Ok, my daughters and I are regularly asking ourselves and each other this question lately… Why is most everything we buy broken or defective in some way? What is going on here? Poor business models, not enough staff, low pay, lousy work ethic???
But we have to work hard every day at our respective jobs, and if we don’t do right we are penalized in some way. Punished. So how come others can get away with doing substandard work? I guess they can’t in the end as I for one won’t purchase from a company a second time if there are problems, particularly problems that linger. One chance is all they get with me!
So between the three of us we have a fireplace door ordered five months ago still on backorder. Maybe it will arrive in time for 4th of July picnic weather. There is the TV stand that arrived with a hugely dented key piece of the product to assemble. After much hassle they are sending out a new board to replace the defective one. Keeping fingers crossed… And then there are the two rather expensive children’s dressers, one with a defective drawer slider, repaired after a long wait to schedule, and another that has a completely defective center support thus requiring a new dresser to be delivered, many weeks from now. Hope no one gets hurt if it collapses!
Oh, and don’t forget the Roku box that came with a defective power cord… Customer service had no live phone number, only e-mail, which was not responded to after quite a few weeks. But the purchaser of the Roku box had a brilliant idea today after reading an article suggesting the use of social media to get customer service to respond and take action. She sent a tweet, quickly got a reply with a promised phone call later the same day. We had bets out as to whether the call would actually come in. Thankfully it did, and a new box and cord are being shipped out. Hopefully this one will work as promised…
And then there were my rather expensive and good quality boots. Came as promised, and quite lovely. But a beam of sunlight highlighted a defect in the leather, which was actually pealing off! Back to the store to facilitate the return. I like the boots, and we found my size at another store and they are in transit. I was assured there were no defects on this pair. We shall see… Now I doubt the company that manufactures the boots. Disappointed. But at least the store handling the order has been good to deal with.
But my daughters and I are not the only ones annoyed about the hassles of making purchases for ourselves and our families. Seems every person I have spoken with in recent weeks has some variation of this same disappointing tale. Looking to make something easier for ourselves sadly just becomes one more problem to solve. More than ever I am appreciating the advantage of practicing a minimalistic existence! It would help keep me out of being in a bad mood!
Have any tips for the weary shoppers?