I have a 2018 American Tourister carry-on luggage case. The handle broke long ago, and eventually one of the roller wheels broke.
I found and ordered a replacement handle.
The wheels, though, are available only from one vendor in China. I placed an order for the wheels, whose Amazon product description says the package contains one each of the LEFT and the RIGHT wheel orientations.
It shipped halfway around the world, from China, arriving weeks later.
But they shipped two identical wheels and did not ship both the left and righ wheels, as their product description describes the replacement. Unfortunately I needed the one they failed to ship.
I have now packaged the item for return shipping and will drive it to the post office, where it ships to an individual in Michigan(!)
I have also had to go ahead and purchase a new carryon luggage item.
Which is what I should have done to start with but trying to be a good person who reuses, repairs and recycles, I fell into this rat hole.
In the end, I will be disposing of the old carry on, will have incurred an incorrect shipment around the world, from China, will have spent an hour on requesting the refund, packaging and driving to the post office and standing in line. And then will have used up resources needed to ship a new carry-on luggage.
That was far more wasteful than if I had just tossed the old one a month ago and ordered a new one.
I am now rethinking whether reuse, repair and recycle is really better for the environment? In this case, it sure as hell was worse for the environment – plus used up a lot of my time.
