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Although there’s no David Horowitz show about it anymore,
the stories are out there, and many are so bizarre in the telling
that they’re enough to make one wonder if a pattern isn’t
developing in the business practices of some of the larger corporations.
Several
months ago, I ordered a new computer from Dell. They did a credit
check, taking my credit card and Social Security number. I asked
them just to charge the card for the computer right then. They
told me that there was no interest until the end of the year,
and that they would mail me an invoice. I thought this a little
less convenient, but I was high on the excitement of my new purchase,
so I figured . . . whatever.
My
computer came, but there was no invoice in the box. I called them,
and they told me that invoices usually get sent out a few days
after the computer.
About
a week and a half after that, I called Dell again, asking them
about how I apply for my $150 mail-in rebate, and the salesperson
told me that once I pay the invoice (which, again, should be there
any day), I get the rebate online, and send it in along with a
copy of the invoice.
About
four weeks after that, still not having received the invoice,
but really wanting to get the thing paid for, I went onto Dell’s
Customer Service Web site and e-mailed them, telling them that
I still have not received an invoice, but really want to pay for
my computer, file for my rebate, and get the whole thing over
with. I got an e-mail back apologizing for the inconvenience and
saying that my invoice would be coming via e-mail, and that mail-in
rebate offers only last 45 days…so hurry and file.
Whoever
wrote the e-mail knew it was already past 45 days, which perturbed
me a bit. I wrote back reminding them that I’d come to them
in good faith because I wanted to pay them. I’d tried to
pay for the computer the day I ordered it and on two other occasions
since then, and that they still should honor the $150 rebate.
I
got an e-mail back from them, again apologizing, but saying that
they could no longer honor my mail-in rebate, and offering me
$130 credit at Dell’s online store.
I
wrote them back, professionally but pissed, explaining that I
wanted my rebate. I went on a bit further, logically explaining
the very minimal thing that I was asking for, and how completely
illogical it is for them to risk a relationship with a customer
just because (and I’d never suggest that Dell didn’t
perhaps “make sure” I didn’t get an invoice
in the proper time to file for the rebate.) the customer didn’t
receive the mailed invoice. He attempted three times to pay it….
Give the guy an extension.
After
two more letters each, they agreed to apply $150 toward my account.
But why wasn’t I allowed to pay for the computer when I
ordered it? And why, if invoices could be e-mailed, was it not
done in the first place, along with the e-mail confirming my order?
A
few years back I had a run-in with Northwest Airlines. I’d
booked a flight on priceline.com to fly from Los Angeles to New
York on a Saturday night, returning on a Monday night. I was going
to see a friend’s play on Sunday afternoon. It was the Saturday
that John F. Kennedy Jr. disappeared. When I got to Detroit, where
I had a connecting flight, all eastbound flights had been canceled.
I’d overheard some airline employees say that no flights
were being allowed east due to the search, but once a Northwest
customer service representative actually communicated with me,
the story was “bad weather.” Northwest does not put
customers up in hotels when flights are canceled due to “bad
weather.”
As
I sat in a Detroit airport bar watching CNN, they reported “clear
skies for the continued search into tomorrow.” So I spent
the night in the Detroit airport (never even making it to New
York, but that has less to do with Northwest’s fib, and
more to do with scheduling), because Northwest insisted that it
was due to “bad weather,” when major media reported
otherwise.
Not
being put up in a hotel for 13 hours was not the end of the world,
but I nonetheless didn’t appreciate being lied to. After
receiving my letter of complaint, Northwest never made good, blaming
priceline.com (whom I never expected to get money from because
they were not the ones who had canceled their services).
I
sympathize with the loss that Northwest Airlines had to suck up
that day, but did they really think that, with televisions all
over airports, they could make up weather reports and not have
their customers figure it out?
Many
companies warn you of their sketchy business practices, but assume
you are too dumb to know what it means.
I
recently canceled my AOL account. Just before I hung up with them,
the customer service guy said, “All right now, well if you
change your mind and wanna come back, all ya gotta do is log in
again under your same old name and password.” Translation:
“You’re still in our files, so if you don’t
remove us from your desktop, and accidentally sign on under AOL
again, we’ll bill you $29.95 a month, just like we used
to.”
I’d
be curious to know how much money AOL makes this way per year.
I’d be willing to bet it is the salary of someone in middle
management.
In
bringing up these issues with fellow consumers, everyone seemed
to have a story of his or her own. It seems almost common knowledge
that those who do not spend the extra $15 to $20 per day for insurance
when they rent a car are that much more likely to have a ding
discovered when the car is returned.
One
of the many crazy stories I heard about car rental companies was
about Enterprise. A friend of mine had full coverage through her
own insurance, but they nonetheless found a ding in the door (I
guess screwing your customer’s insurance company is the
next best thing to screwing your actual customer), and Enterprise
then tried to charge her an extra day’s rental for the day
that the car had to be in the shop to get the ding out.
To
the fiscal conservative, these stories might seem to be fairly
mild. After all, companies have to keep themselves from being
taken advantage of. What is troubling, however, is how consistently
these techniques have been put into practice, and how intentionally
ambiguous the rhetoric of big corporations has become.
The
ethical line between a company making sure it’s not being
taken advantage of and its standard practice has been crossed.
It seems as if the bigger the corporation, the more sneakily they’re
trying to get another $9.95 out of you, and the sad fact is, most
of us are too lazy to fight it. It’s easier just to write
a check, and most companies count on that.
I
learned years ago, from losing a fight with the city of Los Angeles
over an unjustly issued parking ticket, and watching myself go
from a nice Mid-Western boy to an angry raving lunatic, that it’s
often best not to try to fight.
But
if companies are going to continue to make it a practice to try
to sneak a little extra out of every customer, many Americans
have no other option.
That
Los Angeles parking ticket was $60. Sixty dollars to someone working
for minimum wage is a day and a half’s wages. With the economy
the way it is, fewer and fewer people are willing to casually
part with money, and it is time for the companies who are doing
this to acknowledge it, and stop. It ultimately proves less profitable
for them.
I’ve
been turned off enough by Dell to not buy another of their products.
I was so irate with Northwest Airlines that I have made a conscious
effort to boycott them (but I just flew to Prague on Northwest,
and have only a few more frequent-flier miles to go - see, they
get you that way), which, being a native of their hub city, Minneapolis,
isn’t easy. But I’ve managed intentionally not to
fly with them a good five times in the past four years, so I’m
feeling like they’re getting properly punished.
The
whole “Fight Back” thing, I’ll admit, does get
tedious…and the media usually cover it in a rather cheesy
way. But more than I am embarrassed about being a whiny little
pain in the ass, I am ashamed of what is happening to capitalism.
As
someone who has not lost faith in this country … isn’t
this tacky?! Isn’t it unattractive that, as a citizen of
a free and democratic country, we have to be extra cautious to
make certain fellow citizens are not swindling us?
Capitalism
is a good thing on paper. It motivates us to get off the couch
and do better. But in this time of fewer companies controlling
more businesses, and the widening gap between America’s
(and the world’s) rich and poor, capitalism only can sustain
itself if the opportunity to “do better” remains open
to all.
There
must be an “infrastructure of justice,” as the late
American political philosopher John Rawls phrased it, a social
contract to make sure that the less fortunate do not sink so low
as to ultimately become a cancer on the country.
Perhaps
making money officially has taken precedence over all of the moral
philosophies that America was built on. But I hope not.
Sam
Selvaggio is a regular contributor to Raw Story. His past columns
can be found at the Selvaggio
archive page.
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