Sunday, January 11, 2009

Also, turtle wax sucks.

I must really sound like a curmudgeon sometimes, with all this complaining. Stupid product tricks do make me grumpy, but they also mystify me: why do premium brands sully their reputation with silly, preventable mistakes? Is it a random fluke? Price competition from cheap brands? Complacency? Mediocrity that accumulates as a company ages?

I bought some Turtle Wax to use on my cast iron tool worktables. Here's a company that's over 60 years old, whose product probably hasn't had to change much over that time. It came in a little tub with an applicator on top. Great.

Except that it's virtually impossible to get the yellow lid off without taking off the lid to the tub, and the tub is so flimsy that as the lid flies off, you end up with a handful of wax, and a gooped up lid attached to the lid holding the applicator safely inside. Seriously, wtf?

Did nobody at Turtle, Inc. ever actually think to try their product? Did environmental DDT contamination cause statistically thinner shells over time?

Even Sawstop didn't get it right with their $5000 cabinet saw. Reviews called it the finest saw they'd ever used, but both of the ones we got at work had some stupid missing or incorrect pieces or something.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your blog comment regarding the Turtle Wax packaging sucking popped up on my Google Alert for Turtle Wax. Full disclosure, I'm the brand director for Turtle Wax (I've only had the flagship TW brand for about 9 months now)...and I couldn't agree more with your comment regarding the packaging. With that said, I would like for you to be the first person to receive a case of our product-IN A COMPLETELY REDESIGNED PACKAGE. We'll be launching later this year and I think you'll be very happy with our direction. So, yes someone is listening and I hear you loud and clear! Please contact me at mokicich@turtlewax.com

Lunkwill said...

Thanks for your comment, Marc. I was going to respond here, but I decided the response was worth a new post.