Credit:
Veggetti/The Perfect Tortilla
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Buyer’s remorse comes in all shapes and sizes — especially depending on what you buy.
It could be as large as a house with holes in its roof and termites in its basement, or as small as the tasty 2 a.m. Taco Bell on a Saturday night that doesn’t taste so great on Sunday.
At Reviewed, we’ve had our fair share of buyer’s remorse and we’re here to share some of our favorite (or, should we say least favorite) stories about money not well spent.
Nobody bought a lemon for a car or anything that bad, but we’ve all messed up before and wish we would’ve spent our hard-earned moolah on something else.
1. The Epica Teapot, $41.95
“I once owned our best-tested electric kettle. I'm clumsy and I dropped it and it stopped working, so we replaced it with a similar one that cost half as much. It had plenty of good reviews, and it works fine, but it's missing the features I loved about the Cuisinart.
On my current kettle, the little viewing window has no light so it's not as easy to see how much water's still in there. And while it has different temperature options and a keep-warm function like the Cuisinart, it doesn't beep when it's ready. So if you're not hovering over it to hear the heater click off, you have no idea when your water is heated.
In its defense, I've had the Epica kettle for three years and it still works like new. But that also means I can't really justify buying another Cuisinart kettle until this one bites the dust.” -Samantha Gordon, Editor
2. The Veggetti spiralizer, $9.99
“I love spiralized zucchini, so I bought myself a Veggetti. I figured for $10, I couldn't go wrong. Veggetti and I made beautiful zoodles together until this summer, when I got about about a dozen baseball bat sized zucchinis from my farm share. Those monsters were way too fat to fit into the funnel-shaped end of the Veggetti, so I had to trim them to spiralize them. Even then, it was awkward. I realized that I should have upped my game and bought our favorite countertop model, the Paderno 4-blade Spiralizer Pro. For only $10 more, it would have made short work of those giant squashes.” -Cindy Bailen, Senior Staff Writer
3. The Paderno spiralizer, $19.98
“I own both. I regret buying Paderno. The Veggetti was only $10, is way easier to use, and doesn't need counter space. I've never had a problem with the Veggetti. I always have the same outcome: spaghetti shaped vegetables. the Paderno has too much going on that I am far too lazy to figure out.” _-Samantha Matt, Director of Audience Engagement
4. The Perfect Tortilla Pan, $8.00
“A few years ago for Father's Day, we got my dad the Perfect Tortilla Pan Set. You take a tortilla and cook it in the oven and you can make a bowl to hold salads, dips and more. The only thing is, we never had salad, dips or more on a regular basis. I don't know if any of us even used them once, especially because we got him the bowls without the tortillas. If I had to spend $17.85 again, I would've gotten him some cheap baseball tickets or a pizza.” -Connor Whooley, Editorial Coordinator
5. Glossier Face Cleanser, $18
“The only thing I've ever bought from reading tons of hype online was a face cleanser from Glossier. I had seen it in a million articles, read a bunch of reviews and even heard from my friends that it was amazing for your skin, so I strayed from my usual stuff and got the Glossier cleanser instead.
Maybe because there was so much hype around it that I was expecting phenomenal results, but it was the most average, if not, below average cleanser I've ever used. After seeing no noticeable difference in my skin (and it looking slightly worse) I went back to my normal cleanser. The Glossier bottle now sits in the back of my bathroom cabinet with old shampoo bottles.” -Kate McCarthy, Social Media Manager
6. The HP Stream Laptop, $194.73 (then $220)
“I bought a blue HP Stream 11 in 2015 for around $220. I specifically bought it because it would be able to stream my Xbox One to its screen, and I wanted to play Xbox games in bed. I also figured it'd be a laptop I could easily walk around/travel with—my other laptop is 11 lbs—and that I'd be able to do just basic things with, like browse and web and write.
Let me tell you straight up: I hate that laptop with a fiery passion. Three years in, it's become a glorified USB hub that sits—lid forever closed—on a shelf, passing on a charge to two small USB devices and incessantly failing to update itself. It'd be funny, if it weren't so sad. Now, if I'd bought a cheap laptop in 2018, I could have bought the Acer Aspire 1 and I'd have probably written the next great American novel by now—or at least have played way more games in bed.” -Lee Neikirk, Editor
7. The Rumsey Loveseat, $345
“Because I'm mid-move to my first real apartment, I regret about half the things I've bought out of desperation in the past two weeks. My biggest regret? The Rumsey "loveseat" from Wayfair.
My housemates and I were looking for a something small, gray and stylish to add some extra seating to our living room, and we already had store credit from Wayfair because we pre-emptively returned another couch that we knew was too long for the space. Long story short, the loveseat arrived and was utter garbage. The legs were dinged up and wouldn't screw on correctly, the upholstery was dull and scratchy, and lying against the back of the couch felt like lying on a wood plank.
We weren't expecting a high quality, cushy loveseat, but we were expecting something better than this. We also absolutely loved our Derry sofa from Wayfair, so the experience didn't turn us away from the company completely. Moral of the story? Be cautious when shopping for furniture online—and never settle for the cheapest picks.” -Cassidy Olsen, Writer
8. The Playstation Universal Remote, $22.99
“I bought a Playstation-branded universal remote. The reasoning was that it would be easier to stream and watch movies and whatnot on my PS4 without having to use a game controller to try to navigate around. I don't think I've used it more than once. Mostly, it's because I don't actually use my PS4 to stream or watch anything. I play games on it. That's it.
If I want to watch a movie or something I'll just use our Roku. It has way more apps and is much easier to use. I also have a MUCH better universal remote that can control literally all of my devices (except for, you guessed it, my PS4.) The Playstation remote now sits in the "remote basket" we have on a table next to our couch, where it sits unattended with the other random device remotes we don't regularly use.” -Mike Roorda, Video Producer
9. Cheap A/V cables, $6-$7
"Growing up, I had a Sega Dreamcast which I played every single day. After 10+ years of use, it was a little worse for the wear and some of the cords started breaking, so I turned to Amazon to replace them. I don't remember what the brand was, but what my dad and I thought was a cheap but easy fix turned into a waste of a few bucks as the cords did not work with the Sega and/or were broken on delivery. We quickly ordered another set that did work (until they recently broke), so this time I will be much more careful about which cords I select for my still-working Dreamcast." -Connor Whooley, Editorial Coordinator
10. PowerBeats3 Headphones, $199.95
"When I got really serious about running I decided to get a pair of wireless headphones so I didn't have to deal with the cord or my Apple headphones falling out. After doing a bit of research, I decided to get a pair of PowerBeats3 and it was the biggest waste of money.
For they first six months or so they worked great. They connect super easily to my phone's Bluetooth, had really good sound, and made my runs more enjoyable. But after six months they wouldn't turn on from what I assume was water damage from sweat, which really goes against the point of workout headphones. I later sent them in to Apple, but the pair they returned to me only lasted two weeks before dying.
Long story short: I eventually got the best wireless headphones we've ever tested, the JLab Audio Epic Sport Wireless and I absolutely love them. They're cheaper than the Beats and so far have lasted up to my sweat with no problems." -Courtney Campbell, Writer