I am Blind! Not stupid!

Last Updated on: 12th November 2013, 10:31 am

God! What is with anything in a specialty market? The people who are selling these products think, and let me emphasize the word THINK, that they have the people who want it by the short and curlies and can sell it for whatever inflated price they want. They also think that their customers sincerely believe they can only get these things from one place. Companies selling these things perpetuate this by not giving you the name of whatever company manufactures the products they distribute, so those who are newbies to this whole thing will be convinced of this, and won’t bother to shop around. To add insult to injury, they think they can condescend to their customers and treat them like stupid, worthless piles of shit when they call. After all, we should be grateful that this company is willing to sell these specialty products to us at all, right?

Wrong!

Hey bud, when a product is $50 U.S, do you think that you can honestly expect me to buy it from you for $120 Canadian, just because you’re Canadian? Do you think I’ll actually believe the dollar is that bad? Even at its worst, it wasn’t that abysmal. Wake up!

And bud no. 2, if you’re an hour away, do you think I’m going to swallow $15 worth of shipping? Hell I could probably get a drive down there and pick it up from your slimy hands for less than that!

And bud no. 3 who actually makes these things, how can you expect me to believe that the reason you don’t ship to Canada is because it costs more than the product’s value to ship it? The one I want is $50 U.S. Who is your shipper, and who is doing your books? You need to fire him immediately for not noticing that you’re getting gouged to the tenth power on shipping! You can’t tell me that’s the real reason and expect me to believe it.

Here’s a message to all of these companies who think that charging insane prices for this shit is a good idea. I will leave you with a name to chew on. Anne Moris. She once sold the same products that other people did, but her prices were nuts. Do you know where Anne Moris Enterprises is now? Gone! Dead! Nonexistent! 404! Out of business! I don’t know precisely why, but those insane prices sure didn’t help, partly because they’re ludicrous, and partly because word gets around. Soon we tell our friends, and they find other places to buy the stuff. The whole small market thing can work both ways.

The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) should learn this soon, or they won’t be able to keep their tech aids store open any longer because no one will shop there. But it may close anyway, just like everything else of theirs is doing. Oops did I say that out loud? Seriously, though, of all the people guilty of trying to rip customers off, they are second only to Maxiaids, who I won’t even link to because I won’t give traffic to people who are called fraudsters by anyone who has dealt with them. I tell everyone I can to not buy from the CNIB. First of all, they don’t even know who manufactures their products. Second, they charge exorbitant prices. Third, when you ask questions, they treat you like you shouldn’t even dare ask these questions and just buy the product, which is bad because some of the stuff they sell doesn’t even work as advertised. And then they wonder why I won’t buy things from them sight unseen.

And here’s a message to all the companies who think that they don’t have to worry about customer service. You do! When I phone up and ask a question about a product, don’t speak to me like I’m a. 2 years old and b. troubling you immensely. If you don’t want to answer customer inquiries, don’t open your god damn business! I phoned one place this morning and asked this guy who sounded like the slimiest swindler on the planet how much the shipping was on a product. He very slowly asked me, “Where do you live, dear?” I told him and he said, “Gee, how much *does* it cost to ship to there, dear?” I said that’s why I was phoning him. Then he just went, “oh…hmmm…I’d say about $15.” Did you just dream that figure up? Or are you actually going to look it up for me like a normal person would? Needless to say, I’m not buying it from there.

There has only been a couple of adaptive product companies who have treated me well, and they consistently get my business. This is why it pisses me off to see so many of them trying to treat me like crap. If there were a zillion places to choose from, I’d just shrug it off that this one company sucks and move onto the next place. But there are so few that sell this stuff, and it sucks to have to dig for the good service. But here’s a lesson for you folks who sell products like these. I *will* dig for the good service. We *do* have options. The sooner you realize this, the sooner you can start working on saving your company from going under.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.