Does corporate even care about their businesses anymore?

[sc00ter]

I recently purchased 4 new tires for my Honda Fit. I originally took it there because both valve stems on the drivers side hissed when touched. Yes, we did need tires as well. Two days later my low tire lights come on. Went to fill the tires and realized the valves were not changed on the drivers side! I did pay extra for hazard protection so I drove over to the shop and was told to "Come back tomorrow and hope for a open slot."! Oh boy was I mad! Heck, I'm still mad! I complained to corporate and got a broken English reply asking for my phone number-that I included in my original complaint! Gave them all the contact information AGAIN and then, crickets. I re-complained again today but don't expect any results.

I took the car to a Walmart instead and they got me in on the same day, changed the 2 valve stems on the drivers side (and saved me the old rotted ones) and checked the other side as well. I should have just went there in the first place for tires.... Bit anyways, does corporate even care about their chain stores anymore? The tire shop that skipped the valve stems is a major chain. Who else has a great contacting corporate compliant experience? And feel free to post extremely positive ones as well.

 

[fooferdoggie]

they care about growth and profit thats all they care about thats they way its setup.

 

[Slaphappygamer]

Sad reality is, the consumer is just a number. Doesn't matter if that number is happy or mad, there will be hundreds that are happy, even thought there may be a few that are mad. If the number of happy outweighs the number of mad, then business is good. Are you mad and want to call "customer service" to complain? Get ready to waste hours and repeat your story over and over again until you reach the beginning of the circle, or you hang up out of frustration. It's a game that frustrates many and is really only looks good on paper. This is EXACTLY why I would never count on "customer service". The bigger the corporation, the worse the "customer service" is.

 

[harryS]

I only go to the local discount tire. Buy my tires there, etc. I might expect that kind of attitude at a Goodyear or Firestone.

 

[sc00ter]

I only go to the local discount tire. Buy my tires there, etc. I might expect that kind of attitude at a Goodyear or Firestone.

You might have mentioned one of the franchises that I have a current problem with! When you say discount tire and you talking about the chain or a smaller independent shop? Discount Tire was closed on the day I needed the vales changed or I would have given them a try.

 

[I-Level-Too]

I've had several instances of GE LED light bulbs that started to flicker terribly after about 1 year of use. I contacted GE and they responded promptly and sent me vouchers to purchase new bulbs. The new bulbs that I bought have been doing well.

 

[Brian-s]

Although I am a pessimist when it comes to corporate greed.

I did have a great Amazon experience. Bought heated socks for my horrible dvt related circulation. They didn't work that great, posted a not great, but not vicious review, seller responded within a day. After a couple of emails, they refunded full value. I was very surprised.

 

[PedalUma]

Several years ago I purchased a product that was poorly designed from an Amazon reseller. I wrote a review that accurately reflected what I encountered and why. A few weeks later I was contacted by the reseller by email with an offer of $135 to 'upgrade' my review. I cut and pasted that email and included it in my review.

 

[spokewrench]

I wrote a review that accurately reflected what I encountered and why. A few weeks later I was contacted by the reseller by email with an offer of $135 to 'upgrade' my review.

In reviewing the Radrunner 1, Cor pointed down a hill to a railroad underpass and said a sign back there said the hills were 0 to 13 degrees steep. Then he held out his hand to illustrate how steep that would be. It would be a 23% grade.

I thought it peculiar that a road sign would give a grade in degrees. @BlackHand took the trouble to find the sign. It's a standard underpass warning giving the clearance at 13 feet 0 inches. I'm sure Cor didn't believe that meant 13 degree hills ahead. He'd traveled to Seattle to do a paid review. I think he was given talking points that included playing dumb about the sign, which was never shown. If he didn't agree, he'd make the trip home broke. When I bought one, I found that his review had misled me in several ways, but he hadn't explicitly lied about the bike.

When I bought an Abound, in 30 miles I had a puncture from a grain of sand. I rechecked a dozen or so reviews. All mentioned the tires, but now I saw that none of the faint praise said anything definite. I think Marketing saw a lot of customer complaints about the tires, and Marketing decided that the solution was false advertising in such a way that reviewers would give Marketing plausible deniability.

Several reviews showed the optional panniers mounted with the optional cargo rack. One reviewer with panniers under the rack warned that the rack interfered with opening the panniers. Immediately afterward was a fast-motion sequence where he tossed laundry into the wide-open pannier under the rack. Seeing was believing. I ordered both and found that, as he'd warned, the panniers wouldn't work with the rack.

When I checked the laundry video, it was obvious from the position of the pannier, now that I owned panniers and a rack, that the pannier had been removed from the bike and was hanging from the rack. The lighting had been set up to obscure the mounting in a deep shadow. The reviewer's disclaimer showed that he hadn't wanted to do this. He must have gone to the trouble to make the video, then been told he wouldn't be paid unless he let them add the deceptive segment to entice consumers like me to buy what they couldn't use.

In the e-bike world at least, reviews can be a means for Marketing to engage in deceptive marketing without going to prison.

 

[PedalUma]

reviews

I work on bikes in my neighborhood. I currently have 75 reviews on Google Maps. None has been paid for and I have no way of editing their content. It is just what real people say about their experiences to assist other people. I do not trust the 'reviews' on a seller's website, as with cheap fat-folder bikes. I also shy away from 'Professional Reviewers'. That just means that they are being paid by marketing departments. It is like a 'B' or 'C'-list celebrity on an infomercial for a revolutionary new slicer/dicer set from Ronco.