Not Happy At All!

Please have a look at the photo of this package for me. If you bought this product would you not think that it was suitable for soldering? Not only, suitable, but "Great for... soldering" in fact? Not the case. Not at all!

I've been spending the time to get pieces together for a hopefully-exciting-hopefully-soon-to-be-talked-about-if-I-can-just-sort-out-this-problem project. While I'm blessed with fabulous textiles and Japanese papers, other art and craft supplies can be pretty hard to get my hands on. Add to that language difficulties when you're looking for something out of the ordinary.

This week this Inkssentials tape I'd ordered online arrived. Yesterday I finally had a chance to go to the "big city" and buy my soldering iron, solder and a few other bits and pieces I needed. I was so excited and couldn't wait to play.

Today, I got off from school early and rushed home to try it all out. Now I haven't actually soldered anything since high school, but that didn't worry me. I knew with a bit of practice, I'd pick it up again. Off I went. I prepared the tape as instructed on the packet, the iron was hot, the solder melted ..... and... the solder slid straight off. I tried more, and again, slid off the "Great for... soldering" tape onto the cardboard I was using to protect the table. I kept trying for a while. I checked the packet again. On the front, in clear letters "Great for jewelry and soldering", on the back ".....in preparation for soldering." I figured I must have been doing something wrong, so I logged onto their website.

This is what it said about the product;

"Wrap your memories with Inkssentials Memory Foil Tape. Use it to edge Inkssentials Memory Glass, embellish cards, scrapbook pages, and altered art.

Brass and Copper tapes can be used for soldering.

Available in .... three metallic finishes: Aluminum, Brass and Copper.

Hang on, "Brass and Copper tapes can be used for soldering"?? Not the aluminum one, despite the fact that the aluminum package says that it can? Despite the fact that the picture beside the description on the current web page clearly shows the three tapes all with the same package all clearly stating that they are "Great for... soldering"?

Does this company actually expect their customers to go online to check if their products really do what the packaging says it does before they buy? I don't know about the laws in America, but in Australia, they would be finding themselves up against the Fair Trade Tribunal for false advertising. How can you trust a company when they blatantly lie on their packaging?

I did another Google search to see if anyone else had anything to say about the product and all I found was store after store claiming that it was "Great for... soldering".

I have of course contacted Ranger, the maker of this product to see what they have to say and what they will do about it. I'll keep you updated on what happens.

In the meantime, I'm going to search for a similar product from a different company as I'm dying to get stuck into this project.

I must say, I'm very grumpy!