Ever wonder why some companies tank? Why they slide head first into the toilet and then reach for the self-flush lever and pull it? Then close the lid on themselves, sealing their own fate?
Go back to my very first post, and it starts the litany of errors, or perhaps idiotic moves, that helped a giant like Washington Mutual run down the tube head-first. No, not the main reason perhaps, but just look at the number of companies who use offshore call centers and then look at those who tanked. Hmm...anyone else see a correlation here. AMERICA is starting to wake the hell up! We don't like dialing 1 for English, and we don't like talking to some freaking pidgin-english speaking asshole who can't help us one iota while our money, computer, appliance or whatever is a problem to us. U.S. Companies, are you listening? Get USA call centers before you end up with the same fate as those who have already fallen prey to the offshore lunacy. If I want to speak to Chandu or Rashid or anyone else who doesn't speak English, I'll do it on my terms and when I need to, not when I have an issue that requires technical assistance. And I'm not going to Press 1 to do it in some broken damned dialect either! If I find a need to speak a foreign tongue, I can go to a local ethnic restaurant or convenience store and have a nice conversation about the curry menu, or the merchandise, not about my bank account, thank you!
As for General Motors...as Carlos Mencia would say...Dee Dee Dee. Once again, if they only listened to the consumers, it would have been a smoother ride to profitability. But oh, no, like the rest, they decided to give the consumer what they wanted to give them, rather than what they really wanted. It's like giving a person one food one day, and then expecting him to eat the same thing every day of his life! It just doesn't happen. You can change the color, blend the shape and make it smell and look different, and raise the price, but it's the same old thing, and pretty soon it becomes unpalatable. Yet, when you can't feed it to the public any more, you just dress it up in a new manner, and continue to produce it and try and jam it down their throats. If you'll recall, it didn't work with broccoli and squash when you were a kid, and it didn't work for cars either.
GM screwed up when they decided that muscle cars like the real GTO and Olds 442 were out. They dumped the Camaro and the Firebird, and decided later on to revive the GTO with an Australian Holden type. Great car; I had a 2005. But it wasn't the original "Goat" and it wasn't really American iron anymore. They lost the kids and the muscle car addicts to the "Pony Car" people at Ford, who, incidentally, are also on their ass by trying to sell too many big cars and trucks and pay huge wages and benefits. Kids moved to the "Rice Burners or Rice Rockets" and all sort of tuner kits became available, that let tiny Hondas and Subarus run like the wind. They soon were punishing Mustangs on the street, and the tiny engines were good for 300+ horsepower and up. Yet the US car makers were still shoving the heavy bodied monsters on the market, with fewer and fewer buyers, all while paying the unions huge premium wages and benefits. (See another blog of mine on that!)
Pontiac will probably go the way of Oldsmobile. Sad? Yes, definitely. I've had Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles, all of which were muscle cars. But when GM decided that they knew better than the public what we wanted, I quit buying their cars. When their dealers couldn't fix a car properly and took 28 tries at repairing a convertible top, then couldn't repair the brakes on another brand new car after many repeated tries, I quit buying GM cars. The last was the 2005 GTO and I bought that solely because I knew then that Pontiac was in deep trouble, that the molds for that car were wearing out and there would be precious few built in the future. 2006 was the last year for the car and no more will ever be built. Strangely enough, the GTO built in Australia was built better and with closer tolerances than any GM made in America. The car magazines, and all reviews, set that car as the mark GM should be striving for in fit, finish and excellence in all its vehicles. Alas, that never happened. I guess the Aussies just take a lot more pride in their work or something, or maybe just care more about what they give the consumer, as they know they won't come back for more if they get a crappy product?
Time to wake up, American companies. The oil companies screwed us every chance they got and now that oil is less than half the price it was a few months back, we're still driving lots less. The airlines upped their fares, started charging for second bags and now that fuel is way down, even less than 18 months ago, those same airlines are still charging for the second bag. What goes?
Time for another blog on gouging!
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