Keen cyclist Ruairi O'Shea got quite a fright when his heart rate monitor soared from 150 beats per minute (bpm) to 213bpm.
"I knew either something was badly wrong with me, or the monitor was broken."
Luckily it was the monitor and a replacement was quickly delivered. But then it broke again and again. Each time, the US manufacturer Wahoo sent a new one, no questions asked. O'Shea ended up needing four within 18 months.
Many people would be happy with this level of customer service but O'Shea wasn't. Working for Consumer NZ, he was appalled at how monitors that cost about $170 could break so easily. The company's readiness to replace also didn't sit well with him.
"People want products that last, that they can rely on and work well for a long time," he said.
O'Shea said no efforts were made to recover the broken products he had, or advice given on how to recycle them.
He feels it's "slightly hypocritical" of Wahoo to say on its website that it partners with an organisation called CHaRM (Centre for Hard to Recycle Materials) that "ensures waste is recycled where possible... to help lessen our environmental footprint".
Fair Go put his thoughts to Wahoo who told us "it advises customers to do the right thing" as currently there is no solution to the global electronic waste problem.
Consumer NZ don't have a magic bullet to solve the e-waste problem either, but they do have a suggestion for a system that could go some way to help.
It's a repairability labelling system that already exists in France.
Manufacturers rate their own products on a score out of 10. They take into consideration factors like the availability of repair manuals, the availability and price of spare parts, the ease of taking a product apart and its durability. This would enable customers to choose products at the point of sale based on how long they might last and how easy they are to repair as well as their price.
Paul Smith from Consumer NZ said it would need to be enforced as otherwise those likely to have a lower score might not take part. In France there is no checking of the scores but rather the companies themselves are in a position to call each other out if scores are misrepresented.
Currently, New Zealand is in the unenviable position of being one of the worst countries in the world for e-waste (electronic waste). New Zealand is also the only country in the OECD without e-waste regulations. The hope is that this system would help to sway customers to buy better products and that, in turn, this would influence manufacturers to put more importance on the durability and repairability of the goods they produce.
Consumer NZ has a petition on its website for anyone wanting to support the labelling system. The petition will be presented to Government in an effort to get the system introduced.
Smith thinks "it would be an absolute game changer — the idea of light touch legislation that nudges the manufacturers to compete on something other than the lowest price".
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