A Government For The Consumer

The best customer service is provided by… customers. I know that sounds confusing; let me explain.

There are two parties to every retail transaction—customer and company.  The essence of the deal is that both parties willfully agree to an equitable exchange products or services.

In most cases, the customer provides money which is of excellent quality and comes with a lifetime guarantee to be free of manufacturing defects.  Money is also universally recognized as having solid value, which is insured by the United States government.

By comparison, the company provides a product or service that we can only trust to have value and to work as promised.  Typically, the company warrantees a product to work for only a relatively short period, three months to a year.

In other words, we consumers are providing something of guaranteed lifetime value in return for something of only promised short-term value.  Yet, companies act like they are doing us a favor by providing any kind of guarantee, and often get upset when we reasonably report they have fallen short of their promise.  (Cash money is such a good value, we should probably charge companies more for it.)

Imagine if we were to tell them that we could only guarantee the value of our money for 90 days. If, beyond that date it loses all value… we won’t feel obligated to do anything about it.  Sound absurd? It is. But that’s exactly what companies tell us when they refuse to provide reasonable warrantees on their products or services.  In the most egregious cases, even if the product doesn’t work as promised or expected, you are still obliged to pay for it. (Think… cell phone company.)

Therefore, the best customer service is provided by customers because we provide a perfect product. The company always provides something less; most often, much less.

Why does the game work this way?  Simple… the deck is stacked.

The legal and financial systems are biased toward companies and against consumers.  If I refuse to pay for a product or service I feel is not what I was promised, the company can file a collection action and ruin my credit rating.  My only option is to sue them, which is too expensive and time-consuming for all but the largest consumer disputes.  On the other hand, companies routinely file collection actions for sums in single digits.

Therefore, my final wish for 2009 is… a new consumer focus for government.   

Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of our economy, yet there are few real protections for consumers. Sure, the Consumer Product Safety Commission makes sure that products don’t kill you. But there’s no one out there making sure you don’t get nickel-and-dimed to death by $19.95 offers that fail to do what they’ve promised.  There’s no easy way to force a company to enter a dialogue over a $200 dispute. It’s not worth your time or money to pursue in court, so unless you get a national consumer columnist to champion your cause—or read his book—you’re likely out of luck.

Beyond consumer safety, we need much tighter controls on deceptive advertising, one-sided contracts and limited warrantees.  Above all, we need an accessible, responsive complaint mediation or arbitration system that will level the playing field for consumers when dealing with uncaring or complacent companies.

Consumers are the people.  Government is for the people. Therefore, what we need is... a government of the consumer, for the consumer and by the consumer... that shall not perish from the Earth.