Standing Up For Yourself When the Rest of the World Wants You to Sit Down and Be Quiet

I don’t want you to think  I blogged about the incident  with the new General Electric dryer I purchased from Best Buyer seven months ago that doesn’t work just to use my power to whine out loud.

I’ve been thinking about whining about this subject ever since the recession began.  It’s not exactly whining I’ve been contemplating though.  Whining doesn’t get the job done.  I’ve gone back and forth about the title of this book.  I know, I know.  I said, “No more books. I’m just writing screen plays now.”  But likely I’ll still write one or two books.  Maybe three if I have something new to say.The world doesn’t care if we whine or do something quiet.  It’s noise-making, persistent and loud expression of sounds that they don’t like.For those of you who didn’t read the last blog, I bought a new dryer that doesn’t work.  It’s what many people call, what’s that word?  Citrus?  Orange?  Oh, lemon.  That’s it. The once shiny dryer I purchased hasn’t ever performed the way a reasonable person would expect it to – by drying clothes put in it.My idea for writing a book by the same title of this blog occurred to me at another Best Buy, this one in Minnesota.  That time it wasn’t me being — I want to use nice words — it wasn’t me getting the short end of the stick, or the long end inserted someplace else where it would hurt.I stood in line that day behind a young man.  I guess him to be about twenty. He appeared to be clean, respectable, and polite.  He spoke using nice words and in a gentle voice.  I listened to him explain to the clerk that he’d come in two days earlier with acoupon for ten dollars off on a computer device.When he asked Best Buy’s computer technician which specific part he should buy for his computer, the technician made a specific suggestion, which the man followed. The nice man used his coupon and received ten dollars off the purchase price.  A good deal for everyone involved, right?  Wrong.When the nice man got home, he discovered that the particular part the Best Buy technician recommended was the wrong part for his computer. The nice man returned for an even-up exchange for the right part for his computer.It should have been a simple transaction.  The man had his receipt.  He had the part and all its original packaging.  The problem was he didn’t have his coupon.  The reason he didn’t havehis coupon was because he had to give it in to the clerk when he made his original purchase.  Best Buy had his coupon.The clerk said the man owed him ten dollars plus taxes before he could have the correct part.“I can’t give you the discount,” she said. “You don’t have your coupon anymore.”“That’s because I gave it to the store to buy the part your staff said worked with my computer.  But they told me to buy the wrong one.   I don’t have the coupon,” he said.  “You have it.”“I can’t give you the ten dollar discount without your coupon,” the clerk said in a snippy tone.“How could I have my coupon if I gave it to you when I made the original purchase?” he asked. “Not my problem,” she responded.”How can I give you ten dollars off for a ten-dollar-off coupon you don’t have?”The nice man stood there struggling for the right words.  He didn’t appear angry.  He looked as befuddled by this lack of logic confronting him as I was. “How could I have the coupon if I gave it to the store to buy the original product, the one the technician said to buy, but that was the wrong one?” he asked. “Not my problem,” she replied again. “But I cannot give you the discount if you don’t have the coupon.”The dogmatically positioned clerk had no intention of negotiating, problem-solving, or  giving him  his ten dollar discount without the coupon that she (she representing the store) already had.  After another five minutes of listening to this idiotic reaction by the clerk, I couldn’t stand it any longer.  Call me codependent.  A rescuer.  Call me whatever you want to.   I’d had it.“Go get your supervisor, please,” I said in the low voice I use when I’m enraged.  “And get him or her right now.  This gentleman deserves his ten dollar discount. H e’s not leaving the store without it.”Her eyes widened.  So did his.  She immediately went to get the manager (at least I hoped she did and wasn’t going to call the police).   I apologized to the nice man for interfering. He looked stunned.  Within two minutes, the nice man had his new computer part – this time the right one.  He also received his ten dollar discount without giving Best Buy a coupon he didn’t havebecause healready gave it to them.  The manager understood the situation.   This customer was right.The customer thanked the clerk and the manager for their help, and then he thanked me.  “No problem,” I said.But that’s a lie because right now, with the recession, getting the proverbial short end of the merchandise stick is a huge problem for many of us. Do large corporations have bean counters hidden in basements calculating how many people will stand up for themselves and more importantly, how many won’t?By close monitoring, have they determined that if they (they not being limited to Best Buy but to many stores that in the past most of us have trusted) ignore us long enough, the majority of us will sit down and be quiet?No matter what they sell us, whether it works, or how well or long it works, can they plan on us retreating and eventually going away?A lot of ten dollar bills add up to millions of dollars.  For people like this nice young man, ten dollars could be a lot of money.  The cost of a new dryer is a significant purchase for me.  I don’t want to give anyone the short end of the merchandise stick but I don’t want it placed on or in me either.I’ve been collecting stories over the past several years.I have my eyes on several businesses that strongly believe The Customer Is Always Wrong hoping we’ll disappear.  On the other hand, good, honest businesses that treat customers well are out there too.  State Farm is one.  CVS is another.  There are many more and I’ll give respect where respect belongs.I’m fully aware that I’ll likely lose Best Buy as an advertising affiliate.  At least I hope I do.  The only reason they haven’t been removed from my site yet is I’ve been extremely busy trying to get my dryer fixed and my clothes dried because I don’t like wearing them wet.I don’t want to advertise for Best Buy anymore (not that losing my business will bother them) but for me, it’s about putting my advertising space where my trust is.It takes sometimes inordinate amounts of time to stand up for ourselves with businesses. They create it that way (you’ve seen the commercial with what’s her name, Helen? In India).  Phone calls.  Digging out receipts.  Jumping through hoops.On occasion I’ve had to make many trips to the store and still don’t have the problem resolved and it’s been over two years and this is for a several thousand dollar purchase involving Home Depot and Capital One (the credit card that always stands behind us).  The reason they’re standing behind us, I learned, is because they’re hiding.Between Best Buy and General Electric, seven service calls have been made on my brand new dryer, a dryer that still doesn’t work by anyone’s standards.  It doesn’t dry clothes that are damp that I put in it.  The General Electric repairman showed up on time for the last appointment.He did some testing, and then told me it was an electrical problem and not a problem with the dryer.  He also said he’d be in the area for another couple hours.  As it happened, a professional electrician worked close by.  In less than ten minutes, he fixed what he called “an odd electrical problem.”  The circuits on the circuit breaker dedicated to the dryer had been swapped out.  He switched them back. Problem solved.The General Electric technician, who also appeared to be a nice man, reacted with surprise when I called him within ten minutes with the good news that the electrical problem had been completely solved.It wasn’t that he didn’t believe me, but it sounded like he doubted that I knew what I was talking about.  However, he kept his word, returned, and sure enough the electricity to the dryer worked the way it should.  Ten minutes later he discovered another problem, this time with the dryer.I told him that the General Electric female supervisor I talked to said he had the power to decide to give me a new dryer and that’s what I wanted.  I said I no longer wanted this dryer that had been taken apart and not fixed so many times.He said he didn’t have that power.  He had to order the parts, parts he didn’t drive around with in his van.  He’d have to schedule another service call.  I told him I didn’t stay here full time during the winter, and that it cost me a substantial sum of money to have people at the house waiting for him during the four-hour appointment window.What had originally been about a $450 dryer now approached $1,000 in what it cost me and it still didn’t work.  That didn’t include the money I spent at the Laundromat drying my clothes.  He said I didn’t need anyone to be at the house.They’d deliver the parts with no signature required, and then he’d install them in the dryer housed in an outside laundry room. I didn’t need anyone at home to listen to why it didn’t work this time (I added the last part myself).This would be the eighth service call made by either General Electric or Best Buy. I would appear more foolish than when I used to believe that alcoholics wouldn’t drink without treatment or Alcoholics Anonymous if I believed that the dryer would work the next time a repairman appeared. Even if it works, I don’t trust it to continue working and further, I don’t want it.  It isn’t a new dryer anymore.It isn’t worth the money and time I’ve spent on it.  I have every reason to believe that if it works once or twice,   I’ll be calling the technician again. And again.  And again. Until I break down and do what the woman from General Electric suggested – buy another General Electric dryer.  Buy two.  One should work.  Right?  Wrong.I don’t know what part this nice man could possibly order because every part in that dryer has already been replaced.That’s the story about the birth of How to Stand Up For Yourself When the Rest of the World Wants You to Sit Down and Be Quiet.Readers, friends, General Electric – this isn’t a personal vendetta.  It’s about conducting good business.  We deserve to get what we pay for – dryers that dry, coupons that are honored, whatever it is we’re buying from a reputable merchant with our hard-earned dollars.We don’t deserve either end of that stick.I’m not going to stop until prominent businesses do what they say they will. I’ll blog about other topics too, but this will be an ongoing and intermittent project that I hope eventually impacts the way businesses operate in today’s world.My first choice would be if I didn’t have to. I’d prefer it if these businesses we’ve put our trust in would treat us with respect and sell us products that work.  I’d love it if people did what they said they would the first time around, without us having to beg, plead, cajole, and ask thirty times.  Wouldn’t you?  I have to play by the rules – not that I don’t want to.  I wouldn’t feel good about myself if I didn’t.All I’m asking is that the people we do business with – whether it’s a large corporation or an individual — play fair with us too. The customer isn’t always right.  Some customers can be a pain in the butt.  But most people are fair and decent.Businesses, that’s what we want from you.  

Maybe if stand up together and make a loud enough sound, this dream will become real and we’ll live in a world where all businesses do what they say they will.And pigs and monkeys will fly too.

Later,Melody Beattie