What has happened to the customer, formerly the hero of the American economic system, the guy who is always right and never wrong, who is sought after, catered to and pampered, whose pleasure is the credo of success in business? Please the customer, the saying goes, and you will succeed.
There is something sinister going on today, subtle shifts in customer philosophy that have become gradually manifest, an ugly agenda that is turning the customer into a victim to be exploited, persecuted and told what to do to further the aims of the suits. These are the malevolent bean counters and collections specialists who, hidden from view in shadowy suburban buildings, concealed from the public and fellow employees, are altering the essence of American commerce to speed up cash flow on the backs of their own customers.
If you are overdue on an account, the calls are understood as part of doing business. However, there is a new collection scheme loose in the land harassing customers who are current. In the guise of a courtesy call, mortgage companies ring up to ensure you have sent payment before the due date. Credit card companies now impose a $29 fee if payment is not received when they demand, which is about 10 days after you receive the bill. If the Post Office is not on its toes, and can't get the payment there in five days, the credit card folks just don't give a damn and charge the fee anyway.
Then the call comes saying what a great customer you are so your card is being charged for a service (insurance etc.) that you can cancel in 30 days if you desire. This is the insidious cycle of exploiting the customer to charge more fees, penalize late payments and shorten the due date. They know that you will take a call from your credit card companyout of fear of a lost payment or a black mark against your credit score. They know they have you captive to threaten or cajole you with fear that you will offend them if you don't take the offer. Its like the KGB calling. Next they will be knocking on your door in the middle of the night.
Now all creditors, from utilities to credit card and mortgage companies, have unilaterally imposed their own payment schedule at certain points in the month. This means the customer can't sit down and pay bills once a month anymore, but has to pay almost literally every day to meet the relentless demands of the computer-generated collections cycles that make management look good. But in reality they have turned the customer, that once sacred personage who makes the economy go around, into a victim to be plucked and threatened with a bad credit report, even for paying his bills on time. Now the trend is to persuade customers to pay online so they can control accounts even more thoroughly and efficientlyfor them. If you dare resist, the callers take on an additional indignant tone, disturbing your tranquility and softly threatening that they are making notes on your account.
Telephone, cell phone, satellite and cable bills are littered with fees and charges. An accountant working full time would take a week to figure them out. The attitude is that the squeeze is on to enhance collections and add new fees at willnow that you are captive. If you ask why they are calling, the next 10 minutes of your life are sucked into a quagmire of innuendo and veiled threats. You aren't a customer anymore; you're a patsy.
THE CUSTOMER AT LARGE
In this environment, going to a certain breed of restaurant has turned into a face-off due to a similar shift in the theory of customer hospitality. Today, most chefs are more concerned with their precious presentations than with pleasing the customer. If you are a smoker, its best to stay home rather than confront haughty and often hostile hosts and hostesses whose only exposure to proper manners is the company handbook, leaving them helpless and hopeless in handling actual interventions with customers. At one new eatery in Raleigh it was demanded that our party submit a credit card to order food from the bar. Like a German under the Nazis, he was just following orders. In another case a new bistro on the coast refused to accommodate an increase by one in a dinner reservation since the owners can only serve eight to a table due to the preparation process by the chef. To them, excluding a last-minute addition to the party was anathema and completely at odds with the accepted version of hospitality. Instead of saying, great, come on and well figure it out, they preferred to follow the party line. And by the way, no smoking even at the bar. It affects the aroma of the food. Come on, at the beach where you go to get away from the politically correct posturing in the Triangle? Our party of nine dined elsewhere.
NOTES FROM LA-LA LAND
Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal recently came to the aid of Them, the poor smokers huddled outside doorways across America, the victims of a punitive campaign by health fascists committed to humiliating 30 percent of the population based on junk science that purports that passive smoke is harmful. This in the wake of the Stalinesque fiat issued by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg banning smoking in bars, ruining revenues for small businesses all in the name of the collective good. Hitler banned smoking too for the same reason. Go to: http://opinionjournal.com/ columnists/pnoonan. * * * Not surprisingly, the Triangle Transit Authority is already over budget by $100 million, five years before the wheels meet the rails. This millstone that is being laid around our necks needs to be stopped in its tracks before it unilaterally alters our community (without our permission) and sinks us financially when the federal money is gone and we are left to pay for it. The good news is that plans are moving ahead for a high-speed rail link from North Carolina to Virginia. Intra-city rail is a gigantic mistake; inter-city high-speed rail is welcome news indeed. * * * Interesting isn't it that the November elections were exciting because the exit interview people, Voter News Service, couldn't influence voting with projected winners before the polls closed due to computer malfunctions. Instead of calling the election before any hard votes were counted, the smiling mannequins at the network had to stay on camera and report actual balloting rather than statistical winners and losers. This time the medium was not the message. * * * Fox News carried a report recently about cities that are abandoning recycling programs because they are expensive and serve no value except to make people with certain propensities feel good about themselves by thinking they are helping the environment. One reporter commented that the biggest resistance to abolishing the burdensome and costly recycling programs is pressure on parents from kids who have been propagandized by their teachers and made to feel guilty about the environment.