I'm a fan of the Amazon business model, because I love being able to see people's reviews of a product before I buy it. That led to me creating the following analogy:
One day, two salesmen come to your door selling refrigerators. You already have a refrigerator, but they say that theirs is a new model with tons of awesome features. You decide to let them show you and invite them in. They don't have a fridge with them, but they pull out handfuls of brochures and testimonials highlighting the high tech features and the many happy customers whose lives have been changed by their fridges.
You are very impressed and ask them how much it costs. Rather than give you a price, they say that the installment payments are $100 per month. That doesn't sound too bad, but you tell the you would like to see the fridge for yourself before committing to but it. They then schedule an appointment for you to come by their store to see the fridge for yourself.
You stop by the fridge store the next day, and are greeting by the same two salesmen outside the door. They escort you inside where you see rows and rows of refrigerators, all decked out with touch-screens and other high tech trappings. Not only that, but the store is full of people who are all admiring the fridges and smiling brightly as they talk to each other. Several other customers approach you excitedly and ask if is you're first time in the store, which you affirm. They enthusiastically tell you that they loved theirs so much that they are considering buying a second one.
You are amazed and intrigued by the whole scene. I mean, the fridges look nice and all, but you don't understand why people are so excited about them. Rather than purchase a fridge that day, you tell the salesmen that you will think about it and come back a different day. They try to change your mind, but you insist that you want to research things a little bit. As soon as you say that, their smiles vanish and they furrow their brows. They tell you that a lot of jealous companies have been spreading lies about their fridges. "Don't read any of the negative reviews," they tell you.
When you get home, you go straight to Amazon and search for the fridge. When it pulls up, you se that there are just as many 1star reviews as there are 5 star reviews. You read through several 5 star reviews, which echo the things you heard from the customers you met in the store. Then you start on the negative reviews. Those reviews show a completely different side of the story that you weren't presented before: you learn that the installment plan never runs out, so it's essentially a subscription service that costs $100 dollars for the rest of your life. Even more shocking is that you can't even take your fridge home with you! Apparently, the special fridges have to be left plugged in at the store, so you have to go there every day to get your groceries. Also, many people reported getting very sick from drinking the water that came from the fridges special filter, and one person nearly died when her fridge exploded.
You call the customer service number for the fridge company, pretending to be a customer, and ask about the issues you read about. They assure you that the fridges are perfect; if there are problems with the fridge, it must be because YOU been misusing the fridge and not taking care of it. You ask why you can't take the fridge home and they give you an answer that you can tell was read from a script. You threaten to stop paying them and they tell you that if you do you'll lose all your friends at the fridge store.
You hang up the phone and decide that you won't be purchasing one of their fridges. Because if a company ignores and hides it's bad reviews, they don't really care about improving their product.
Submitted December 10, 2016 at 09:56PM by exmo_sociology http://ift.tt/2gmgfDA exmormon
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