What was the last thing you bought that turned out to be junk?

My MS Word membership. My computer crashed and I still get monthly charges for a program that I no longer have. I don’t know who to call seeing that I can’t discern what sites are real and which are scammers.
I got scammed another $90 for what I thought was an legit Microsoft word site.

Spoiled food (avocados, milk). Thrown out. In one case, called to report it, and got a coupon for free replacement.

I bought some patchouli oil from Amazon and it smelled really nasty. I returned it. It was from a company that sold through Amazon. They refunded me the money plus gave me shipping, and I probably could have not mailed it back to them because I don’t think they really wanted it back, but they gave me 5 dollars toward shipping so I fulfilled my obligation. Shipping was 5.50 and I checked my credit card and saw that I got the refund back in early December. Still, it’s mailed back to them and I was just happy to have gotten the majority back.

A musical instrument off Amazon. I got a partial discount for changing a negative feedback to one more neuteral.

^^ That sounds like Blackmail to me! If it was defective or something else was wrong with it, there was something WRONG with it. Why the strong arm tactics?

@Dig_Dug. I bought the instrument, and realized it was overpriced so gave a bad review based solely on quality v price. The seller then contacted me, offered a 30% or so refund in exchange to change the bad review to not bad. It was the seller who contacted the buyer. The buyer didn’t even know that was an option until the seller offered. Not blackmail since the seller initiated the compromise.

These Scünci bobby pins.

Can’t find them on the Scünci page any more, but there were a lot of posted complaints, including mine, so this is from eBay.

They’re very pretty, shiny, solid, nice metallic colors; but they’re no bobbi pins. Bobbi pins are made of lighter metal, with rubber tips, and they part easily so you can slip them into your hair and then they hold. These are more like hair clips, but they are so firm that they’re hard to open. It takes two hands—and you can’t fasten them in your hair like that, with one hand holding the end that’s supposed to go in.

Let me say that again: you can’t get them into your hair. That’s what all the comments that I read were complaining of: pretty, but you can’t wear them. No wonder people are trying to unload them on eBay.

No use to try to return the item. I guess I’ll throw them away. They don’t even work as paper clips.

@Acrylic I see, so I guess that’s not so bad since you thought they were overpriced and 30% off should have covered that.
@Jeruba They did “look” good, but looks are deceiving especially on eBay.

@Jeruba That’s too bad. They really are pretty; I would have bought them!

@Dig_Dug I hope I didn’t give the impression that I either bought or sold them on eBay, where you can’t really examine an item. I bought them at the CVS in Harvard Square, and I have them here with me in San Jose. Trying to think of another use for them so I don’t have to just drop them in the trash.

A cute kitty cat standing on its hind paws and holding up your iphone. It has a suction cup between the front paws. I ordered two, only one worked. The other one had a bend in the plastic cup and wouldn’t hold. No loss, they were under a buck each.

A used lawn mower. I junked the engine and used the deck and grass catcher with a running engine that I had repaired.

That’s a tough one. I do a fair amount of research before I lay down my cash and I typically go for quality over cheap.
I would also have returned it in a heartbeat if I found out it was junk.

I bought a paint mixing pallet, but the enamel paint I use ate through the plastic in just a few weeks.