Sweet time: a victim-customer strikes back YES, IT seems true, more companies are being kind to customers. Only those afflicted with glan- dular optimism would claim that the customer is king. That is a slogan and as inaccurate as most slogans. Many big and profitable companies continue to act as if customers were their main prob- lem instead of their reason for be- ing in business. However here and there the proposition that the customer is sometimes right has attracted cor- porate attention and some, like the century-old Maytag Corp., have made their brands best-sellers by placing the customers first. Dorothy Buchanan of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute told the Globe and Mail the other day that customer complaint departments with 800 free dialing numbers are now numerous. She thinks the cause is more competition and smarter customers. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that other com- panies are going out of business and this one could too if they don’t treat me right,’’ she says. Speaking as one 25 millionth of the Canadian market, my survey shows a few Mr. Maytags out there and some of tie other kind. When double-billed recently for an expensive equipment rental, I sent the company Xeroxes of my receipt with a letter that said in part “1 am not charging you for my time and inconvenience, this time. But you are too big a com- pany to be making mistakes like this.”” As will surprise very few who have been around since computer billing began, two weeks later there came another false billing, this time with a warning that I should snap a salute and pay promptly. This time I sent the company president my previous letter and enclosed my own bill: 80 cents in expenses for two letters and a $50 consulting fee for studying the company’s accounting system. There came back, promptly, a letter of apology and a cheque for $50.80. Things didn’t used to be that way in the market place. For some companies, they still aren’t and it isn’t always easy to see why. Competition isn’t the whole an- swer. Competition is nowhere fiercer than in the computer industry, both manufacturing and retailing. You can check this by phoning the yellow pages’ computer listings. About one in six phone numbers will be no longer in service. If competition made for good customer relations, the computer industry people would be offering to mow our lawns and carry out the garbage for us. Instead there are few industries so contemptu- ous of their customers. I have owned three word pro- cessors, all famous makes. Only one manufacturer exhibited a mild interest in whether I live or die. Software, of which I purchased four packages, is an unremitting horror story. I once spent a month trying to get somebody to tell me how one package could be upgraded. Letters and phone cails to a Vancouver office, a big Washington State centre and the international headquarters of the Paul St. Pierre PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES company in California were all brushed aside or ignored. 1 changed to another package. To my knowledge, which is fuller than I would prefer it to be, no software manufacturer has produced a comprehensible in- struction book. I must hire a technician to explain the product to me and even he does it by in- stinct rather than reading obscure and contradictory instructions. “Programmers love to write programs, but they hate telling people how they did it after- wards,” is how he puts it. How | put it is that customers like me are damned angry about the way we’re treated and as soon as the Mr. Maytag of the com- puter industry shows up we'll never touch one of the current brands again. Some industries are just better than others, that’s all. A complaint about what I con- sidered to be distasteful advertis- ing brought a thoughtful and ap- parently sincere letter of apology and a promise to review advertis- ing policy. This from one of the world’s largest corporations. Yet another huge industry, automobile manufacturing, re- mains indifferent, if not actively hostile to the customer. It’s been sadly instructive to watch the Japanese car manufac- turers adopting the same arro- gance that brought the American automobile industry so much grief. Having recently bought a used Japanese car with almost full war- ranty time remaining on it, I had to use up four months to obtain the promised warranty card, sen- ding the request first by the form provided by the manufacturer and then by a dealer who fed the in- formation into the nationwide corporate computer, Neither of us could inject any hustle into the Ontario head office which took its own sweet time. Before I buy another car of this make, I may take my own sweet time. Of course beyond these are the hopeless cases, those to whom we no longer bother to complain, such as life insurance companies, magazine subscription offices and Canada Post. But in more and more others, there is hope for us, the victim- customers. So do not whine. Growl. Bite. Even if you don’t win 50 dollars it will ease the pressure on your liver, like sw ur- ing, and just possibly one very big company will be one tiny bit smarter. CT OE Friday, July 19, 1991 — North Shore News - 9 VANCOUVER'S BEST Selection of Quality Outdoor Lanterns. Now at Sale Prices Look no Further. Take your pick from Norbum Lightings wide selection of outdoor lanterns. We have prices to suit every budget, styles to suit your taste, and lighting experts to answer your ques- tions. Stop in...we'll leave the lights on for you. $2788 4600 E. Hastings St., Burnaby, BC 299-0666 Outdoor Lantern ORBURN Gi DIGHTING URGENT IN NORTH VANCOUVER PUBLIC AUCTION RE: DEFAULTED UNPAID DOCUMENTS CANADA CUSTOMS CLEARED DUTIES & TAXES PAID AT PORT OF ENTRY VALUABLE PERSIAN CARPETS Fine imported rugs. The majority consist of hand-knotted oriental rugs. Contents: Persian Tabriz, Baluch, Indo Kirman, Deep Pile Mainland Chinese, Bokhara, Sunwashed Village Rugs, Kars, Silk Masterpiece Gum, etc. Sizes 1x1 to 10x14. Rugs unwrapped and liquidated piece by piece in the quickest possible manner. SUNDAY, JULY 21st, 1991 AT DELBROOK COMMUNITY CENTRE (TAMARACK ROOM) 600 West Queens Road, North Vancouver AT 2:00 PM SHARP Viewing from 1:00 pm * Advertising subject to terms and conditions of auction at auction site * Liquidation by Federal Collection Agency Inc. (a private B.C. company) * Terms: Cash, major credit cards, bank cards or bank cheques * 10% freight, brokerage and warehousing charges to be added.