Yanks vs. Aussie consumer report
So, im working as a manager at a reseller at the moment called The Mac Store. The job is easy and I generally am on the internet or looking at cool new products. However, the bar has just been raised and I have realized a lot of things. First of all, in America, a customer's needs are met at the top cost. If they don't like it, it is replaced even if the item was bought months ago. People are particular, and they want the best they can get for the least dollar. We are told to meet these needs.
However, I worked in Apple Centre in Sydney for a year and a half. If someone had a problem we were trained to say NO. Sorry mate, try the manufacturer, try Apple, try somewhere else besides here. Thats the way it was. Someone would have a problem with an iPod and exclaim "In LA, they replaced it for me on the spot!" And we we'd say Wow. This isn't LA.
These expectations have suddenly become real to me because this is exactly what we do at the Mac store. We match that price, we replace your printer, we give you a student discount just because you might leave if you don't get it. The customer is not allowed to leave without being happy because they come first, money for the business comes second. It works out in the end.
The American consumer has an expectation that I now must strive to meet. Its so hard to break out of saying "NO" all the time after what I was trained to do in Australia, where the meaning "customer service" is radically different. Here in the US, we bend over backwards for someone, just for the hope that they might come back. We offer advice, set-ups, repair, whatever they need in order for them not to make a fuss.
The funny thing is I feel like a complete tool doing this. I really enjoyed just saying NO. Get your whining ass out of my store because you don't know how to work an ipod that you bought. No discounts, no free support, no replacements! It was a clear cut line. It was a backwards system where the customer is always at your mercy.
It's a clash of culture, sure, but it really makes Americans seem like complete jerks when they go abroad and are used to people like me replacing their faulty products on the spot. I think its an important lesson to be learned that the service we get here is superior but don't expect it worldwide. Other countries have different rules, hard to believe but true. So, basically, I'm just boiling down some cultural faults that cause Americans in general to be regarded as consumer whores...
More rants later...
Posted in: apple, australia, chaosgurl, united states on February 23, 2007 at at 11:15:00 PM