<VV> Was Re:5th degree... Now Vote with your feet.

[Mark Noakes]

No contest on confronting upper level management about it, but I also figure that things get pretty widespread on internet so it's not just one person refusing to use a vendor.

FYI--I went to work on my vette today and the battery was totally dead...went to SAM's to get one and they never asked what it would go into at all.  I may try tires for my truck next...I've been thinking about changing sizes...

Mark Noakes

----- Original Message -----
From: RoboMan91324@aol.com
To: virtualvairs@corvair.org, mark@noakes.com
Subject: <VV> Was Re:5th degree... Now Vote with your feet.
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 13:56:24 EST

> 
> Yes, Mark, I agree that a good way to have influence on vendors is to let
> them know that they are losing business.  However, the message must get through.
> If one of our group walks out of a Costco or Wally World, they lose the sale
> on those tires or battery but does that message move up the chain?  The clerk
> probably doesn't really care about the "Corvair trade" and just moves on to
> the next in line.  He won't keep track of lost business and file a report to the
> marketing department.  You need to ask for the manager before storming out.
> He just might care enough to pass the information up the chain of command.  To
> be really effective, a letter of complaint to "Corporate" should be sent.  If
> they know that they have offended a number of customers who will take ALL of
> their business elsewhere, they might modify their methods.  Tell Costco that
> you will be letting your membership lapse and picking up a membership at Sam's
> Club or elsewhere.  This is especially effective if they can check your
> records and see that you are a good customer.  Sometimes, they will even send a gift
> certificate or voucher to keep you happy.  Most customer oriented businesses
> know that someone who cares enough to write a letter (or even email) is
> someone who will really take his or her business elsewhere and also complain to
> others.  Yes, the legal folks at corporate drive these sort of things but
> ultimately, the companies are driven by profits.  If they realize that they are losing
> more because of a particular policy than they would lose without it they are
> likely to change it.  By the way, this holds true for politicians as well.  A
> complaint phone call has lower priority, an email has more and an actual
> letter by snail mail holds the highest priority.  Obviously, silence carries very
> little weight.  The only difference is that a phone call can be very effective
> if you are trying to solve a specific problem and not trying to change policy
> as we are discussing here.
> 
> Just my opinion.
> 
> Doc
> ~~~~~~~~
> In a message dated 1/4/2005 3:41:17 PM Pacific Standard Time,
> virtualvairs-request@corvair.org writes:
> 
> > Message: 8
> > From: "Mark Noakes" <mark@noakes.com>
> > To: virtualvairs@corvair.org
> > Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 15:37:49 -0800
> > Subject: Re: <VV> Re:5th degree...
> >
> > vote with your feet while you can...don't do business with vendors that don't sell 
> > what you want or put restrictions on it.
> >
> > Mark Noakes
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Mark Noakes
http://blog.mark.noakes.com/

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is usually a difference."