The Consumer Complaints Blog

I want to share an example of effective complaining which brought impressive results. First of all, I am an industrial designer and have a range of knowledge when it comes to manufactured products we buy, use and tdiscard. Industrial designers are product designers (like James Dyson who invented the Dyson vacuums) who work with engineers, marketing and sales folks to develop products. We have a good comprehension of manufacturing, hopefully economics, materials, trends, styling, etc. We are involved in creating and achieving levels of product quality while meeting “corporate objectives” which usually translates into generating a profit for all our efforts and salaries.

Unfortunately, not all products these days are designed to last 20 years or longer anymore. It’s called planned obsolesce, we can determine and control exactly how long produced goods will last, how it will wear, break etc. Fair enough I think, our planet revolves on consumerism and we all take part in the various products and services which give us an occupation and allow us to keep feeding this system. I will talk more about his another time and share a really neat presentation about “stuff”.

My story is this. Upon graduating from industrial design studies and landing my first job as a designer within a toy company I experienced a little problem with my 6 year old 1992 Acura Integra LE. A fine little car it was. Purchased it used, drove it hard and cared for it the best I could. One day the driver’s seatbelt failed to work, it wouldn’t recoil back into the housing?! Sure enough, I took it apart to discover the steel coil inside broke and wasn’t providing the tension needed for the normal strap operation. I called up the Honda dealership to order a new part. Of course, the part is not available as a separate part. I could purchase the “assembly” and simply replace it. The cost for this was ~ $380. (part only) L…yaa, not the answer I was looking for. I gave it some thought and realized the above “planned obsolescence” The car had about 180 000kms, still looked great and everything else was fine. I thought…damn designers/engineers and “people” who decided on the specific coil quality, material design, etc for this!! I decided to call up Honda Canada and talk to customer service relations. I was polite, calm and simply voiced my situation along with 2 golden questions. I explained this as my first car purchased and happy with it thus far. I then explained that of all the parts, assemblies and systems on this car, the driver’s seat belt should be the LAST thing to fail ——-this was the small component which could essentially save my life (assuming the seat could still be bolted to the car’s frame)! This is where I asked: “ what does this tell me about the rest of the car?” The second question was, “ how will this help me to buy another Honda in the future?” I was heard and was told to expect a call in the coming days. Sure enough they called to report that I should take my vehicle to a certain dealership to have the assembly replaced free of charge and they thanked me for my consumer input———–J

Now that folks, is justice, good business and a company (or employee) that stands behind its product. I have purchased 2 other Hondas since then I will continue to do so.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.