Customers deserve better service from businesses

By Letter to the Editor on June 4, 2021.

Editor: When we buy something – from food and clothing to cars and homes – we expect dealers to take responsibility for the products they sell.
If the product is spoiled, damaged of defective, we take it back to the dealer to fix the problem, either by repair or replacement.
That is an old and fair custom.
I discovered with a shock that some dealers have exchanged this time-proven policy for one where they only sell products without helping clients with problematic products bought from them.
For that, the client must go to a far-off third party, do the shipping, and live without the product for weeks until a replacement arrives.
For this inept service, the client paid a few hundred dollars – a so-called service-contract.
The problem could have been solved locally within a day or two.
This is not only a matter of a dissatisfied customer but a violation of an age-old dealer-customer relationship. Many readers may have had this unpleasant experience.
It will serve prospective buyers well if they enquire about service policy before they buy.
By supporting dealers who take responsibility for their products, and shunning those who do not, the public not only exercises their right of free choice but may also motivate dealers to improve their policies from user-unfriendly to user-friendly.
The answering-machine services of some businesses are plain and helpful, but some are so complicated and confusing that even after listening several times to the fast-speaking voice one does not know which button to press.
Are dealers afraid they may catch the virus over the phone?
Having been sent from machine to machine I eventually reached a person, who talked so softly and with an accent that I could not get clear guidance about what to do with my complaint.
COVID-19 has made life hard enough for all of us. Why do some dealers make our lives even more miserable with user-unfriendly policies?
Jacob Van Zyl
Lethbridge