Pantene conditioner in the US. When I left two years ago, it was fine, and I continue to use it in the UK for the same hair type with no problems.
I bought a bottle when I was back in the US in April this year, and the formula has got horrible – I get the stuff for fine hair, and they’ve decided to add mousse or something to the formula. Whereas before my hair came out all right, using the new stuff made my hair look dirty and limp, and it felt ‘crunchy’ to the touch. Gross.
If I wanted product/mousse in my hair, I’d buy it.
I had a hell of a time gettiing that shit out of my hair and then finding something that wasn’t nasty for the two weeks I was out there.
Teva sport sandals. Same old story, had two pairs I bought way back when, that that were comfortable, and lasted for years. I still wear one pair. Then when I bought replacements they broke (4 out of 8 D rings) within a few miles of easy walking. The replacements they sent (a different style) made my ankles bleed within a few miles of easy walking! They sent another replacement pair that I wear for short distances, once in a while. I’m guessing the drop in quality coincided with off-shoring.
I’m glad you posted this. I have had a pair for many years that still show little sign of wearing out. I would’ve automatically purchased a new pair when they did.
J.C. Penney’s. Used to get all my slacks and shirts there; they had decent selection in the shirts, and comfortable slacks, at reasonable prices. Would usually buy a few other things, like bath towels, while I was there.
But a few years ago, they brought in that guy who was going to make the place appeal to the twentysomethings, and suddenly I couldn’t find anything I liked there anymore. (I’m 60, so I’m in what had been their target demographic.) They kicked him out and are rumored to be trying to undo the damage he did, but it was taking too long.
K-Mart bought them awhile back, and while they haven’t dropped to K-Mart’s level of quality, they’ve certainly moved in that direction.
As chain restaurants go, Carrabba’s used to have pretty good food.
They’ve been getting progressively worse, the past few years. There USED to be a big difference in quality between Carrabba’s and Olvie Garden. Not any more.
I was really in to this brand called H2O Audio. They make waterproof holders for iPods/iPhones and waterproof headphones. My main form of exercise is swimming and when I invested in my first iPod, I spent a lot of time researching ways to get it in the pool with me and H2O was it.
I had their case & armband for my Mini, and it rocked. Then I got a Touch and moved on to their Touch/Phone case with armband. Also rocked but it was expensive, and bulky. And I had to get a new headphone set.
The two cases lasted me like 12 years and hundreds of miles in the pool. But one time I accidentally left my case slightly un-closed, and I lost an iPod Touch. Not long after, I lost an iPod Mini…this time with no user error. And then I lost another Mini. The case had just stopped working properly or something. I could no longer trust it.
I almost pulled the trigger on buying a new case from H2O (now called X-1) but I checked around to see what else had been invented in 12 years. I came upon something way different, from a different company - a waterproof Shuffle that is the size of a quarter that you can put on your goggles. No case, no arm band, no long cords.
So far, I’ve had it on about a dozen swims and it’s miles better than anything I ever got from H2O. Maybe their stuff is better for salt water, or sturdier for surfers. But for the recreational swimmer, their time is done.
Maytag. Their advertisements stress their reliability because, IMO, they have serious reliability problems. Rather than fix those problems they crow about how they don’t exist. The wife wanted top quality, reliable appliances when we remodeled the kitchen so it was Maytag all the way. Every appliance had to be serviced within the first year. Every single one has been replaced within 10 years, except the range - we just don’t use the oven, or the clock anymore. It’s basically a stovetop.
I used to buy ZOTE Mexican bar laundry soap, but they seem to have discovered their Americanized market and it is nearly impossible to find the uncolored unscented white or brown bars anymore, so I switched to LIRIO.
Aside from that, I don’t have very much product loyalty.
I’ve always bought Gold Medal Flour, but I think I’ll switch because their bags are nearly impossible to open without ripping the bag to pieces, even CR complained about that.
Exactly. That’s my opinion too. I’ve never used Windows 8 per se but I work with Server 2012 daily and I have to admit I find Windows’ approach to tabletization far more obnoxious than the latest OS X.
But, like you say, Windows 7 is a perfectly viable alternative, while that doesn’t really work nearly as well on Mac. I don`t know what I’ll do in the future, since they both seem convinced this is the way to go. I guess I’ll be grumpy a lot.
I can (speak to at least one of their toner-type units).
A few years ago, we had an older HP 3600dn break a part of the actual paper path. Did the research and they recommended the CP2025dn as the replacement unit.
Total CRAP! Set the unit to auto-duplex. When you are printing a single sided document, it STILL PULLS THE PAPER BACK TO DUPLEX! Printing PDFs using one of the drivers (can’t remember if PCL or PS) sometimes took almost 20-30 minutes for a 10-15 page PDF! Complete GARBAGE!
Their Pro-line B/W units are decent, but their color line went to shit. That was the last HP color I’ve purchased for my company.
Ooh, another: Ernie Ball guitar strings. In my guitar-playing life (the last 25 years), they have gone from “cheap but decent,” to “cheap and unusable.”
Seriously, I used to buy at least 1, sometimes 2, pairs of Reeboks a year because they were the perfect shoe. Comfy, decent quality, etc. I would have paid an extra $15 or $20 a pair for them if I’d been given the choice between that and the crap they produce now.
Which sets, specifically? I still use Earthwoods occasionally on my 12 string and haven`t seen the difference in them since I started using them in the 80s.
Seconding this. They totally boned the new formulation.
I’ve given up trying to find a decent product put out by Mt. Olive foods. they used to, many eons ago, have halfway decent pickles. But now they all are barf-inducing.
Arby’s used to be one of my go-to fast food places. Now everything there is overpriced and disappointing.
McDonald’s, when I was a kid, was beset by quality control issues. Now the worst thing that happens is one of the teenagers put the burger together in a sloppy manner. In my opinion Mickey D’s has gotten a lot better.
