What's the dumbest purchase you've ever made?

BB_TX · Apr 21, 2004

Re: What\'s the dumbest purchase you\'ve ever made?

Speaking of Y2K. In 1999 I bought 200 shares of a company that had a great press release of their software that would correct any and all Y2K problems. Being an engineer and dealing with computers myself, I never believed there would be any Y2K problem, but with all the wild press, I thought this stock had to go up and I would sell just before 2000. Well that stock is now worth $0.0016 per share. And I still have it. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif It would cost me more to sell it than it is worth. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Golfgar4 · Apr 21, 2004

Re: What\'s the dumbest purchase you\'ve ever made?

( Speaking of Y2K. )

Like you said....

This wasn't a purchase that I personally made, but that my employer (the municipality) made.

We have 5 underground fuel storage tanks that have leak detection monitor systems. We received notification from the company that installed the monitoring system that 2 of the 5 systems had elements that would fail when we rolled over to 2000. They assured us that the other 3 systems were completely compliant.

Well, I'm not sure what the cost was to upgrade these 2 systems, but I know it wasn't cheap! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Yeah, you already guessed it, didn't you? The 2 new systems were the only ones that failed when the clock struck 12! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

We did get our money back from the company, and it sure made an interesting story for the local paper! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Taylortractornut · Apr 21, 2004

Re: What\'s the dumbest purchase you\'ve ever made?

I didnt worry about Y2K My anti gun neighbor had some horses and they stocked up on the MRE's dry goods toilet paper fuel, and such I thought why gather all this when my cousin had 2500 12 Gauge shells here lol. I figured on smoked horse and beans if it got too rough. just kiddin
My wors purchase i guess would have to been a chinese recipricating saw cut one exhaust pipe and i died. my brother bought one the same days and its lived 4 hard years my 12 dollar grinder has out lasted my 75 dollar Craftsman.
Ive made a few bad purchases but they come with horse trading lol.

armyof1 · Apr 21, 2004

Re: What\'s the dumbest purchase you\'ve ever made?

I started at age 12 in 79 got sick every time I take a dip of Copenhagen for a week stright trying to be one of the guys but hung in there till I could, did it for 24 yrs. My wife let me get my tractor and a new truck because I quit. Trying to find other things to quit now need some attachments. But I like beer and at time see that as a bad purchase I should have never made /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Poppa · Apr 22, 2004

Re: What\'s the dumbest purchase you\'ve ever made?

( ... got sick every time I take a dip of Copenhagen for a week stright trying to be one of the guys but hung in there till I could...)

It is amazing how hard your body will work to stop you from doing something stupid to it. Almost as amazing as how we will work just a little harder against it to do what we think we want. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

( ... Trying to find other things to quit now need some attachments. But I like beer.../forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )

Oh yeah, I 've been thinking about that aspect of this little deal. I want to make sure I get all I can this time cause I don't have anything else worth trading for. You can also bet I will be putting heavy hours on any new machine I get right from the get go because my wife has promised me that if I slip up one time she will sell the tractor so fast I won't even know what happened. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Mike

Slamfire · Apr 23, 2004

Re: What\'s the dumbest purchase you\'ve ever made?

My wife bought one of those, except her's says Craftsman instead of Ryobi. It has enough legs but not enough holes to attach the router to. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

DCJL · Apr 26, 2004

Re: What\'s the dumbest purchase you\'ve ever made?

Back in '89 the wife and I had an '87 Minnie Winnie 27' class C (winnebago) motor home that we purchased new in '87. The ONLY problem we had (other than gas mileage of course) was the electronic starter for water heater went out and had to be replaced for around $50. We traded it in for a new. Our monthly payments were $435 and we only had 2.5 years till we owned it. I wanted the new 35' class A Winnebago Chieftain. Went for 10 or 15 year mortgage at $569/ month. Was making lots of $ at the time and was able to write it off as a legit business expense as I was a photographer and traveled in it to take pictures and earn lots of $ doing it. First time we used it was in the winter and had gone north to shoot some ski pictures. Took the wife and our 3 month old. The unit had 3 ways of heating. A built in central propane heat system, a generator to run a couple of Pelonis Ceramic heaters and finally running the engine and turning the front heat on. Well the propane gave out about 11pm. The generator gave out about 1:30am. So I had to get up every 1.5 hours to run the motor for 20 minutes to take the chill out. Took it to the dealer and had it fixed.

That summer we went cross country. I kept a list of things as they broke. On the way back I made an appointment to stop in at Winnebage in Iowa and gave them a list of 54 things that needed repair!!! This included a crack in the external sidewall. Wife and little one flew home while I waited a week for them to fix it. They put me up in their motel room for the time I was there.

By the next summer the external crack had come back as well as what appeared to be a problem with the exhaust. The dealer repaired the external crack. I had found out that this particular Ford 460 had problems cracking the exhaust manifold. I pointed out that the bolts were "shifting" and would probably crack. They said until they did crack that they could not touch them. Well sure enough next summer the exhaust manifold cracked as well as the sidewall on the body again.

Time for a trip (from NY) to Iowa again. This time they replaced the entire sidewall with a new one!!!! Not only that by the time I got out there not only did the exhaust manifold crack, the entire side of the engine manifold cracked form the stress!!! As I remember there were also a number of other "little problems" like around 20 that they needed to fix. The wife and I still joke to this day that it would of looked perfect in a nice lemon yellow color. Ended up selling it to a Motorhome place for less than the loan, and paid the loan off with some extra out of pocket money. One of my fondest memories was having to pay to get rid of that piece of junk.

I later found out that this was a hot new product and they were running triple shifts to crank these out of the factory. In other words, throw it together and put it together right when it comes back for repair.....

Wish I kept the Minnie Winne, it was almost perfect.....