This is a bit of a rant, but I feel it’s a solid rant worth sharing with you. This past weekend we bought two DVD players both on the low-end cost range. One was an off brand, and the other one was a name brand that I have trusted as being a company that produces quality products for many years now. The off-brand DVD worked all of a couple hours. The name brand DVD player works, but it makes a very weird sound every time you turn it on. These DVD players got me wondering about where the pride has gone into the type of products companies make. Do companies even do quality checks on products anymore?
As an artist who does odd and end woodworking, I know the pride that comes from making a product that is well made. I don’t think like others do. I feel like if I’m making a small profit then I’m doing well. I calculate the price of my products based on the cost of the materials, my hourly labor charge of $10.00, and then the extra needed to cover the taxes. I stand behind the products that I make.
I can remember when I was growing up you’d hear all the time “you get what you paid for.” Now though, the question has become “do you really get what you paid for when you buy name brand items?” I can remember having a decent size list of companies that I could trust to provide me with quality products that were worth paying the extra money to get them. They stood behind their products so much that they provided quality customer service and helped with issues a customer may have had with their products with very little hassle. There are a few companies left today that I would say still go the extra mile and give quality products and service, but they are like a needle in a haystack.
It feels like many companies are just chasing the almighty dollar and trying to shut down their competitors. These same companies are not providing quality products and they sure aren’t worried about customer service either.
Think about it, in the past companies were more worried about building up a name for their brands by providing the extra mile service and quality products that would last. They knew in the grand scheme of things that products could be made for basically the same price. Take our DVD players for example, it can’t be hard to make the same product that does the same exact thing, but the only difference between the two is the cost. So, what makes the $99 US DVD player better?
You would think that a company’s longevity would mean that their products are worth spending more money on, but now that isn’t always the how it is. We don’t always have time to check online reviews even with us having Smart phones with us. There times when we want to be able to just make an impulse buy and trust the company’s name brand. We shouldn’t have to always check out reviews to know if something is worth buying or not.
The bottom line is I feel that companies should get back into the mindset of taking care of their customers by ensuring they check that their products are of quality. They should provide customer service that actually takes care of issues we may have with their products. We should be a nation that worries more about taking care of each other versus chasing the almighty dollar.
What are your thoughts?
You pose a great question. I don’t see good quality in what I pay for lately too and it’s upsetting. And forget about customer service! Those inexpensive DVD’s are really garbage too. I bought one and returned it the same day.