I liked the article. I strongly agree that complaining is important independently of voting with your wallet. Just because it’s hard to communicate with large organisations doesn’t mean we should give up; they’re not going away and they’re a major part of our world.
I don’t know why people get so dogmatic about the idea of the Free Market (with a capital FM). Of course it’s a real thing, but that doesn’t mean it is, or must or should be, the only thing. It’s like, “the market lets workers negotiate a fair wage”– sure– but when people form unions to actually do that negotiating, they’re communist wreckers. Or: “public companies distribute their profits to the public”– OK– but Amazon declines to make a profit in order to strangle competition, and to question this is to oppose our capitalist way of life.
The whole point of the Invisible Hand is that it’s not an ideological tool, it’s a mechanism that works all by itself. It’s not blasphemy to observe and critique what the Invisible Hand is doing.
Most of the complaints I submit are work-related, but generally it seems that whether it’s business or personal companies now are more likely to ignore me than they were in the past. In the past it seemed that even a minor complaint, or even a thank you–I sometimes took the time to send those too–got a response. Now they tend to just disappear.
Part of this may be because so much of the process of submitting a complaint is now automated. Chances are we’ve all had experiences with how hard it is to talk to a real person when trying to get a problem fixed. There’s even at least one current commercial that makes a joke about this.
But I used to work in customer service and I also feel there’s an overall decline in quality. The first thing I was taught about customer service was to acknowledge that the customer has a problem and tell them I would work to find a solution.
Now even when I do get to talk to a person their opening statement is a denial that there’s a problem, and if I can clearly demonstrate there’s a problem their response will usually include a phrase like, “We’ll make an exception in this one case,” continuing the denial theme.
I understand the value of complaining but it only works if companies are listening, and they’re only going to listen if enough wallets are willing to walk.
This is… refreshingly optimistic. I would add a longer reply, but a guy who works for a paving company just knocked on my door with an awesome deal because he’s already doing some work in the neighborhood.
Yes, I was a little surprised at the response! Basically they said “company policy” or some such thing. Not even an apology.
Even though it was a new car when I bought it, it was their older design (240). I imagine the CPU was sort of retrofitted to help meet newer emission standards. Perhaps design compromises had to be made. The car was otherwise well built; we had it nearly 15 years. But after that episode I vowed to never buy another!
@doctorow, I gave my graduation speech on this topic just over one year ago. I’m glad to hear others are also onto the idea!
“Don’t just boycott a company - write to them and tell them why you’re not buying their goods or services!” How else will they know people are unhappy with their products or policies? How can they change if they don’t know?
That’s one problem with capitalism. Quality tends to decline, especially if a product ends up in the commodity category. My favorite example is styrofoam cups for hot beverages. They got cheaper and cheaper in quality to the point that when you picked up a full cup, it collapsed and spilled hot liquid all over your hand.
But then capitalism to the rescue. Starbucks popularized the stiff cardboard cup, which doesn’t have that problem, and probably is easier on the environment (though they probably increased the number of disposed of cups a thousand-fold). And little corrugated rings were needed to help keep the heat away from your hand.
Oh, well.
Edited quote to include only the relevant sentence.
I don’t think it was isolated to Volvo. Early CPU’s failed in lower-end Big 3 cars with some frequency. It’s possible they all sourced from the same OEM.
I will never do business with Verizon again. And I’ve let them know! Yeah, it’s retro, but I use my cable company for internet and Credo Mobile for phone.
Yeah, maybe we should all start complaining to the manufacturers of our cars about their bad, and/or insecure software. I’m not interested in buying terrible cars to begin with, but I most certainly will avoid buying any car that’s internet enabled or comes equipped with a remote kill-switch.
There are two major phone/TV/Internet companies where I live.
One of them (the cable company) sends me ads every couple of weeks to get me to switch to them.
The other (the phone/DSL company) has sent one person to the door. When I explained to him my current set-up (no TV, phone and Internet through third-parties), he said, “Oh. In that case, I can’t save you money,” thanked me, and left. I haven’t heard from them since.
I still don’t like either of those companies worth a damn, but that simple act of respect, compared to the relentless pestering of the other company, means that if I ever do decide to give one of those two companies my business then, all else being equal, I’d choose the phone company over the cable company.
Earlier 240s are well known for being bulletproof, even in harsh winter environs. They were especially popular amongst northeastern academic types who couldn’t afford SAABs.
oh my poor 900T, totalled by some texting bottle blonde broad in a white Benz with Texas plates making an illegal turn
So we have a system that, unless there’s a fundamental change in human nature, will almost inevitably end up skewing heavily towards the sort of person who enjoys complaining and doesn’t have to be goaded into it?
I’m pretty sure that I don’t like the same things as them. They make me twitchy. I like people who tend to be complain-avoidant.
