Smug, but seriously stupid

LAST WEEK I fell down a rabbit hole of a typically shoddy customer service.

Feeling aggrieved, I attended the only therapist available on short notice – Facebook. What followed were comments revealing why we are a) bedeviled by rubbish customer service and b) trapped in a gyre of failed ambitions.

Before I explain further, I must share my story. The antagonist is a big store; the at-wits-end agonist is me. To be clear, this column isn’t about this store per se. It’s a treatise on poor customer service, the Trini condition that perpetuates it and the wider implications.

I bought a laptop at the store recently. From the outset, the performance was slower than expected of a new computer. Sluggishness quickly deteriorated to glitching and freezing. So it was back to the store where I was directed to the service centre. A technician examined the laptop, updated the software and assured me the problem was resolved.

It wasn’t. Two days later, I found myself at the same service counter with the patient having worsened considerably. Another technician turned on the computer and ran a diagnostic. “The hard drive defective. It ain’t gone totally yet, but it will eventually go.”

There began the runaround with unpleasant and defensive customer service reps who seemed more annoyed with my problem than I was. Calls that were promised would come, never did. Decisions meant to be made about my laptop by supervisors remained unmade. It was the classic Trini experience of being treated by workers like you’re cutting into their free time and incessant gabbing with each other.

We’re in the throes of unprecedented economic upheaval. Consumers don’t have lots of disposable income and are gun-shy about spending. Local businesses should be doing somersaults to make customers feel more at ease about parting with their money. But nah.

In all fairness, I must make mention of a woman by the name of Charlotte at the store. She could easily have told me to try back later. Her conscience wouldn’t allow her to do that, though, and she did all she could to help.

Now on to the real kernel of wisdom in this story. After having posted about my ordeal on Facebook there was an avalanche of comments. Many of them, though, focused on everything except the central point of the post – customer service. “Why you buying electronics at a furniture store?” “You shop at ------?” “Shop Amazon!” “Who buys laptops at ------?”

That sampling of smug shaming hints at the true, wanton ignorance-powering society. The real issue is endemic deplorable customer service. It’s not a particular store thing. Trinis, however, are unable to grapple with complex challenges. As such, they scramble for the simplest answers, the ones that require the least thought, ie, “That [store] iz de wuss!”

Electronics fail occasionally – even when “new bran’.” When businesses ditch their responsibility to the customer, rolling out the eye-rolling and the runaround, this defensive default position compounds the inconvenience and hurt. It also erodes consumer confidence in local businesses, hence the inexorable rise of online shopping.

Years ago I bought a Canon camera online. Right out of the box the lcd screen wasn’t working. The product was returned to Amazon and a replacement provided – no back and forth and no interrogation, just a simple transaction.

Local businesses mean to compete against that brand of customer service by waging war against online shopping.

Our distaste for critical thinking solidifies our fate as authors of our own backwardness. Signs of our preference for thought-free solutions are all around us. State television station is a money suck with tepid viewer interest? Shut it down, reopen and “rebrand” it with paltry local content. Oh, go ahead and squander even more money on it.

State tourism agency not delivering the goods? Shut it down and create three of them. Tired of crime and insecurity? Put all your chips on one man for deliverance.

Show Trinis a forest and to be sure they’ll see a table. The problem isn’t the store, nor a laptop, fridge or a sofa set – it’s our reluctance to analyse problems more closely and think harder on sustainable solutions.

Some, but not all Trinis (enough, though) aren’t nearly as clever in their discernment as they believe themselves to be, but they are far more narrow-minded than they can ever be convinced they are.

That’s why, though my laptop conundrum will be resolved (the store has since agreed to replace it), the wider malaise will prevail.