Origin

We believe as we choose and where fantasy undermines logic.

The term ‘wood duck’ arose in the 70’s in the used car industry, and was a term coined by used car salesmen to describe the gullible and the naive tyre kicking buyers.

People who venture out to buy that which they have no real knowledge of, other than that based on delusional desire and armed with a disproportionate ego.

Today the term is ascribed to the same individuals over a broader product range.
People that buy on impulse, do so on the basis of what they would prefer to believe, much like choosing a religion.
Rather than forearming themselves with any real knowledge they place the responsibility on the product representation.

Choice

Lack of awareness is not exclusive to the general public.
Professionals such as builders, architects and engineers are also found to be wanting.

Most will justify their lack of due diligence to ‘but they said’.

Then we come to Google, where inference and vague statements used entice the reader to interpret according to their desire.
What is actually being said, and what is being inferred, are often two different things.

What the consumer is not aware of is that these structured statements in slick advertising are used to promote false confidence within the consumer.

Example…

I went in to the Good Guys to buy one of the new fandangled juicers…..
Now how can anything be simpler and what could go wrong with a new product that is extensively advertised on TV, the medium supposedly endorsed by God.

The Good Guys salesperson was polite and quite helpful.
I asked what I thought were the right questions, and accompanied me to the transaction counter where I completed my purchase.

I presumed, that all I needed to consider was what power I was going to avail myself of, 600, 900, 1000 or 1200w and so decided that somewhere at the top end would do it.

Took the unit home, gave it to my wife, who promptly began to used it.
Plugged it in and out came the nectar of mixed fruit….wonderful.

We all want to avoid disappointment

Went to use it again, the switch abruptly changed colour and went dead….
Being as how I bought it, I took it back to the store the following day.
Therein I learned what questions to ask when buying anything….particularly electrical.

The first big question to ask is, ‘which and what, come back on warranty’
You may not find enlightenment but you will have started at the right place.

I don’t say this is infallible but it helps one exercise some control over selection.

The middle man…

The most common give away is when a request for work is lodged with service sites such as Hipages.
This service, and those like it, are designed to help you find a tradesman appropriate to your request.
The request itself identifies the poster as being knowledgeable, or not.

The poster is asking a trades person to devote time and money to entertain the request.
If the response is seemingly of a quick and cheap nature then what they will likely get is a handyman moonlighting between fruit picking or some other such activity.

A good trades person will be seeking at least $90/hr + travel.
Thinking you’re going to get an experience trades person to wander out to some remote location to ‘have a look’ is being delusional in itself.
Considering the trades person / handyman would need to pay the agency some, $12-$15 on average, to get the contact details.

So are you in the wood duck category?

Condor Kinetic