Re[2]: What would you do?

[Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM]

      To use the construction field as an analogy again,
      a hack worker in a cabinet shop may turn out dozens of cabinets with
      some well-hidden flaw that doesn't become apparent until the cabinets
      are installed and used.  So if you're a contractor who installs one of
      these cabinets for someone, and you find the flaw, do you assume that
      EVERYONE at the company that supplied the cabinets is an incompetent
      boob and just never buy them again, or do you inform someone there in
      the hopes that they can root out Mr. Fumblefingers and get rid of him?

Actually, I don't assume everyone there is a boob. But I *would* assume that
someone there doesn't care enough about quality for it to be worth it to
risk buying from them again (assuming I can find another shop with a better
attitude).

But the construction analogy isn't quite appropriate. We aren't talking
about products you've already bought; we're talking about products whose
sole purpose is to entice you to buy. Let me try to adjust it to a more
appropriate one:

Let's say you're wandering through a store and someone comes up to you and
gives you a sales pitch about rennovating your kitchen. Let's also postulate
that you yourself are a cabinetmaker by trade. The marketer who is pitching
to you takes you over to where the company's sample cabinets are, and
proudly shows them off. You find one where the doors don't completely close,
one with a hole in the side, maybe another one has a shelf which has a split
down the middle of it. Perhaps yet another with splotches in the finish.

Now, what do you do? Do you enthusiatically sign on the dotted line? Do you
take the pitch man over all the mistakes his people have made in
constructing these units, knowing full well he doesn't understand some of
the woodworking points you're making (about checks in the boards, and about
wood movement after construction, and more). Or do you just shake your head
and move on?


Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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