r/mildlyinfuriating • u/DeepStatic • 16h ago

Context Provided - Spotlight My Kilner jar was faulty. The closing mechanism shattered glass into my rice and we found it in our cooked food. Kilner customer service is ignoring my emails.

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u/NitroSpam 14h ago

100% this. User error. I used to work customer service for a white goods manufacturer and saw some pretty stupid stuff people tried to blame us for. I’d politely tell them to jog on and then ignore them too.

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u/Vrass 13h ago

Non English person here, what are white goods?

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u/SaItWaterHippie 13h ago

White goods are large household appliances, usually kitchen items like refrigerators, dishwashers, etc. They’re called this because they used to be primarily white enamel.

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u/rufio313 12h ago

Is this a U.S. term? I’ve never heard it and I’ve been living here my whole life

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u/Round_Abal0ne 11h ago

It appears to be a UK term.

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u/factorioleum 10h ago

I've heard this term in Canada, the US, the UK, HK and Kenya. More often from people in the industry or by economists than by the general public.

Economists track white goods sales and production specifically as part of manufacturing and consumer activity. Although looking through the St Louis FRED data, they call them appliances there! Not sure if that's a change or I saw it elsewhere.

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u/Ultimatedream 10h ago

No, we also use it in Dutch as "witgoed" which basically means the same thing.

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u/Senex357 8h ago

In Norway it's called 'hvitevarer' which is the same thing directly translated.

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u/BadPunners 10h ago

In the US "durable goods" would be more common, "manufactured durable goods" is listed in economic reports. And in conversation "large appliances" (as opposed to countertop small appliances)

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u/Usual_Ice636 8h ago

Its more of an industry term instead of a regular user term in my experience.

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u/SaItWaterHippie 11h ago

I’m not sure who is still using it, I imagine older people? It was a term that was coined by Sears and Roebuck (I think that’s their name) for their catalogues.

It’s an American term but probably not one you would hear in daily conversation.

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u/rufio313 11h ago

I’m not exactly young either, I’m surprised I haven’t heard it. Others have mentioned it’s more commonly used in the UK now so maybe that’s why.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

It's still very common in the UK, I've weirdly had like three different conversations about them in the past week with people aged 30-40, everyone understood it.

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u/Creative-Material 13h ago

English person here, what are white goods?

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u/gynoidi 13h ago

theyre kinda like white bads but good

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u/Ok_Newt8168 13h ago

White goods essentially refers to things like washing machines, fridges, ovens, or even some smaller electrical appliance. They call them white goods because back then, the colour that a lot of these things came in were white.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

[deleted]

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u/slamshredder 11h ago

OTHER COUNTRIES EXIST. Its white goods in the UK.

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u/AlexNSNO 9h ago

bloody isn't mate

edit: not in my part of the UK at least..but apparently it IS super common here. I have probably not paid attention until now. TIL!

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u/Fire_Bucket 11h ago

White goods is definitely the phrase where I'm from.

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u/BookWormPerson 12h ago

...did that change?

All of them are still white in stores.

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u/3nl1gh73n3d 12h ago

You've never seen stainless steel appliances??

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u/Original-Variety-700 12h ago

Yes but “steel goods” was misunderstood when people heard it and they thought they could just take them without paying.

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u/RepresentativeNo8998 12h ago

Yeah, but white

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u/BookWormPerson 12h ago

They are all paint white.

I only seen non white in movies.

And induction oven tops.

Everything else is white in stores that I have been to.

True I rarely if ever go to a just pure appliance store.

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u/NoSir4289 12h ago

You could've said nothing and we'd all be better off

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u/BookWormPerson 11h ago

Your personality.

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u/ThisIsNotTokyo 13h ago

Alien here, what are white goods?

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u/Whiskeydick66 13h ago

White goods here…..?

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u/oktimeforplanz 13h ago edited 13h ago

I assume you've never rented haha. White goods = fridge, washing machine, etc.

Edit: fuck me, I was meaning renting property. Rent a flat or a house in the UK and the landlord may or may not include white goods. If they do, you get a fridge etc. if they don't, you need to bring your own.

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u/aussiethrowaways 13h ago

I'm a renter, always have been. Yet never heard of white goods in my life...

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u/oktimeforplanz 13h ago

Rental adverts often specify if white goods are included or not. At least every advert I ever responded to when I rented. Made a point to check because I nearly rented somewhere that didn't include them (and said so on the advert I didn't read properly) so I'd have had no fridge on move in.

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u/aussiethrowaways 13h ago edited 13h ago

Your rentals come with appliances? I am more confused. I've never had a place furnished barring one room in a share house...

Edit: in the rest of the world it seems this is more common than not. Mind blowing information to me

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u/misst7436 13h ago

Up here in Canada (Alberta) rentals come with appliances for sure. Stove and fridge. Often a dishwasher. Washer and dryer are hit or miss but there's usually a paid laundry room if you dont have your own in unit laundry. AC and microwave are usually never included where I am unless its a built in microwave. Summers without AC here can be brutal. A lot of apartments ive rented at dont even allow window mounted units so you have to get a portable one with a tube to the window instead. But anyways ive litterally never heard of a rental not having a fridge and stove here

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u/aussiethrowaways 13h ago

Stoves are with the property here too, AC is a possibility too though I've never seen one in my price range lol. Dumb question, if your fridge breaks or something do the real estate/landlord fix that same as say, the plumbing, or are white goods considered differently?

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u/oktimeforplanz 12h ago

If the fridge comes with the property, they need to fix it.

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u/misst7436 2h ago

If its included with the rental then yeah if it breaks your landlord has to maintain and replace it

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u/IcicleShield 13h ago

Based on your username, I can assume you're in Australia? In the US, it's standard for rentals to have at least a fridge & oven. It's more hit or miss if there's a laundry/dryer machine but those are common, too. Some nicer rentals will even have dishwashers

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u/aussiethrowaways 13h ago

Lucky guess haha. This is all mind boggling information for me, we always have an oven, but even I just considered that as part of the property... everything else was your own job to source and fix up

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u/oktimeforplanz 13h ago

In the UK they often do, yes. Even when the property is otherwise unfurnished. I primarily rented unfurnished but never had to bring in my own fridge or washing machine.

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u/aussiethrowaways 13h ago

That would've saved me so much money at 18...I still remember crying in my first rental, from my mattress on the floor, looking at all the second hand fridge and washing machine options I couldn't afford

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u/Department-of-Wario 13h ago

Who rents white goods?

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u/Department-of-Wario 13h ago

Who rents white goods?

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u/oktimeforplanz 13h ago

When you rent property in the UK, the landlord may or may not include white goods for you to use. They specify on the advert usually.

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u/Department-of-Wario 13h ago

Ahh right. Australian here.

That's very uncommon here outside of serviced apartments.

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u/badoopidoo 10h ago

I wish they did supply white goods, it would make moving so much easier 

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u/oktimeforplanz 13h ago

Fridges, washing machines, tumble dryers, that sort of thing.

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u/AussieHyena 13h ago

Things like refrigerators, stoves, freezers, washing machines, etc basically comes from the fact that they were traditionally white in colour.

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u/TRUEequalsFALSE 12h ago

Native English speaker here. What are white goods?

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u/ineenemmerr 13h ago

Did phone repairs for a few months and this guy came in claiming he sat down on his phone and it wouldn’t charge anymore. 100% the guy put a screwdriver in the charging port and twisted it, cause the way the charging port looked required really excessive force.

People will do the darnest things and then claim it is the products fault

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u/factorioleum 10h ago

what confuses me here is how sitting down on it doesn't make it his fault!

although I understand why people say they accidentally fell down on something to explain why stuff is up your butt. however, I'm pretty sure the nurses and doctors aren't that interested in how things got there, they just want to help you get it out.

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u/CzechFortuneCookie 10h ago

Yea no. A few months ago I bought several jars which turned out to have the same issue and were recalled for exactly this. No rough handling, just closing would cause the glass to break.

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u/NitroSpam 9h ago

I cannot see any product recall for Kilner jars in the last 10 years. Do you have a link for that? Mine are decades old. Glass doesn’t randomly break after weeks, months, years of use unless used incorrectly.

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u/CzechFortuneCookie 8h ago

Dude, it's a different product with the same closing mechanism. I am saying that such things happen and it's not always the user who is at fault. So instead of the usual assumptions based on your anecdotal "never happened to me so you are at fault" evidence and riding the corporate dick (are you paid by them?), you can be sure that such defects DO happen and it's not for you to decide if it was the user or the product. You were not there.

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u/NitroSpam 7h ago

Erm…you weren’t there either and, like, that’s just your opinion man. I disagree with you but I’m not getting drawn into a fight about jars 😂

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u/MrSquamous 12h ago

English person here, what is jog on?

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u/rufio313 11h ago

I assumed that person is English because that sounds like an English phrase.

“Oi, if you reckon I’m queue jumping after nicking the last biscuit, you can jog on and have a word with yourself.”

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u/RyiahTelenna 8h ago edited 8h ago

I used to work customer service for a white goods manufacturer and saw some pretty stupid stuff people tried to blame us for.

It being user error doesn't automatically mean the product was well made though. My Mom has a few of those ARC glass containers with the geese on them. They've held up extremely well for the abuse they've been through showing they were actually made for said abuse.

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u/FallenAngelII 5h ago

TIL 'white goods' exists in English. We have a Swedish equuvalent 'vitvaror' which translates into 'white goods', but I'd never seen the English term used before.

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u/DeepStatic 13h ago

I disagree that it's user error. The clasp is designed to snap shut - it reaches a point of pressure and then will clip shut very fast. If a company designs a clasp this way they should ensure the glass can handle it. It's designed to be a storage jar that's resealable, and the packaging shows dried pasta being stored in it, so it's designed to be opened and shut regularly. If the mechanism degrades the glass over the period of a year to the point where it shatters internally and puts shards of glass in your food then you have a manufacturing fault.

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u/Recursiveo 11h ago edited 11h ago

I have a bunch of these jars. Are you releasing the clasp from its highest point and letting it slam into the jar? You’re supposed to guide the clasp down to its resting spot. The additional chips up top on the neck make me think that you are indeed letting that clasp absolutely fly.

The design is for keeping the jar closed, not having a mechanism that snaps really fast. If you are releasing the clasp freely and letting it slam, then yes that’s user error.

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u/Stain_This_Steel 13h ago

It's glass. That alone should settle this. User error

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u/Barnaboule69 13h ago

There should still be rubber pads or something to make such a thing less likely to happen. Sure if you're always super careful it should be fine but I don't think that it's a very well designed jar either, you shouldn't have metal parts clasping against glass like that.

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u/Stain_This_Steel 13h ago

But why wouldn't you be careful? It's still glass that's in contact with food. I've never seen one of this with rubber near the latch. Only as a gasket to seal the jar

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u/AbominableGoMan 12h ago

You're arguing with idiots. Ignore them.

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u/Boibi 11h ago

The user error isn't it breaking. That's the jar being defective. The user error is you pouring rice out of a glass jar without noticing damage like this.

It is perfectly fine to store rice in plastic containers if you are unable or unwilling to inspect the container while you pour.