Such an extreme decline

[Hiro]

Some of you may remember I had gotten a new job a few months ago in the IT Department of a financial company (not quite the position I wanted, but closer than where I was). Anyway, that's not the point.

The point is this...

The reason that I mention the job above is that it has opened many doorways for me, and In the past few months, I have made several purchases and changes in what companies I would prefer to do business with. I have also noticed in this time that it is becoming increasingly harder to find a company that really does appreciate what the word "customer" means. It seems more and more apparent lately that money is all that matters.

While I do understand that money is important and having more of it can be a very nice thing, I fail to understand how it becomes the #1 priority.

I recently started a business with two other individuals doing web design and software development (mainly dealing with PHP Code). While still very small, we do have a few clients who we work very closely with. They are the people providing me with the funds necessary to go where I want to in life and I can't say how great it is for them to go with myself and my associates.

In regards to other companies, let's use Dell for example. I bought a computer from Dell using the Deals from Got Apex. I went with them simply for the fact that it would be a decently stable machine and covered under warranty for a year. I also went with them to give me an idea of whether or not I would be purchasing computers from them for my company. This Dimension has been having some problems. The northbridge, hard drive and video card all extremely over heat. So I had to call tech support to get replacement parts and troubleshooting. All in all, in a single day, I spent 10 hours on the phone with Indians who couldn't understand me and vice versa. I got hung up on, I got transfered to the wrong departments and I got lied to numerous times by the tech representatives as well as their supervisors (I was told a technician would be at my home on Saturday when the tech's don't work weekends, and I was also told my parts would be here in two days, and it took almost two weeks).

Now let's talk about another company. Ford. A dealership for Ford at least had done some repairs on my vehicle that I paid full price for. These repairs were covered under warranty for 6 months or 6,000 miles. Well, the brakes started not working again, so I took it back to the dealership. They told me the noises I was hearing are normal and not to worry about it...they told this to me twice. Well, conveniently, just after the warranty fully expires, the brakes get severely bad and I am told the repairs are now upwards of $900 and it will probably NOT fix the issue, but they wanted to go the cheap way first and make sure. THE CHEAP WAY.

So let's move on to another company....Icestorm.com (http://www.icestorm.com) is a web hosting company. I had been using them for more than five years and I was one of their first customers. I never had a late payment in all those years and I only had tech support issues about once every few months (slow e-mail or what have you). The only thing was, I was really only using my account for a custom e-mail address ([email protected] for example). Once I actually started using their servers for hosting a website and data, the servers started going down very frequently, I had DNS issues starting to pop up, data was _lost_ completely. In all of this, I never got an answer to my tech support questions as to why things like this would start happening and sometimes I even got ignored only to be told a week later that the problem seemed to "fix itself." All of this caused me to switch to Surpass Hosting (http://www.surpasshosting.com), and so far they seem to be doing a great job.

In America, it just seems that the decline of quality companies is going down the drain so fast that there is no way to really snatch it back up. Everything is being outsourced to India which pushes that quality down the toilet even faster.

As a company President myself (albeit very small), the clients that we have are the reason we are in business. They give us the money that makes our lives easier and more enjoyable. Without them, I wouldn't be doing the work that I do and I wouldn't be living the lifestyle that I choose to live. There is absolutely no reason that I shouldn't give them the absolute highest respect that they deserve and I fail to understand how all companies can't appreciate their customers that way.

Even if a company is as large as Dell, they wouldn't be a whisper in the wind without the money they have received from their customers, both big and small, corporate and private buyers.

*Gets off the soap box.*

**EDIT: For a spelling error.**

[Jeffbx]

You're absolutely correct, and there are a coulpe reasons for this, as I see it -

#1 - Americans are cheap. We want to pay the least amount of money for the best product available, then we complain when we get what we paid for. I apologize for picking on you in this instance, but it's the perfect example (sorry!) - when buying a machine for business use, people stick with the minimum warranty but expect gold level service. Ain't gonna happen. If you have a machine that's critical to the success of your business, you need to pay for the level of support you expect to receive. For my company, we pay for gold level support on all critical machines. We wait less than 5 minutes on hold to speak to someone in Austin (not Bangalore), and have the parts hand delivered in less than 4 hours. We pay extra for this service, but that's what we need to keep our company running smoothly.

#2 - We're lazy, too. Not everyone, of course, but way too many for my comfort level. People want to make a fast buck, and are willing to put in the absolute minimum amount of effort to get it. If the service guy at the Ford dealer can get you off the phone, that's one less problem he has to deal with. Rather than taking ownership of the problem (as they should), they force it back onto you to get you to go away. Of course the problem is not solved, it's just put off until later. They don't care about your warranty issue - they just want one less thing on their list of things to do.

We aren't willing to put forth the effort to do a good job, but then complain when it's outsourced to someone who will. We aren't willing to make concessions to keep jobs local, but then complain when they're outsourced to someone cheaper. We want everything, but are not willing to work or sacrifice anything for it.

Unfortunately, I don't see the situation improving. Case in point:

Every six months I hire an intern for our IT department. Our office is right next to a rather large university which offers an MIS degree. Perfect candidates for an intern. We pay well ($12-15/hr), right next to campus, we're on the leading edge of technology, and we do some pretty cool stuff (3D manufacturing simulation). You'd think I would have a stack of resumes an inch thick to pick through. Not so.

The few resumes I get are primarily from Indian and Middle Eastern students who often already have an advanced degree (I had an Iraqi with a friggin' PHd who wanted to intern for us). These are the people who already know they have to work hard, be aggressive, and make their own success in order to get ahead. Hell, they've already travelled halfway around the world for better opportunities. However, I RARELY see a resume from the 'traditional' student - second or third year of school, local, with maybe Best Buy or McDonalds on their resume & nothing else.

It disheartens me because I busted my a** to get an internship with a big company while I was in school, and these days no one is even interested. Then they graduate, still only have Best Buy or McDonalds on their resume, and complain when an Indian with a PHd gets hired.

So here's my preachy message to those still in school:

Work hard
Be aggressive
Don't wait for an opportunity - go find it
Get experience in your field before you graduate
Don't be surprised if you have a hard time finding a job if you have no experience

OK, off my soapbox. Carry on.

[Hiro]

#1 - Americans are cheap. We want to pay the least amount of money for the best product available, then we complain when we get what we paid for. I apologize for picking on you in this instance, but it's the perfect example (sorry!) - when buying a machine for business use, people stick with the minimum warranty but expect gold level service. Ain't gonna happen. If you have a machine that's critical to the success of your business, you need to pay for the level of support you expect to receive. For my company, we pay for gold level support on all critical machines. We wait less than 5 minutes on hold to speak to someone in Austin (not Bangalore), and have the parts hand delivered in less than 4 hours. We pay extra for this service, but that's what we need to keep our company running smoothly.
The downside is though, given the point at which my company is currently in, we can't even remotely afford the "Gold Level" of service. Now, while I am aware that I get what I paid for, I don't expect much. The only thing I do expect is the tech support department to do their job and do what they promise. If I was told I wouldn't have the parts for two weeks I would not be complaining...because that is what I was told. However, I was told I would have the parts in two days, that is a major difference.

The reason I went with Dell was also, as I said, a test phase. I wanted to see if they would be good starting machines for us (which they obviously are proving not to be). If I had paid out the ass, then of course they would have been quicker to help, however again, I needed to see what Dell was like and how they treat their "regular" customers. A company who can't treat everyone the same does not deserve more of my money later in life.

Pick on me all you want, you make some good points.

[Jeffbx]

A company who can't treat everyone the same does not deserve more of my money later in life.

I agree with most of what you said, except for this part. One of the reasons that Dell is so successful is BECAUSE they treat their different customers differently. You have the option of going with the ultra low price but pretty solid PC - cheap as hell, but rather crappy service; OR paying through the nose for the same machine, but having some of the best support in the industry (plus several other support levels in between).

I deal with many different computer companies, and Dell is among the very best in terms of the service they offer (at the higher end of the business side, that is). The only company that might be better is Cisco, but you pay waaaaaay more for that coverage.


Pick on me all you want, you make some good points.

:poke:

;)