Amazon Basics Oscillating Pedestal Fan

We’ve had this for about half an hour now, and we’ve already decided it’s getting thrown back in Amazon’s face. I don’t appreciate having my time wasted like this. I wish I’d seen bill m’s fairly comprehensive review of this fan’s inflated specs. Unfortunately, this appears to be a design/implementation issue rather than a fault with his.or my fan - this 24-speed fan really *is* as 12-speed in real life. That’s not as advertised, and it’s so blatant that it’s a lie - you can just listen to the pitch of the fan blade noise to know that speeds 1 and 2 are as identical as makes no difference, same goes for 3 and 4, 5 and 6, etc. Just because the number on the display changed, that doesn’t mean that’s a new speed. It’s such a bald-faced, outright lie. If this were its only fault, I’d consider keeping it. After all, there’s enough of a range in 12 speeds to be useful. However, because there are 12 dummy speed settings, each actual change needs two clicks of the control wheel or two taps of the remote button rather than one. That’s going to get annoying *real* fast. Worse, the beep that accompanies each speed change (even the ones that don’t do anything) is ridiculous. It’s not even a small, unobtrusive beep, either - it’s seriously loud, and this thing will end marriages if you put it in a bedroom and dare to adjust it at night. Speaking of the beep, the control wheel is hilariously bad. The fan beeps on each Ned speed setting, so turning the wheel from one end of the speed range to the other results in an endless beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep so long as the wheel is turned. I have no clue who thought this was a good idea, but if the individual beeps are likely to end marriages, then this is going to get someone killed in a fit of rage. And it gets better. Instead of being limited at the bottom end of the speed range, the control wraps around. If the speed is currently at the fastest setting, then attempting to increase it either with the dial or the remote results in it dropping to the lowest speed before increasing. You could take the view that this is a quick way to go from min to max speed or vice verse, but it has a very important and annoying result that you can’t turn the fan up to full blast by cranking on the dial until it stops - you have to take note of the setting and stop at the right time. Ugh. And to add insult to injury for the speed settings, the fan forgets what it was last set to when turned off. Say you have it turned down and turn it off, then decide a bit later to turn it back on. VROOOOM! Straight to setting 18. It’s truly impressive how many faults they’ve managed to pack in to a single feature. It’s like they deliberately worked at making it this bad, as I don’t see how it’s possible to accomplish this by accident. Finally, build quality is nearly non-existent. A height-adjustable stand sounds like a good thing, but this is so flimsy that if I were to keep it, I’d leave at its bottom setting; the thing weeble-wobbles around like crazy at any higher setting. Edit: perhaps 8 spoke too soon by saying “finally” - this thing obviously knew it wasn’t long for this world and decided to finish with a flourish. I went to check the claimed power draw with my trusty kill a watt, and it’s dead. When the power button is pushed, the fan blades jerk by about an eighth of an inch at the tips, then the display turns off again. It knows it’s headed back to the mothership, and it’s done cooperating. When it worked, it was reasonably quiet, though it was a little weaker than I’d like at full chat. However, it lasted for all of about an hour before it died. I suppose I might have known - I was looking for a replacement for our old infinitely-adjustable vornado that died after about 12 years of daily use, but I’ve been scared off vornado about a year ago after a really bad experience with one of their then-new DC fully adjustable fans. They’re still solid, but the motor noise was unacceptable for what is a premium-proiced product. I suppose this serves as a lesson in not knee-jerking too far in the opposite direction. Utter garbage.