Yeh, I know, I may have got a bad batch.
Empirically, they are known to last longer.
I just can't bring myself to like them though.
I’ve had your experience as well. And is it just me, or do they take longer to achieve their maximum brightness? I’ll turn on the lights in our living room, and it takes about 10 minutes to get to the level of brightness that you get instantaneously with an incandescent bulb.
Just like there are different grades of incandescents, there are different quality levels of CFLs. The cheaper ones will stop working way too quickly if put where the light is turned on and off a lot or where they are subject to vibration, such as in a ceiling fan. There are specially made ones for ceiling fans, not as sure about the on and off.
Try the new 100% white light bulbs, They are really bright, and more like natural light. The first time you turn them on they take a while to come up to full brightness, but after that they are pretty much full on at the time you switch them on.
On another note I have some old 4 ft 40 watt bulbs that I installed more than 12 years ago, they are still going and they are used everyday.