My basic beef against corporate America
By Thoreau
I’m probably just dwelling on the trivialities of my comfortable suburban professional existence, but my basic grievance against big companies is that when they screw up they take 6-8 weeks to fix it, usually after multiple phone calls and whatnot, but if I screw up a penalty is immediately levied. This happens on every scale, from billing snafus with $7 fees, to cases of people being foreclosed on even though they had never missed a payment and spent money on lawyers to prove this, to “Oops, we broke the global economy, could you send $1 trillion to our Nigerian accounts?”
The latest snafus on my end are (1) I’m getting a bill for water service in an apartment that I moved out of, for a billing period that doesn’t overlap my last month in that apartment and (2) I set up autopay with another utility, or at least tried to, something didn’t go through, and now I’m paying a $7 late fee. The $7 doesn’t kill me, and I know I should have double-checked to make sure that the autopay went through, but it would be nice if I had the option to say “I’m sorry to hear that you were inconvenienced by this late payment, let me transfer you to somebody who can process the regular payment in the next 7-10 business days.” And then the exasperated person on the other end says to me “Wait, you aren’t going to give us a late fee in addition to the regular payment?” and I’d say “You’ll have to refer that question to the department that handles this; they’re located in our headquarters in another time zone, but I can put you through to their voicemail for a response in 3-4 weeks.”
It’s not the $7, it’s the asymmetry of the responsibility. If I screw up (and I still maintain I did everything necessary for autopay!), I have to pay a late fee. If they screw up, they give me runaround. As long as it’s $7 at stake, fine, but they do this at every level. I think of the hassle I had to go through to get the title for my car after I paid off the loan (early) and I can’t even imagine the hell it must be to have your house foreclosed because of a snafu that they didn’t even notify you of (because of another snafu).
So, I say that we should be able to put large companies on hold when they want something, send them through phone trees, and ask them to re-submit paperwork that we may or may not lose track of.
Comment by unqualified neighbor —
October 22, 2010 @ 8:49 pm
never, never use auto-pay. After what you’ve seen it takes to resolve a problem, why would you give them the keys to access your bank account at will?
Comment by Dave Trowbridge —
October 22, 2010 @ 8:52 pm
You’re just another veal calf to them.
Comment by Dog's New Clothes —
October 22, 2010 @ 9:38 pm
We are all Generation Veal now.
Comment by y81 —
October 22, 2010 @ 9:51 pm
Yeah, those corporations are terrible. I say the IRS needs a lot more power. They’re so friendly and fair, I love them and I wish I could give them all my money to be distributed to state employees under the unqualified offerings economic stimulus plan.
Comment by Fraud Guy —
October 22, 2010 @ 9:52 pm
How do you think corporations have been able to increase profits and productivity by 10% year over year?
Managing costs, and outsourcing them to their customers. I forget who made the first mention of externalizing costs, but when I started applying it to the business grinders/processes that I was up against, it started to make sense.
The increase in profits and productivity don’t come from improving processes, but from making someone else pay for their mistakes: customers, business partners, the environment, taxpayers….
Comment by Thoreau —
October 22, 2010 @ 9:56 pm
y81, what did that straw ever do to you?
Comment by Thoreau —
October 22, 2010 @ 9:58 pm
Ich bin ein vealiner.
Comment by Dog's New Clothes —
October 22, 2010 @ 10:02 pm
y81,
1) Oh, shush
2) Do correct me if I’m wrong, but thinking that the actions of certain corporations are odious, annoying, or inconvenient doesn’t necessarily mean that one also thinks the IRS is a wonderful force for good in the world and “needs a lot more power”.
I’d try to follow your bizarre line of reasoning, but my head already hurts from tonight’s drinking.
Comment by Thoreau —
October 22, 2010 @ 10:12 pm
I don’t want regulations. I don’t even want a private consumer information bureau.
I want a Customers Corporation. If a business wants to bug you over an alleged late payment they call a phone tree and get put on hold. And if they screw up, Customers Corp calls and informs them that “I’m sorry but our standard policy is to assess a late fee and put black marks on your credit report and generally dick you around.”
Comment by Dog's New Clothes —
October 22, 2010 @ 10:42 pm
Thoreau,
You should unionize!
Comment by EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy —
October 22, 2010 @ 11:01 pm
There are major corporate entities that I won’t do business with because of this.
Treat me badly enough—even when it comes down to $3.50—and I won’t come back to get burned again.
I’m looking at you [PhoneCo] and [BigBank].
On the flip side there are business that have said, in effect “Ah it looks like this was our error, let me just cancel that late fee. You should see a credit on you next statement”. Them I want to deal with again. Even after it took two weeks and three calls to get it cleared up.
[SlightlySmallerBigBank] did that for me once. If I have to move back to their territory I’ll see them first.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
October 23, 2010 @ 10:34 am
Water utility? Stop whining. You can always just…uh…just…uh…
Economic relationships are consensual, you commie!
Perhaps a Consumers Union?
Comment by joe from Lowell —
October 23, 2010 @ 11:43 am
“You’re going to need to send us a late fee.”
“Yeah, the guy who does that is on break. You’re gonna need a work order form. We don’t keep those heah.”
Comment by Patrick D —
October 23, 2010 @ 3:17 pm
Thoreau,
There’s not shortage of things to bitch about when dealing large corporations but utilities are basically government sock puppets. Hasn’t a real company like a credit card, bank, car manufacturer, etc. pissed you off lately? Even a cable company would make a better target.
Comment by KCinDC —
October 23, 2010 @ 3:30 pm
What, no mention of health insurance companies in the comments so far?
Pingback by I want a Customer Corporation « Petunias —
October 23, 2010 @ 8:20 pm
[...] fredtopeka in Free Markets, craziness, justice Tags: craziness, Free Markets, justice This is why most of us usually get upset at a corporation at least once a week: I’m probably just [...]
Comment by Thoreau —
October 23, 2010 @ 9:20 pm
Joe,
A consumers union sounds nice, but stylistically I prefer a corporation. I want phone trees and late fees and labyrynthine snafus that keep them on the phone forever.
Comment by donna —
October 24, 2010 @ 3:11 pm
This is why I make a career out of personal quality assurance. When corporations screw up on you, demand that they “live up to the standards of company XYZ” and do the right thing for you. Take it as high in the company as you need to. Nicely, politely, and always, always, with the reputation of the company as the bargaining chip.
You have a blog, you have twitter, you have the internet and a slew of sites that report on corporate reputations. We do have the power to take them down now.
Go for it, kids.
Comment by reason —
October 25, 2010 @ 5:25 am
EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy
Have you thought that they haven’t recompensed you for the effort and not everybody would have bothered. They may well try to fleece everybody.
Comment by ayn't no thing —
October 25, 2010 @ 11:52 am
I had a horrendous time with a certain satellite company who I just found out after a whole year on contract with them: they DO carry FreeSpeechTV. When I was ordering (via a ‘bundle’) I was told they had never even heard of it.
So I thought I would try again. Now I found they only offer FSTV with HD (not necessary when we got it with our original dish TV) so I would have to pay $400 for the equipment, sign another two-year contract, AND pay a $10/month fee, plus I “could” pay via auto-pay since I requested to be billed but that was all they offered. Needless to say I told them I could not be satisfied by their little arrangement and hung up.
I note the owner of the corporation is a right-wing dickhead/gazillionaire known to all. Which is why when I chose this bundle last year (against my better judgment) I held my nose…
Comment by mac —
October 25, 2010 @ 12:03 pm
I’m always surprised by how long it takes to deactivate an auto pay for some companies. Until you realize it’s by design- Just like the hoops you have to jump through to get a rebate back. GRRRRR
Comment by Kevin Carson —
October 25, 2010 @ 10:35 pm
You seen this one by Roderick Long?
http://aaeblog.com/2010/09/17/how-inequality-shapes-our-lives/