More of these would raise the percentage of products that work by
reducing the number of those that don’t.
Stuff falls apart too
easily these days and sometimes you can’t believe a reputation for reliability.
Car companies that tout their tin with abandon are in the shop more often these
days than your 1954 Mercury was.
The “Ten Year Warranty”
on the name brand mattress is fiction, especially when it develops a senior sag
in 18 months.
Letter openers don’t
slice envelopes open; they rip them. And sometimes they rip the contents too.
We’re not talking about
crap manufactured in near-slave work camps in the far east, here. We’re
talking about “Made in USA,” a slogan with relatively little meaning,
especially if tagged with “of foreign and domestic components.”
What are the
“components” of a sweater? Which part or parts of the toothbrush or the
pack of playing cards originated in China or Indonesia?
Quality control is a
misnomer similar to “customer service,” and much of that is imported, too.
There’s a Holiday Inn
around the corner. We were having guests. We wanted to make reservations.
We did. The customer service clerk was right around the corner in the hotel,
right? Wrong. Try Manila. Nothing wrong with that in principle. But not
much right with it when it goes wrong. Which it did.
There is an upside to
some deterioration, though. Bad meals in bad restaurants are getting
smaller. That’s probably good for your
diet, though not for what’s in your wallet. Paper straws tend to deteriorate
when they sit half-submerged in super-size soft drinks, which may steer you to
a smaller cup so you can finish your drink without inhaling or swallowing
paper.
GRAPESHOT:
-Who do they call when
tow trucks need roadside assistance?
-Is there still an easy
way to force a payphone to make free calls?
-Are there still
payphones?
-Where can you get
replacement parts for your rotary dial phone?
-When your digital
assistant can’t answer your question, does it consult ITS digital assistant or
does it call a human with an encyclopedia?
-Are there still
encyclopedias?
I’m Wes Richards. My
opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Comments? Send ‘em here:
wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2019
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