Most of us have been there: shouting into the phone at some poor, underpaid "customer service representative" who was with us shortly. No doubt a great deal of acrimony has been exchanged in the case of Bob and Mary St. Germain over an $18,000 Verizon cell phone bill racked up by their son back in 2006. The account remains in dispute.To be fair, the St. Germain's have a few good points. First, wireless contracts are indecipherable gibberish. Hard to argue with this one; their purpose is to confuse the customer.
Second, experts say unlimited data plans are marketed by other companies for $30 a month. Another good point. If that's the case, its hard to imagine how $18,000 could be fair a price.
Third, the St. Germains say they were unaware that they had just gone off a promotional plan under which data downloads were free. Verizon reps admit this contention, though Verizon claims the St. Germains were duly warned of the expiration of the promotion when the patriarch of the family renewed his wireless contract with the company a short time before the bill came--nothing like a reverse signing bonus, is there?
Word didn't make it to their son, however, who continued to download songs at a respectable clip.
Again to be fair, Verizon has it's points too . . . actually, no, they don't. The company's position is simply untenable. What are they going to say? "Hey, sometimes we give it away, sometimes we charge $18,000"? "It's our system, we can charge whatever we want"? "A deal's a deal"?
It would have been far better for Verizon to admit long ago that the St. Germain's mistake had been honestly come by.
After all, no customer outside the pathetically lovelorn (no one is claiming this was the St. Germain's scenario) would have understood that the rate structure would net them an $18,000 debt and yet proceed with a download of every Rolling Stones song in digital format (no one is claiming these were the songs downloaded either).
Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle says the problem is that companies, just like people, have egos which lock them into their positions.
He writes in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
, "The greed of the ego . . . finds collective expression in the economic structures of this world, such as the huge corporations, which are egoic entities that compete with each other for more. Their only blind aim is profit. They pursue that aim with absolute ruthlessness."
, "The greed of the ego . . . finds collective expression in the economic structures of this world, such as the huge corporations, which are egoic entities that compete with each other for more. Their only blind aim is profit. They pursue that aim with absolute ruthlessness."
What we would like to see in our business entities is consciousness, and corporations are somewhat attuned to this expectation. But more often than not, the extent of the application of this insight born of market research is a well-trained, carefully-scripted customer service representative who has been copiously coached in non-reactivity to the anger corporate policies engender in their customers--a thankless and difficult task.
But this is a bit like a philandering husband saying to his wife, "I realize you're angry right now and you have every right to be." But when she asks him if he'll cheat again, he says, "Absolutely. It's part of my policy."
Ultimately, corporate employees answer only to shareholders, who demand profits. Until those profits are seriously threatened, consciousness towards customers will never become corporate policy on a widespread basis.
As for the St. Germains, perhaps a little more negative publicity for Verizon will help their cause.
Photo credit: Crackberry.com
You might also like: After 2 Years Sandwich Board Guy Gets Job-No Problem
No comments:
Post a Comment