I agree, it's a vicious cycle. The customer wants a better price, so they are disloyal, or whatever term we want to attach to it. To stay competitive, the retailer lowers the price, but that comes at a cost. Since the product is a tangible item, and cost really cannot be negotiated by the retailer, they cut in other areas, namely staff. When you think about what the average/.'er knows about tech...would you work for $9.50/hour with little benefits, weekends, and in a retail environment? Nope, probably not. So now the retailer has a substandard workforce, because, after all, the customer wants a lower price, and then the very customer gets pissed by the lack of service and still goes elsewhere. The retailer retaliates by lowering prices as an enticement, maybe even via rebate, to keep customers, and things just keep getting worse.
Whether you like it or not, consumers are greedy. These companies have never told you they were a non-profit, right? Not saying that some companies, or more specifically, some people in those companies are greedy, but I think they are outweighed my the me-society that America has been so great at breeding.
And for clarification, I did not mean anonymous in the sense of name and ones particulars, but rather that good old fashioned human interaction that tends to break down barriers and helps solve problems.
Consumers have become victims of their own avarice behavior and this exemplifies it. Everyone bitches about the bad service at xyz retailer, yet they'd throw that retailer under a bus in 2 seconds to save $1 at abc retailer. Consumers have squeezed margins out of (especially) brick and mortar businesses to the point where those businesses have to find different ways of maintaining margins, and offering a competitive price, lest the customers go elsewhere. As for the poster complaining about having to work with anonymous sources, I hope they don't live in a glass house. You bought the monitor ANONYMOUSLY, online. Imagine, just for a second, that you are a loyal customer, and you typically buy your goods from the same vendor, maybe even the same sales person. Nothing anonymous, just two people doing business. Now if you have a problem, you've got a relationship with a person you can contact to help you resolve your issue. No, your right, it's much better to save that $20, and give you a reason to bring your issues here.
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I agree, it's a vicious cycle. The customer wants a better price, so they are disloyal, or whatever term we want to attach to it. To stay competitive, the retailer lowers the price, but that comes at a cost. Since the product is a tangible item, and cost really cannot be negotiated by the retailer, they cut in other areas, namely staff. When you think about what the average /.'er knows about tech...would you work for $9.50/hour with little benefits, weekends, and in a retail environment? Nope, probably not. So now the retailer has a substandard workforce, because, after all, the customer wants a lower price, and then the very customer gets pissed by the lack of service and still goes elsewhere. The retailer retaliates by lowering prices as an enticement, maybe even via rebate, to keep customers, and things just keep getting worse.
Whether you like it or not, consumers are greedy. These companies have never told you they were a non-profit, right? Not saying that some companies, or more specifically, some people in those companies are greedy, but I think they are outweighed my the me-society that America has been so great at breeding.
And for clarification, I did not mean anonymous in the sense of name and ones particulars, but rather that good old fashioned human interaction that tends to break down barriers and helps solve problems.
Consumers have become victims of their own avarice behavior and this exemplifies it. Everyone bitches about the bad service at xyz retailer, yet they'd throw that retailer under a bus in 2 seconds to save $1 at abc retailer. Consumers have squeezed margins out of (especially) brick and mortar businesses to the point where those businesses have to find different ways of maintaining margins, and offering a competitive price, lest the customers go elsewhere. As for the poster complaining about having to work with anonymous sources, I hope they don't live in a glass house. You bought the monitor ANONYMOUSLY, online. Imagine, just for a second, that you are a loyal customer, and you typically buy your goods from the same vendor, maybe even the same sales person. Nothing anonymous, just two people doing business. Now if you have a problem, you've got a relationship with a person you can contact to help you resolve your issue. No, your right, it's much better to save that $20, and give you a reason to bring your issues here.