Scratched digital photo frame

scratch - incision: a depression scratched or carved into a surface

Nothing irritates me more than scratches. It’s the fine scratches from poor cleaning techniques that are the worst. People tend to use a grubby cloth that has been dropped on the floor to clean their precious belongings, and then wonder why things get scratched.

Today I went to Tesco and purchased 2 electronic photo frames, one for me and one as a gift. The frame itself is made of black gloss plastic – the kind that is very easy to scratch.

Anyway, I unpackaged one and set it up for myself. After loading some photos on and playing around with it, I used a clean microfibre cloth to wipe off any finger marks, and the gloss plastic is still highly reflective as it’s supposed to be.

Later, I unpackaged the other frame which is intended as a gift, only to find it had a scratch on one side of the frame. So, I return it to Tesco, and swap it for another. The guy behind the customer service checkout opens the new frame, and we find two scratches on this one.

After opening a third frame only to find scratches in the same place, the checkout guy remarks that it must be part of the design. I explain I have another frame at home exactly the same, purchased from the same store at the same time, which is absolutely mint with no scratches. He remarks that the other frame I have must be an older design. If I ever find out who designed them, I’ll be sure to commend him for making the design improvement of including scratches on an apparently “updated” version of the product.

So, I had no choice but to either ask for a refund or keep one of the scratched frames, and as I was running short of time I decided to keep it. However, when I returned home I decided to open the frame to clean off the Tesco checkout man’s grubby finger prints from where he had inspected it, only to find a myriad of scratches and swirl marks that had not showed up under the store’s bright lights.

It makes me wonder if Tesco have a batch of refurbished frames which had been returned to the factory, and cleaned by someone using a pair of old underpants dropped on the floor?