Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Products Made By People Who Clearly Never Use Them

A pair of sunglasses, their case and an iced espresso coffee are placed on top of a counter
Photo by Tamara Bellis

"Reddit user DongLaiCha asked: 'What products are clearly made by people or companies who never actually use them?'"

Do you ever use a product and wonder... "Who in the world thought this would work?"

That seems to be an issue with a lot of items in life.


Like, who designed all these extra dinner forks?

It's all too confusing when you just want to eat a salad and a steak.

Let me keep my fork.

You're wasting water on all the cleaning.

Think before you create.

Redditor DongLaiCha wanted to discuss some products that may need more in-field research, so they asked:

"What products are clearly made by people or companies who never actually use them?"

Remember CDs?

It was easier to break into the Pentagon than open that plastic wrapping.

Who thought that idea up?

Too Dry

Hair Bathing GIFGiphy

"I swear that people who design some shampoo and conditioner bottles have never tried to use them while wet."

danarexasaurus

Assessments

"Elementary state assessments. They are the most obtuse, poorly written, unrealistic questions on earth. They enrage me. They are clearly written by people who either have zero experience in elementary education or haven’t had any in a decade or so."

meadow_chef

"I have a BA in English and couldn't figure out one of the answers to my child's third-grade ELA state test practice. I spoke to the teacher about it and she sounded so defeated about the testing. There's no way to prepare children for a test when the questions and answers are so poorly written that the students, their teacher, and the parents can't pick the correct answer."

DistractedHouseWitch

Cheap and Expensive

"A few years ago we wanted a coffee maker with a slightly larger carafe. The only 14-cup one we could find at a reasonable price was branded with Drew Barrymore's name. Whatever, we bought it. It was the worst kitchen device I've ever owned. The interface to set the clock, program it, etc. was absolutely baffling to use, never seemed to do the same thing twice."

"The instructions were apparently written by whatever guy at the factory had a cousin who'd seen an American TV show once. And when it actually did somehow make coffee, it came out shriekingly hot, to where I would put a couple of ice cubes into my travel mug when I left for work just to get it down to drinkable temperature."

Fabulous-Quality-282

Flip It

"Those who make the 'pull this flip to open' on plastic packaging of cold cuts."

MissNatdah

"Similarly, the people who make 'resealable' packages of food products where you have to cut it open in a certain place, but cutting there either results in: A) the package still being sealed closed, or B) ruining the internal sealing zipper. I have this issue with the frozen dumplings I buy and no matter what I do, I have NEVER been able to reseal the package as advertised and have to resort to a chip clip."

pls_send_caffeine

Punch a Hole

Mac And Cheese Eating GIF by Megan BatoonGiphy

"The 'push here to open' spot on Kraft Mac and Cheese."

coop_doop

"Whenever I get a different brand I just punch a hole in the same spot out of habit. It’s about exactly as hard to do as with the Kraft ones. So they might as well take out the perforating step and save .001¢/box in the production process."

Reaper_Messiah

Why do they want to keep our Mac and Cheese from us?

Give me my meal!!

Tearing Sheets

office paper GIFGiphy

"Those toilet paper holders in public toilets that cut off at two sheets."

theshortlady

"Same area: those paper towel dispensers that require a two-handed pull, commonly leaving you with two little torn-off triangles of paper in your hands."

repowers

Useless

"Zebra printers. I swear Zebra customer service is useless. I've had to call the help desks for the specific companies I've worked for because the Zebra CS is just like 'Huh!?'"

monotoonz

"We wrote our own internal manuals for how to setup, manage, and troubleshoot Zebra printers. It includes helpful information like 'Do not call Zebra about this issue, instead, see Appendix A' (which is screenshots of conversations about how it is is a known issue and the resolution should be coming shortly (dated 2016))."

001235

City Life

"Maybe a bit off-topic, but in a meeting with a former colleague of mine, the person in charge of the metro for a nearby city admitted that he had never used the metro. Not that he didn’t use the metro, but that he had never used it in his life, even once. I suspect that this kind of thing isn’t uncommon for government services."

KireGoTI

"Similar story. A lifelong friend of didn’t even know we had a Metro until a recent expansion meant she had to drive a different way into her office. She works for the city council."

TheKingMonkey

Warn You

"Hospital beds. From the standpoint of the person who has to push it around and mess with rails that get caught in the mattress and plug it in with a long dirty cord that gets mixed up with another random cord that no one knows its purpose. No retractable cords so they constantly drag on the ground and try to trip you when pushing the bed."

"Brakes that are in the most awkward position that you have to invert your knee to reach with your foot. And worst, the screeching, ear-piercing alarm that they emit to 'warn you' that the bed is not locked. Hospital beds are obnoxious."

Agitated-Effort3423

Help Please

Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno CalypsoGiphy

"Customer-facing software. Developers should be required to hire grandmas under the explicit condition that if grandma can't look at a menu option and decide what to click without giving up and calling the help desk your functionality has failed."

Puzzleheaded-Bat8657

I can't even begin to get into software options.

It brings back too much PTSD.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Bridgette and Paula Powers
7News Queensland

Identical Twins Go Viral For Speaking In Unison During Bizarre Interview

As if the play-by-play details of a carjacking aren't alarming enough, imagine hearing them twice—simultaneously.

Australian identical twins Bridgette and Paula Powers shared their eyewitness account of a carjacking that involved their mother, another man, and a car thief.

Keep ReadingShow less
Shaquille O'Neal
@NBAonTNT

Shaq Roasted By Cohosts After He Hustles Out Of Live TV Show Due To Bathroom Emergency

Even live television couldn't stand in the way of nature's call for Shaquille O’Neal.

The 53-year-old basketball legend and co-host of Inside the NBA on TNT surprised his fellow panelists when he abruptly got up and left the studio mid-broadcast to use the restroom.

Keep ReadingShow less
Megyn Kelly; Barack and Michelle Obama
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Megyn Kelly Slammed After Criticizing Michelle And Barack Obama's Marriage In Bonkers Rant

Conservative radio host Megyn Kelly was called out for criticizing Michelle and Barack Obama's 33-year-marriage after she said during a recent episode of The Megyn Kelly Show that two should never have gotten married in the first place.

Earlier this month, Michelle Obama addressed rumors that she and her husband were getting a divorce, noting that her decision to step back from the limelight after leaving the White House in 2017 meant some people were so unable to "fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing."

Keep ReadingShow less
Bob the Drag Queen; Donald Trump
Valerie Terranova/FilmMagic/Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Bob The Drag Queen Roasts Trump Over Health Report's Absurd Claims About Trump's Height And Weight

The findings of reelected Republican President and MAGA messiah Donald Trump's first annual physical exam were released on April 13, 2025.

A memorandum addressed to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and signed by Captain Sean P. Barbabella—doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.), Medical Corps (MC), United States Navy (USN), physician to the President—was shared on the White House website.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Brian Kilmeade and Pete Hegseth
Fox News

Fox News Host Accidentally Calls Hegseth 'Former Secretary' In Awkward Live TV Flub

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade might think Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's days are numbered, given that he introduced Hegseth as the "former secretary" at the start of an interview before quickly correcting himself, an awkward moment that underscored the impact of Hegseth's numerous scandals.

Democrats have called for Hegseth's firing amid revelations that Hegseth shared details about U.S. military operations in Yemen using his personal phone in a 13-person Signal group chat that included his wife and brother—despite a prior warning from an aide advising him not to share sensitive information over an unsecure channel ahead of the operation.

Keep ReadingShow less