There is I think a little bit of an ethical grey area in buying, trying, and returning a thing in the hope that it’s not worth their effort to ship it back.

I can’t really say that taking a company up on a free trial counts as wardrobing.

Yeah, I bought an expensive umbrellas for my backyard. It came without a pin in the hinge so it wouldn't open/close properly.

I told them, they said to throw it away and they would send me a new one. They sent me a new one but I repaired the other one - it seemed line a terrible waste to toss it. It crossed my mind that I could claim similar things for other objects even when they weren't broken.

That said, they both broke within a year. Taught me another lesson: buy cheap, replace yearly. Better than buying expensive and replacing yearly. Now I buy $50 outdoor wooden umbrellas.

I'm no ecowarrior, but perhaps I am a contradiction-warrior ... You started out saying throwing one away seemed a terrible waste, and now you, by plan and forethought, do so annually?

Throwing away a cheap one is much less of a waste than throwing away an expensive one?

To whom or what? The expensive one not thrown away was replaced free of charge by the same model but not broken.

Both of those broke in a way that couldn't be repaired in a year. So instead of buying a $600 umbrella that unfixably breaks every year, I buy a couple $50 ones. The $50 ones are actually more repairable since they're wood instead of metal.

Yeah I get it, and would probably do the same (I'd rather pay more for lasts, as I gather you would, but if that isn't working then sure cheap and replace).

It was just the discrepancy between the initial reluctance to throw away, (even though it had been replaced, implying to me ecological /'this is still fundamentally sound and repairable' reasoning) and the ultimate conclusion to throw away every year.

No judgement, just confusion.

On a tangent, I dislike more and more the unrepairability and complexity of things. I'd love to be capable of making everything for myself, from basic components (not necessarily scratch). Still not for eco reasons, it may be worse (less efficient) in some cases in that regard, but just to know how everything worked and was put together, and be able to fix it all because I built it in the first place.