Mike Jacoubowsky said:In the real world, being a business owner, I often have to "put out fires."
Can I nominate that for "understatement of the year", or is it too early in the year?
Quoted message said:I shouldn't say this, but *I* wouldn't want that person as a customer. I'll bend over backward to
give somebody the benefit of the doubt, but Wannagofast & his or her friends are not the people I'm
in business to help.
I can't think of anything wrong with saying that.
Quoted message said:Aw heck, I'm not done yet. Home Depots return policies are a reflection of something very bad in
this world- an attitude that there's little inherent value in anything, and nothing is to be
repaired, just thrown away. In the old days, you didn't expect something that had broken to be
replaced, or thrown out- you repaired it. But that's way too much hassle unless you have
In the old days, such products cost significantly less to repair than to replace, most were quite
repairable, and after repaired, they were as good as if they hadn't broken in the first place.
Now, most products are cheaper to replace than to repair; many are not at all repairable; and most
of the rest cannot be repaired well -- simple things are created by mass-production machines whose
work cannot be duplicated by hand while repairing, and complex things are _so_ complex that
repairing one problem inevitably leads to a cascade of other problems.
Bicycles are one of the few things left that are well-repairable, but there aren't enough people
able to diagnose and repair them well, and there isn't enough demand to create more such people.
Quoted message said:happened, etc. And often it turns out they're simply not using it correctly, *or* they were sold
the wrong thing etc. Both of those situations are hurt, not helped, by a no-questions-asked
return policy.
You know, that's a good point; I never thought of it that way. While it makes the consumer more
comfortable, it doesn't necessarily result in a net benefit for the consumer, and certainly not one
for the store.
Quoted message said:Plus, there are the exceptionally-rare situations like Wannagofast that it encourages.
True, although you've given a possible scenario for why big stores are happy to have those customers
doing exactly that.
Quoted message said:Sorry for the endless ramble & retail drivel. I should *not* hit the "send" icon on this one!!! But
I will. But not before saying that I have
Nothing to be sorry for. I'm glad you hit send.
Do you often write messages and then cancel them, feeling better that you've said it but also not
bothering others with it (or not continuing a flame war / feeding a troll) too?
Quoted message said:exceptionally few customers like Wannagofast, and look forward to taking care of my customers every
single day. They're great people, all
99.999999999999% of them. Just keep me away from Wannagofast.
To be fair, I suspect that many of the Wannagofasts of the world are reluctant to do the same thing
to small businesses as big ones, due to the "big business can deal with it, who cares" factor.
--
Rick Onanian
