The response to lousy service though, is clearly the service game.
Hands up all those that actually buy their printer ink cartridges?
Gee that's too bad. I don't.
No I don't steal them. But I do make them give them to me for free. It's simple, you ***** and complain.
I have a friend that has worked for HP. He's manned the phones, and as such knows all the code words key phrases and triggers.
So you have an empty cartridge. What do you do?
Well you don't go to the store and buy new ones necessarily. Considering printer cartridges make up 80% of the cost of the printer.
The smart savvy person phones up the service line, and explains in a most disgusted tone, my cartridge doesn't print (well of course it doesn't, its empty). But, it's not a crime to just not say that eh. Saying it doesn't work from fraudulent reasons might be, but failing to disclose you actually know why it doesn't print is not.
Sound like a stupid idea?
Well I suppose some people enjoy forking out 50-70 bucks for printer cartridges, but I don't.
I usually get 2 maybe 3 "free" sets of ink cartridges, then I buy a new printer (which comes with ink cartridges). The company does make some money selling me hardware, but I don't have any interest in paying idiotic sums for some lousy ink.
Service operations usually would rather just give you something, rather than deal with tricky issues. The guy on the phone is being monitored, and he likely has X minutes to fix your problem, or it makes him look bad (great job to get if you enjoy a lot of stress for lousy pay).
Latest option friend has been exploring has been online video rentals. You pay X dollars for a month's service. The services are all set up on the assumption you will rent X movies per month. If you routinely rent X plus X movies, they start to lose money on you. But, you as joe consumer, naturally want more movies for your X dollars, not less.
Squeeky wheels get greased eh. His first month, he didn't get the atypical 10-12 movies, he got 37 movies. He *****ed.
"Hey you sent me number 2 before number 1 in this series, you expect me to enjoy the series all out of sequence? Additional films shipped out.
The truth is, the companies make their best money off the people that just bend over and take it. And they usually want the complainers happy. And lets face it, a printer cartridge set does NOT cost HP 75 bucks. It's just ink.
The online dvd rental service really doesn't suffer greatly, by adding 2 extra rentals out to the one person that complained. Likely makes money if the complainer tells just one other person that they like company X.
It's not always gimme gimme gimme though.
When I go to a restaraunt I usually don't tip. Sorry not made out of money here. But, if I enjoyed my meal, if the waiter and or waitress gave good service if the food was good, I call over the manager and I tell him right then and there so that it is heard by others, the meal was great and the staff are to be commended. Not the same as leaving an extra couple of bucks, but maybe it impacts favourable a chance of getting a raise or promotion. I can only hope.
I also never spare the negative publicity with those that make crummy products. Which explains why some have heard me really rip into some wargames in the past. If I think something sucks, I'm not keeping it to myself
