There must be too many people out there with money they don’t need. Richard Pryor once said that drugs are God’s way of telling us we have too much money. It’s not drugs today. The so-called Black Friday deals are, from what I’ve seen, a list of technical toys that no one really needs. So the business objective now is to match up the unneeded stuff with unneeded money. Christmas shopping always was a pain anyway but now it has reached a bizarre level of the bizarre.
Speaking of tech things, Bose, which was once a great company, is now closing its stores except for the far east. Years ago, Bose had a good rep with good products, a bit pricey, but usually worth it particularly for the service. I’ll give you an example of how it has changed. I had an earbud wired pair that I loved. One of the reasons was that the pair was attached so you couldn’t lose one. One day, a piece broke off and I contacted Bose to see if I could get a new piece. Their response was, send us the earbuds and we’ll send you a replacement. I did and they promptly did replace it with a brand new one. That’s service.
Recently, the on-off button came off these earbuds and got lost. It was a red piece that was about a quarter inch long and a sixteenth inch wide. Now under new management, I contacted Bose and asked if I could get a replacement button. Keep in mind that this was a tiny piece of plastic that they must have thousands laying around the factory. Their answer was they don’t service devices any more. But I could get the latest version of the earbuds for $190. I was not one of those with money I didn’t need. Avoiding four letter words, I said goodbye. What to do? I took a plastic wire tie, a yellow one, cut a piece off about the same size as the missing switch and cemented it in. It took me a half hour and a drop of superglue and I was back in business. My point is that for a penny piece of plastic, they wanted me to spend $190. So consider service when you buy a product. By the way of irony, the earbuds got lost at Newark airport during the TSA safety check and I never got them back.
Another note. There are many products (all?) manufactured in China and for sale here. Be careful. You could be lucky and it will work. But if it doesn’t, try to contact the manufacturer. Ha!. As much as I hate to buy from Amazon, one of the major advantages is you can return a product for any reason for a refund, no questions asked. Well, there are questions. They ask why, but there’s no reason they don’t accept. So, I hold my nose and give Jeff Bezos some money occasionally.
From me to you, enjoy the holidays.
