Some excellent customer service...

Resilient Manufacturing (well worth a read), why it might not be a good thing that our economy is now based on Wall Street, and as long as we're speaking of Wall Street...

So far, this morning has been akin to wifi hell... Well, not wifi hell exactly as we have a good signal strength, acceptable ping times and decent packet loss figures but when all is said and done no email or web access...

Aaarrrrggghhh...

So, we call the folks who provide the service and tell them they seem to have a problem and, as par for the course, he tells us everything is peachy keen and it must be "our" problem. When we point out that, in point of fact, it is not our system that seems to be at fault but theirs, he goes all passive aggressive and offers us a refund (which we'd take in a shot if there was another source of wifi on the island). Of course, now that the offer of a refund is on the table there is no longer any pretense that the company involved will make any effort to fix the problem as their company policy seems to be if you don't like crappy service simply go away...

I bring this up because it is not at all unlike dealing with a lot of marine industry business whose modus operandi when dealing with a client is concerned is...

1. It's always the client's fault.

2. If we say sorry that does not mean we have any intention of fixing the problem.

3. We'd rather have you go away then do our job.

Makes you kind of wonder how some folks stay in business...

Like a lot of boatfolk, I'm always researching new products for "So It Goes" (call it the perpetual upgrade syndrome) and it is surprising just how seldom an email to a company making electronics or other high-ticket boat gear gets answered or, if answered, having it be something useless like telling me to go check out their website (I should point this out because so many websites tell you to contact the company for more information so sending you back to the website is akin to a kind of infinite loop purgatory).

Which in a roundabout way brings me to paint...

One of my projects in the not too distant future is a new paint job for "So It Goes". Since I have some "special" plans (OK yes a CUNNING PLAN) to do something a whole lot different than the norm, I have some questions about paint, comparability, and methodology that I need answers to before I spent a small fortune on paint. Now, in these dire economic times, you'd expect that my mailbox would be overflowing in replies of helpful marine painting info and advice...

Yet, for some reason my paint file remains empty... Yep, that would be zero (nada, rien, 沒什麼) responses from folks I want to buy paint from (well, in truth, that would be from folks I DON"T want to buy stuff from now). Kinda makes you wonder if their sales force can be so inept how they do on the after-sales service... Ya think?

The thing is, every time I talk to someone in the marine industry I hear much moaning and gnashing of teeth about just how dire the current economic situation is but they simply do not get the fact that part of the problem happens to be of their own making...

Yesterday, I saw that a bike maker had used an interesting coating on their new bike model so dropped the shop a quick email and lo and behold a couple of hours later I got an answer to my question, some thoughts on why it is a great coating for bicycles but not so much for boats, and a link to the company that provided the coating material in case I might want to give it a try or research it further... Just imagine if I had asked them a question about buying a bike!

Now, for those not up on bikes and the cycling industry, I should point out that while most industries in the US of A are dying or in need of some serious life support, the cycling industry is in growth mode and doing just fine. I won't go into all of the reasons for this as there are simply too many but one of the most important factors is good customer service... Something the marine industry should take note of.

Rant over

Listening to Crazy Horse

So it goes...