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Stephen Sprunk

On 03-Apr-12 16:34, wrote:
On Apr 3, 5:03 pm, Stephen Sprunk wrote:

In the old Bell System days, despite continuing advances in
automation, they always insisted on having Operators handy in case
help was needed.

Great customer service is a luxury of companies that don't have to
compete on price and are guaranteed a profit no matter how high their
expenses are, i.e. monopolies.

Except the companies are NOT providing price discounts.

Right, that's why long distance and mobile rates are so much higher than
they were 30 years ago. Oh, wait, they've declined over 99% in that
time. Maybe customers _are_ getting lower prices!

They're getting away with non existent customer service because everyone
is doing it, and pocketing very nice comfortable profits.

They're "getting away with it" because the vast majority of customers,
when faced with a choice, consistently choose the lower-cost option even
if it means horrible customer service. They may complain about the
latter, but it doesn't seem to affect their buying habits.

And, yes, _some_ of the cost savings from cutting service levels goes to
higher profits. But _most_ of it goes to lower prices; if it didn't,
price competition would drive them out of business.

TODAY there are more monopolies or _effective_ monopolies so the
companies get a way with it.

There is a _lot_ more competition today than there was 30 years ago,
arguably too much in many industries, and the result is the typical
"race to the bottom".

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

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