Be always vigilant...
Written: Dec 10 '06 (Updated Dec 10 '06)
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I've had a membership at Sam's Club for about 10 years now, and bought online at samsclub.com for the last 4, so I have some feelings to share about it.
ELECTRONICS:
The biggest nit I have to pick is Sam's electronics.
- An expensive 32-inch JVC television that died A MONTH after it's two-year warranty expired
- An AT&T two-line office phone that died A MONTH after it's six-month warranty expired. Luckily I'd purchased an extended warranty at Sam's for this and got most of my money back. Strangely, Sam's doesn't offer extended warranties any more.
- A Leapfrog learning-toy that croaked (sorry) after the kid dropped it about a foot onto a carpeted floor. For starters, my kid loved the toy and was broken hearted over breaking it. But the truly vile, irksome nature of the thing remained to be seen. I used to work in an electronics-assembly plant and know a bit about such things, so I opened it up and looked around. I was expecting to find something like a broken wire from the battery compartment to the circuit board (which would be fixable), but the thing was perfect inside. No broken wires, no cracked circuit board, no cold-solder joints on the board, nada. There was absolutely no visible reason for the thing to quit working (and yes, I'd already tried a different set of batteries). Must have been an internal defect in one of the electronic components that was sensitive to sudden (and slight) physical shocks. Just the sort of sturdy construction one expects in a toy designed for a two-year-old. Unfortunately just missing the mark with component integrity.
- ALL OTHER electrically powered items I've purchased from Sam’s in the past have been less than satisfactory. Flashlights with supposed 10,000-hour LED bulbs that burn out after two uses of a few minutes each. An office desk lamp with a switch that want bad after 4 months. Low-voltage florescent bulb replacements that only last 1/2-year of the 5 years claimed on the package. Other sundry and smaller items, I forget exactly what they were now, thankfully, but I DO remember they came from Sam’s and died young.
- My last experience with Sam's electronics was just this past weekend, with a couple of their electronic automotive accessories. I'd purchased a "Maxx" automotive jump-start battery system and "Maxx" 500-watt power inverter. I already have one such battery and inverter combo I bought several years ago (at a different store) that I use in emergencies to keep our cell phones charged, the radio playing, and carbon-monoxide detector working. I bought the additional pair so I could run small appliances at different parts of the house without running long extension cords - also so I could charge one battery at any relative's house that still had power, while using the other battery at home. Well this past weekend brought a big ice storm and a multi-day power outage. The "Maxx" jump-start battery didn't show more than 50% charge after a day and a half of charging at my mother-in-laws house. Supposed to be fully charged in 14 hours. And the "Maxx" 500-watt inverter I bought would not run my television, which was easily powered by my old 300-watt inverter. I also noticed with some alarm that the casing of this "Maxx" inverter was plastic, painted silver and molded in such a way to look like an aluminum casing with heat-dissipating fins. Like my old inverter, with it's REAL aluminum housing and heat-dissipating fins. Sort of like finding out the wood-burning stove you just bought was made of wood. These items were returned to the local Sam's Club the next day, with a prayer for anyone who depended on them in an emergency.
In short (sorry) MOST of the electrical items I've purchased at Sam’s have gone kaput before their time (I generally believe that most goods should well outlast their warranty periods). Most of those items exhibit failures that should have shown up in any decent manufacturer's product testing. Which makes me wonder aloud if many of these name-brand electronics at Sam’s are seconds or even entire manufacturing runs that were rejected. This is of course just my opinion, and not anything I want to go on record as stating is a hard fact. But the smell of fish is evident. And let's not forget the power inverter made of plastic so as to resemble a heat-resistant aluminum casing. Gives me chills thinking about it.
OUTDOOR GOODS:
I have a couple experiences with their outdoor items, one pretty bad:
- I bought a backpack branded "Mountainsmith" (a fairly well regarded name in backpacking gear) at Sam’s that turned out to be actually manufactured by a company called "105 Meridian", who apparently licenses the brand name "Mountainsmith" for limited production runs. Limited production runs being the type that come apart at the seams the first time used, abruptly, with gear on ground and items rolling off in different directions. Sweet. Fortunately this was only a few weeks after I bought it, so it got returned for a refund.
- I bought a hydration pack very similar to a Camelback Mule, made by High Sierra. Used it a couple of times, then the hydration bladder began leaking. On examination, looked like the ultrasonic weld on the hose coupling failed. Unfortunately too late to return, but I got the manufacturer to replace the bladder free. Strangely the replacement bladder was exactly the same size and shape, but of a completely different construction around the failed part. Again, I suspect that it was a production run with a poorly designed or manufactured hydration bladder, being dumped via the wholesale club.
That wraps it up. So my bottom lines (by product type) are:
ELECTRONICS: Be VERY wary of electronic items from Sam's. In my opinion their brand-name items are poor quality - in some cases I suspect they're seconds, or manufacturing runs that didn't pass 'wear-and-tear' tests. And in my humble opinion the off-brand electronics they carry are junk. Just like shopping on the web, if you can't find the brand name with a google search, then avoid it. Not worth the cost, frustration, and possible danger of using it.
OUTDOOR GOODS: I'm picky about these so I'd just pass on anything they have. If you must buy something, examine it closely on delivery. Make sure you put a lot of use on anything before their 90-day return period is over. And for pete's sake, make sure that volleyball set you buy is actually made by VOIT and not VOIGHT, with a tiny "gh" printed between the I and the T.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Location: Saint Louis
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me: father, recovering computer geek, cyclist
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