under the slight of hand that technology is always improving. And this is emphasised visually by continually changing styling with no real technological improvement. In fact, it attempts to hide the built-in obsolescence.
If it's high on style, all touchy feely smoothy translucent Starship Enterprise colours and shapes, it is more likely to be low on quality. Like most British education, media, politics and culture these days - dumbed down, full of form, empty of content.
Final ly, please tell me what mower you bought as I too want something decent, you know -- no pop up translucent covers, indicator balls or cable winders; as I can look when it's full and can coil a cable quite neatly just using my hands. |
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- 04/06/03 Sounds useless, thanks for the warning.
Makes one wonder why they don't do any proper reasearch and testing on new designs, cheaper to market and monitor returns I suppose, sad. |
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