Asshole #3...An Asshole Culture
/Ok, let’s assume cultures are dynamic. They change…either evolve or devolve, I guess you could say. Evolve to benefit the community at large or devolve to benefit only a certain population of that community. My little rant is, of course, related to the latter. They say (not just me) that ‘information is power.’ So, the question is: is it ok to use that power to benefit yourself at the disadvantage of the community at large -- other people? If you think that’s a bit skeptical, a little iffy, we might find some behavior you might feel is asshole-ish, if we look. My point, which many of you might disagree with, which is fine of course, is that if a culture allows for asshole behavior to be rewarded, it’s the entire culture that’s the asshole (of course people do have free will?). Anyway, let me tell you a couple stories and see what you think:
Before I lay on you what I consider to be the most outrageous asshole (I’m getting tired of saying “asshole” so much. It sounds like I’m angry, and I’m not. So, I’ll see if “a-hole” works) of all time next week, let’s consider the auto industry now, especially the servicing of cars, specifically at dealerships.
In the beginning, I’m sure that culture was: ‘We’ll service and take care of your car if you buy it from us. After all, who knows your car better than us? We made it.’ Sounds reasonable, right? I’m going to say that culture devolved and now rewards a-hole behavior. I learned it early. My second car, at 17, was a Volkswagon Bug. I had a cousin who worked at a VW dealership in the service department. I asked him if I brought in my Bug, would he work on it? He said no way, they charge too much, he couldn’t guaranty that he’d get my car, and that their favorite ploy was to do a brake job whether I needed it or not. I asked how would I know whether it really might need new breaks. He said I didn’t have enough knowledge about cars and wouldn’t know. It appeared I was dealing with a culture in which I might not be able to trust the participants. He looked, said I didn’t need new brakes. I found a guy around the corner from where I lived. He changed my oil and tightened my clutch and said nothing about the brakes. I found him not real friendly but honest and I trusted him. He was from a different culture entirely. And I was able, thanks to him, to be able to avoid dealerships for years. Even when I bought my first new car and, let’s say, they implied I needed to service the car there to fulfill the warranty…which was not true, fortunately.
But, then I got entrapped: I buy a Jeep and, wow, ‘free’ oil changes! My first free oil change, I go get my car and find a bill for a couple hundred dollars: several unsolicited but necessary actions taken. Like wiper blades (I had purchased new blades, literally, the previous week from the same dealership and the parts guy I bought them from (the service dep’t was closed) said he could put them on for me for free. It’s a snap if you know what you’re doing, So, I left going ‘cool,’ a good company), AND, a note saying that my cigarette lighter/plug- in wasn’t working and they had an hour and a half on some machine trying to locate the problem, but quit because they were afraid it would get expensive. But would only charge me for an hour. (Honestly, I’m not shitting you, it was a fuse). The next day I called the service mgr. and told her I wasn’t paying for anything and that I was simply content with my free oil change, thank you. She said she would credit my account for future servicing. I pointed that wouldn’t work since there would be no future servicing. Just to credit my credit card. Here, in one week, I went from believing that a company was serving the better good to knowing it was trying to use knowledge to flim flam me. I’m guessing the company would have rewarded the s.s. (service specialist) not the guy who made me feel good about the company, and, you know: thus telling other people about how good they were.
Second free oil change, they take my car and tell me it’s time for the $600 maintenance (in which I’m sure there would have been a number of crucial things to be fixed…and I’d have no idea if they were necessary or manufactured). So, I say get me my car, I’m done with free oil changes. I then asked that service mgr. if the ‘service specialists,’ the buffer between us and the actual guy doing the work, were paid on commission. I was told ‘oh, no!’ Then I asked if the s.s. made more money if there was more servicing done. ‘Well, yes of course’ was the answer. One… bad… idea. One bad culture that sure seems to have devolved… if you believe using ‘knowledge’ to take advantage of people is an a-hole thing to do.
One last story I want to tell because it involves my neighbor up at my cabin, Peewee (who really is a peewee), a retired mechanic, who will be the subject of my next “Angel.” While driving my Toyota MRII Spider, the clutch started to slip. I’m in Mpls. Unfortunately so call Peewee to see if I could drive it back up to the cabin, but he’s not there. So, I take it to a Toyota dealership to see if I could drive it up north. I’m ‘no,’ that it needs a new clutch. What do I know? So, I tell them to do it. They also tell me there’s these little manifold things that are part of the muffler that are bad, but it’s all one piece so will cost a million dollars to fix. I tell them just do the clutch.
I get back to my cabin and Peewee cusses me out: the clutch only needed an adjustment you fool, he admonishes me with. The manifold thing: $60 to fix, rather than the $400 I was quoted at Toyota (yeah, a million dollars was a little exaggerated).
Of course these possible a-hole behaviors are nothing compared to next week’s. I mean you may have paid too much, be pissed off because someone took advantage or tried to take advantage of you, because they knew something you didn’t, BUT, it didn’t ruin your life, hopefully.
Next week…
Ok, let’s assume cultures are dynamic. They change…either evolve or devolve, I guess you could say. Evolve to benefit the community at large or devolve to benefit only a certain population of that community. My little rant is, of course, related to the latter. They say (not just me) that ‘information is power.’ So, the question is: is it ok to use that power to benefit yourself at the disadvantage of the community at large -- other people? If you think that’s a bit skeptical, a little iffy, we might find some behavior you might feel is asshole-ish, if we look. My point, which many of you might disagree with, which is fine of course, is that if a culture allows for asshole behavior to be rewarded, it’s the entire culture that’s the asshole (of course people do have free will?). Anyway, let me tell you a couple stories and see what you think:
Before I lay on you what I consider to be the most outrageous asshole (I’m getting tired of saying “asshole” so much. It sounds like I’m angry, and I’m not. So, I’ll see if “a-hole” works) of all time next week, let’s consider the auto industry now, especially the servicing of cars, specifically at dealerships.
In the beginning, I’m sure that culture was: ‘We’ll service and take care of your car if you buy it from us. After all, who knows your car better than us? We made it.’ Sounds reasonable, right? I’m going to say that culture devolved and now rewards a-hole behavior. I learned it early. My second car, at 17, was a Volkswagon Bug. I had a cousin who worked at a VW dealership in the service department. I asked him if I brought in my Bug, would he work on it? He said no way, they charge too much, he couldn’t guaranty that he’d get my car, and that their favorite ploy was to do a brake job whether I needed it or not. I asked how would I know whether it really might need new breaks. He said I didn’t have enough knowledge about cars and wouldn’t know. It appeared I was dealing with a culture in which I might not be able to trust the participants. He looked, said I didn’t need new brakes. I found a guy around the corner from where I lived. He changed my oil and tightened my clutch and said nothing about the brakes. I found him not real friendly but honest and I trusted him. He was from a different culture entirely. And I was able, thanks to him, to be able to avoid dealerships for years. Even when I bought my first new car and, let’s say, they implied I needed to service the car there to fulfill the warranty…which was not true, fortunately.
But, then I got entrapped: I buy a Jeep and, wow, ‘free’ oil changes! My first free oil change, I go get my car and find a bill for a couple hundred dollars: several unsolicited but necessary actions taken. Like wiper blades (I had purchased new blades, literally, the previous week from the same dealership and the parts guy I bought them from (the service dep’t was closed) said he could put them on for me for free. It’s a snap if you know what you’re doing, So, I left going ‘cool,’ a good company), AND, a note saying that my cigarette lighter/plug- in wasn’t working and they had an hour and a half on some machine trying to locate the problem, but quit because they were afraid it would get expensive. But would only charge me for an hour. (Honestly, I’m not shitting you, it was a fuse). The next day I called the service mgr. and told her I wasn’t paying for anything and that I was simply content with my free oil change, thank you. She said she would credit my account for future servicing. I pointed that wouldn’t work since there would be no future servicing. Just to credit my credit card. Here, in one week, I went from believing that a company was serving the better good to knowing it was trying to use knowledge to flim flam me. I’m guessing the company would have rewarded the s.s. (service specialist) not the guy who made me feel good about the company, and, you know: thus telling other people about how good they were.
Second free oil change, they take my car and tell me it’s time for the $600 maintenance (in which I’m sure there would have been a number of crucial things to be fixed…and I’d have no idea if they were necessary or manufactured). So, I say get me my car, I’m done with free oil changes. I then asked that service mgr. if the ‘service specialists,’ the buffer between us and the actual guy doing the work, were paid on commission. I was told ‘oh, no!’ Then I asked if the s.s. made more money if there was more servicing done. ‘Well, yes of course’ was the answer. One… bad… idea. One bad culture that sure seems to have devolved… if you believe using ‘knowledge’ to take advantage of people is an a-hole thing to do.
One last story I want to tell because it involves my neighbor up at my cabin, Peewee (who really is a peewee), a retired mechanic, who will be the subject of my next “Angel.” While driving my Toyota MRII Spider, the clutch started to slip. I’m in Mpls. Unfortunately so call Peewee to see if I could drive it back up to the cabin, but he’s not there. So, I take it to a Toyota dealership to see if I could drive it up north. I’m ‘no,’ that it needs a new clutch. What do I know? So, I tell them to do it. They also tell me there’s these little manifold things that are part of the muffler that are bad, but it’s all one piece so will cost a million dollars to fix. I tell them just do the clutch.
I get back to my cabin and Peewee cusses me out: the clutch only needed an adjustment you fool, he admonishes me with. The manifold thing: $60 to fix, rather than the $400 I was quoted at Toyota (yeah, a million dollars was a little exaggerated).
Of course these possible a-hole behaviors are nothing compared to next week’s. I mean you may have paid too much, be pissed off because someone took advantage or tried to take advantage of you, because they knew something you didn’t, BUT, it didn’t ruin your life, hopefully.
