I imagine that just like my employees at the time, the people processing, repairing and shipping refurbished or repaired equipment are under the pressures of quotas and numbers just like I had been, and just like my employees, they make choices between sending out equipment with a high failure rate and keeping their jobs. In this modern age of draconian return policies and the sale of extended warranties, it may even be profitable to keep the public thinking the electronic equipment they spent hundreds of dollars isn't just likely to break, but certain to. Instead of refusing to sell shoddy merchandise, retailers have chosen to tighten sell their own warranties instead, making their money off the predictably unreliable quality of consumer electronics.
It might seem conspiratorial to suggest that companies are benefiting from poor workmanship, and certainly any self-respecting corporation would refute my assumptions out of hand, but the evidence suggests that companies and retailers have increasingly reached a place where there are large acceptable percentages of defective merchandise. And, certainly, the environment has changed in such a way that not only is the electronics industry taking into account defective product, but even finding ways to profit from it. With restocking fees, retail warranty add-ons, the sale of extended manufacturer warranties, and questionable repair and replacement policies, the market has structured itself to be successful despite high failure rates and low consumer confidence.
