monkey!

November 4, 2007

Being a reasonable consumer: Are you an ass?

This morning I was at Canada Computers looking to pick some things up. I got there a tad early, about 5 minutes before open so I waited at the doorway. With me, stood another man with a broken media center. He seemed like a good fellow, we chatted for a bit about media centers and he described to me his problem all with a pretty cheery demeanor to him.

A few minutes after 11am, the store was opened by the manager and he blazed in, described to the manager his problem and the reply; “Sorry sir, our tech is not in on Sundays”. At this point, the man flipped out, he could not believe that on his single day off, there was no tech available. This was the only day of the week he could make it to the store, and he wanted a tech, right here, right now. It wasn’t happening. The manager of the store kept a solid composure as he told me he could not get a tech today, but he could sign his media center in for him and get it fixed as soon as possible.

For the man, this was not enough. In his precious little world, the only care for him was getting his media center fixed immediately, on his own schedule. Eventually, after some bickering the man stormed out, yelling that he would never buy from Canada Computers again and he would take his business elsewhere. Good riddance!

I felt for the manager because working in a small business, I’ve seen my co-workers deal with it more times then needed. What many customers do not realize is that a store tries to cater to the customers needs as much as possible, but in the end it doesn’t always come out perfect.

Not one single viable business out there wants to make the costumer angry. All we want is for you to walk out of store happy with your purchase, and if any issues arise you talk to us immediately and we do our best to resolve it in any way we can.

It’s hardest for a small business, when you have limited staff and resources. If your only available time to get to our store and get your product looked at is a time when we are not available, then it is your duty to find someone who can take care of your problem for you with us. When you make a purchase from a store, you come in knowing what times they operate, you have the chance to see their return policies, warranties, etc. You have the opportunity to ask all these questions but a lot of customers do not because they think even after they make the purchase, the business will be there for them, whenever they want, on their own clock, not the business’ clock, and that’s just a silly way of thinking.

Consumers demand a lot these days, and within good reason. Everything is so fast, so efficient, that it’s almost natural to expect the best and fastest at all times. If this is your train of thought, step back for a second and remember that sometimes things aren’t perfect, and you will need to adjust, or find new ways to figure things out. That’s the beauty of life however, what fun would it be if everything was just handed to you on a silver platter?