RANT Re: PREMIUM Radio / CD add on - Final word...

["Khan M. Klatt" <kmk@pacificrim.net>]

At 11:04 PM -0400 9/16/97, TFP wrote:

Thom:

Mostly helpful advice, but I have to be amazed at some of the things you
said when dealing with VWOA: (note to innocent readers: ranting and raving
ahead)

>I said: "That's
>ridiculous... you buy a $26,000 car and VW won't give you a cable worth $3
>that they give away to new owners anyway. It did not phase this POOREST OF
>ALL REPRESENTATIVES OF VW!
>
>Perhaps, that is what we need here in our GLX forum. If a member has ANY
>type of difficulty with VW, we ALL CALL IN and site the case number and
>officially register our vehement displeasure with them. THAT might make
>them respond more appropriately to their customers. I get the impression
>now that they don't give a damn about us.

It's amazing. Once someone thinks they have a public forum, they'll jump up
on a pedestal and start trying to organize some sort of grass-roots mutiny.

>So that's it!!! I hope this has been of some help. Don't let VW fool you.
>You CAN put in a NON VW CD changer for a lot less money. You just need that
>special cable/adapter that they instead, use to hold you hostage with.

I don't see how VW can hold you hostage when you can freely get this part.
You can freely install a CD changer. I don't see why you're getting all
upset about this issue.

>My opinion is, if they won't give you the cable, get it from that other
>source that I mentioned and FORGET VW!!! And let them know that if they
>don't want our business, we can gladly take it elsewhere else.

Your *business*? I don't think your business means much to VW if you're
balking at a $3.00 cable. While you are a customer when you buy a car for
$26,000, when you drive that car off the lot, you've taken your product
with you.

You don't buy a happy meal from McDonalds and march in a week later and
insist that they should give you a small coke for free because you bought a
Big Mac some time ago?!?

>What am I going to do? See if VW coughs up that adapter... either way, I'm
>getting the 635 from the source listed about and, if I have to, I'll mount
>it myself. You'll see Jesus before I pay VW nearly $600 for the same thing
>I can buy elsewhere for less than half that cost!

It's not that I disagree with your point: I have a Clarion 635 unit in my
GLX, and had it aftermarket installed for about half of VW's list price for
their unit. I disagree with what you're trying to *do* with your point that
irritates me.

My 97' GLX doesn't have a locking gas door. It came standard on most, if
not all, Jettas prior to 1997. I inquired about installation, and the
dealer told me $180 plus parts and labor. I can buy the parts for $30, and
install it in 15 minutes, and blow the remaining $150 gambling.

But you don't hear me going out and saying "Let's all call in and complain!"

I mean GET A LIFE. VW is refusing to send you a $3.00 cable. Who cares? Why
is it that people think that they can hold businesses hostage if they buy a
single item? It's obscene!

The typical western (from my experience American) consumer is a pain in the
ass. You bought a VW Jetta from the dealer. When you drove off with it,
everything IN the car, and ON the car is what is yours. Nothing more,
nothing less. If you didn't get a $3.00 cable, you can pay $3.00 to get
one. If you think $3.00 is too much, that, too, is fine.

But why do you think VW should give a god damn if you think that you should
get that $3.00 cable for free? Just to make you feel better? That kind of
behavior is childish and puny. If they will offer it for free, great! If
not, PAY FOR IT.

If you don't like their price GET IT SOMEWHERE ELSE. It just drives me
*NUTS* that if you have a problem with someone's prices you COMPLAIN about
it!

Let me share something with you about business:

1. Businesses have taken a risk to offer you a product or service.
2. They expect to be compensated for that risk. This is called their profit.
3. Some companies will charge a heftier price, increasing their profit margin.
4. The way that capitalism works to keep prices affordable is called
competition. The incentive for someone to charge huge prices goes away when
there is someone else offering the same or similar services for less
expensive prices.
5. If you find a company to be non-competitive, FIND ANOTHER COMPANY.
Either the company is stupid, and does not know that they are losing
customers because they cannot compete on price, or they don't give a damn,
and you can go get your $3.00 cable anywhere you want.


None, (let me repeat) NONE of the above gives you an explicit right to go
out of your way to complain or be a general pain in the ass to a particular
company or organization because you don't appreciate the risk they've
taken, the fact that they should be compensated, their profit margin, or
how competitive they are in the marketplace. In short, if you don't like
it, fine. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT PERSONALLY??!

I think it's outrageous to pay $600 for a CD changer you can get for about
half as much. I think it's equally outrageous to give a customer
representative a hard time over a $3.00 cable!

Your terrorist-tactic customer support-harrassment techniques are
disgusting to me.

If you should care, my girlfriend happens to work for one of these
companies LIKE Nike (not Nike, but another one similar to Nike). She works
at the equivalent of "NikeTown".

Some ASSHOLE professor at some local University decides he doesn't like
what "Nike" is doing in "3rd world countries" as far as "labor practices"
are concerned. So he tries the same
bullshit-terrorist-tactic-support-harrassment techniques, and sends a class
of ignorant stupid lemming freshmen in his liberal arts course to go and
PROTEST "Nike" at the local mall. So a bunch of little 18 and 19 year olds
go tromping into this store, throwing leaflets everywhere saying shit like
"FREE THAILAND!" (or the equivalent). They bring in a bunch of cameras, to
"film" what happens. (when cameras are NOT allowed in these stores... try
going around in a store in the mall taking pictures of displays, and see if
you're not asked to stop or kicked out)

Well, my girlfriend is the manager, and the company does NOT allow cameras
in the store, not to mention protesters. (These dickheads are on PRIVATE
property, by the way-- what would you do if someone marched into your place
of work and started throwing leaflets in your office?) The protesters start
to call her names like "Slavemonger!". I'm *SO* sure my girlfriend is a
slavemonger. I'm so sure that she should QUIT her job at "Nike" because
they are not paying people in "Thailand" enough.

Now this is a little more extreme than your case, Thom, but the attitude is
the same. "Let's all get together and..."

Feel free to do what you want, but it's not like you don't have a choice
over the matter. If you don't like "Nike" don't buy their freaking "shoes".

We got the same kind of pedantic  childish behavior from some of our
customers when we decided to modify how we were to do business. I can't
understand why people take this shit out of proportion. They banded a few
of their friends and decided to "quit" our service and start bad-mouthing
us to high heaven. It turns out one of these assholes moves in next door to
me (I've since moved, thank goodness) and upon learning where I work he
goes "I used to like COMPANY-NAME until you guys raised your prices. Then
me and a bunch of my friends banded together and left the service."

That is just so tacky. Reminds me of petty high school snobbery and politics.

- -Khan "Um, yeah, I'm calling because I'd like to complain that someone I
know didn't get a $3.00 cable for free." Klatt

Sheesh.

Khan Klatt					   khan@pacificrim.net
Pacific Rim Network, Inc.			    (360) 650-0442 x13
http://www.khan.org			     http://www.pacificrim.net

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