No Love for Each Other

Today was not the best day for me. A few things happen to make me very upset, which lead to me act in ways I didn't mean to as well as same some things that I am not very proud of. While I can't always change what I say, I can change the way I act and react. Later I decided to take a few minutes to myself and ordered a very yummy Vanilla Chai Latte, which made all the bad things disappear almost immediately (well in my mind it did), and I decided to reflect about my day.

Reflecting about my day today made me pretty sad. Loyalty to a company no longer matters because there are probably 100 more people that will replace the shopper that they lost. And just because one person decides to no longer give someone their business does not mean that others will because they feel there is no one else who will give them the prices or products the one place offers. Most of the time the situation isn't even passed on to a manager who can really help because the manager doesn't want to take the time out of their insane list of things to do to because they are busy enough as it is. So the employees offer a sympathetic smile (which is really just a smile plastered to their face and not at all real sympathy), say it is out of their hands and then go to the next person in line. People are then left with defective products and a horrible store experience (or even customer service experience) and are left to feel like it is their fault. And because we as the consumer are made to want so much we are just expected to buy it all over again, and the cycle continues.

So my thoughts are why are we like this? What happened to the customer always being right? While I have worked retail for many years and seen some crazy stories, if something is defective its defective, and you try your hardest to fix the situation because you want them to keep coming back. Are companies no longer standing behind their products because they no longer care about the consumer? Or is it because if they return something it goes against their "money made" and their bottom line goes down. Instead of helping the consumer and fixing the situation they are so quickly to turn you away and make you do all the leg work by going to the manufacturer. I also realize that so many people have scammed larger companies that it has forced them to tighten their policies but then that just screws over the honest people.

So why won't anyone take the blame? Why are we so quick to let pride get in our way, say we made a mistake and fix the situation? I can quickly attest to having a hard time taking the blame, and pride will rear its ugly head, then hours later I feel horrible and can't always fix what I have done. How sad is it that this is not the same for everyone? So then the consumer is left trying to find a new place to shop and feeling slightly defeated.