Accountable to None
© 2015 C. Henry Martens
By Jo Baert (Own work)
[CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)], via Wikimedia Commons
I have recently been thrust into a phenomenon that I have been cognizant of but was unaware that it had become so incredibly flagrant. Not just that, but it is apparent that the act is intentional and orchestrated to deny those who can least afford to fight it any opportunity for redress. What is that act? It is the intentional insulation of organizations/businesses/providers/people in charge from those they purport to serve.
Of whom am I speaking? Pretty much any person or organization that can afford a lawyer, a receptionist, or a cell phone that blocks the caller’s number. So I could be talking about you.
Look, I know people are busy. I know that schedules must be met, that time is money, and that dimple dicked CEO’s hide from responsibility to make money. Time is the excuse… but ducking refunds is the motive.
How many times do you complain when you get poor service or a shoddy product? C’mon… be truthful to yourself. There’s nobody here but us chickens, and we aren’t in the broadcasting business.
The reason you don’t complain is because you have been trained to be silent. You have been trained to take your lumps. To bow to circumstance, to take it in the shorts when you spend hard earned money on a cheap product that doesn’t work right out of the box or breaks after only a few uses. You are so used to it that you are embarrassed by others who complain too loudly. You think it is normal to turn and walk away. We all do it. We feel that immediate frustration over throwing away good money and effort in acquiring something we expect to function well… and then we throw up our hands and shake our heads, calm down and get philosophical. Society does not allow us to “go postal” over getting screwed. We are only allowed to be nebbishes together. A group that meekly takes what we get.
And we have done it to ourselves.
How?
We allowed those that sell us stuff to run and hide so far away that it seems unreasonable to chase them down and make them perform as they were PAID TO DO.
Do you see the correlation? How we have enabled bad service? And how those in business take advantage by creating an ever more complicated maze? It’s all about upping the ante. If they can make it too expensive in time and effort for you to complain, they win.
Have you tried complaining recently? I mean a legitimate grievance where you expect some kind of appropriate satisfaction? I do it all the time, and I can tell you that it is getting increasingly difficult to hold a company’s feet to the fire. They hide behind layers of insulation.
From mold on bacon, to being over-billed by a medical facility, to expecting public education to teach something of value, we scream into an ever growing black hole.
First you have to find contact information. Then you find out that their “server is having difficulty,” or “call volume is unusually high, but your call is important to us.” Even if connected to a live person, the traditional phone call is torpedoed to some deep abyss. There you talk to someone who either can’t understand the problem because he has never seen the product or can’t speak the language of the country you are calling from and where you purchased the product well enough to provide assistance. If they get frustrated right away or are too busy to act interested, they put you through the “Oh, let-me-transfer-you-to-the-appropriate-department” shuffle.
What really torques me is these are the guys at the top of the food chain, the ones in charge. When they get interviewed in their multi million dollar suits about their huge profits and massive success, these are the same guys that rail against higher taxes and scream that people in the “lower classes” lack responsibility.
REALLY?
Tell us about your recent customer “service” nightmares in the comments below. And if you actually have had exceptional service recently, we'd like to hear that, too.
Click HERE to receive these blog posts in your inbox.
www.readmota.com
By Jo Baert (Own work)[CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)], via Wikimedia Commons
I have recently been thrust into a phenomenon that I have been cognizant of but was unaware that it had become so incredibly flagrant. Not just that, but it is apparent that the act is intentional and orchestrated to deny those who can least afford to fight it any opportunity for redress. What is that act? It is the intentional insulation of organizations/businesses/providers/people in charge from those they purport to serve.
Of whom am I speaking? Pretty much any person or organization that can afford a lawyer, a receptionist, or a cell phone that blocks the caller’s number. So I could be talking about you.
Look, I know people are busy. I know that schedules must be met, that time is money, and that dimple dicked CEO’s hide from responsibility to make money. Time is the excuse… but ducking refunds is the motive.
How many times do you complain when you get poor service or a shoddy product? C’mon… be truthful to yourself. There’s nobody here but us chickens, and we aren’t in the broadcasting business.
The reason you don’t complain is because you have been trained to be silent. You have been trained to take your lumps. To bow to circumstance, to take it in the shorts when you spend hard earned money on a cheap product that doesn’t work right out of the box or breaks after only a few uses. You are so used to it that you are embarrassed by others who complain too loudly. You think it is normal to turn and walk away. We all do it. We feel that immediate frustration over throwing away good money and effort in acquiring something we expect to function well… and then we throw up our hands and shake our heads, calm down and get philosophical. Society does not allow us to “go postal” over getting screwed. We are only allowed to be nebbishes together. A group that meekly takes what we get.
And we have done it to ourselves.
How?
We allowed those that sell us stuff to run and hide so far away that it seems unreasonable to chase them down and make them perform as they were PAID TO DO.
Do you see the correlation? How we have enabled bad service? And how those in business take advantage by creating an ever more complicated maze? It’s all about upping the ante. If they can make it too expensive in time and effort for you to complain, they win.
Have you tried complaining recently? I mean a legitimate grievance where you expect some kind of appropriate satisfaction? I do it all the time, and I can tell you that it is getting increasingly difficult to hold a company’s feet to the fire. They hide behind layers of insulation.
From mold on bacon, to being over-billed by a medical facility, to expecting public education to teach something of value, we scream into an ever growing black hole.
First you have to find contact information. Then you find out that their “server is having difficulty,” or “call volume is unusually high, but your call is important to us.” Even if connected to a live person, the traditional phone call is torpedoed to some deep abyss. There you talk to someone who either can’t understand the problem because he has never seen the product or can’t speak the language of the country you are calling from and where you purchased the product well enough to provide assistance. If they get frustrated right away or are too busy to act interested, they put you through the “Oh, let-me-transfer-you-to-the-appropriate-department” shuffle.
What really torques me is these are the guys at the top of the food chain, the ones in charge. When they get interviewed in their multi million dollar suits about their huge profits and massive success, these are the same guys that rail against higher taxes and scream that people in the “lower classes” lack responsibility.
REALLY?
Tell us about your recent customer “service” nightmares in the comments below. And if you actually have had exceptional service recently, we'd like to hear that, too.
Click HERE to receive these blog posts in your inbox.
www.readmota.com
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