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Answer Upon - Lemon Vehicles - The Answer Is In The $Beans$
The recent news about one of America's most powerful woman ceo's being removed from office has raised the discussion about gender bias, again. It disappoints me that in 2005, I still hear women clients talking about "the old boys' network". They say "glass ceilings" are holding them back in terms of advancement, pay equity, recognition and career satisfaction. While I have no doubt their assessments are valid; it's important that we don't generalize too much. There are other reasons as well.First, discretion is no longer the best part of valor. While Shakespearean wenches were prized for their discretion, professional women in today's competitive workplace are often held back by the very quality that is too often expected of women. So let me be clear on this: Women - working quietly and selflessly will not get you to that corner office!In my line of work, I still hear business professionals blaming the 'glass ceiling' for women's scarce presence in the executive suite. Research (and my own ex
There is an interesting lesson here, a parallel to modern times. It is not difficult to extrapolate a similar set of circumstances in today’s corporate culture where we have level after level of arrogant, vain, amoral graduates of Wharton and Harvard who’s only moral imperative is promotion. Quality customer care, any sense of what the purchasers of their products experience day to day is as remote as a star in another galaxy.
We can imagine it going something like this. The word filters down from the t
As I ponder this question, as I am sure you are too, there are many thoughts that whip around in our minds. Students of marketing are no longer only being taught the standard marketing strategy. The shift to online marketing has gained such strength that those that had never considered the Internet a viable choice are now including it as an important part of all their marketing efforts. One of the reasons for that shift is the vast amount of monies that are saved on printing costs vs. online set up fees.In the past business owners had no choice but to pay out the hefty fees necessary to print hundreds of copies for their ad runs only to find that the ad campaign failed or had at most a small response rate. If they were tracking the response then they had to go back to the board and create a new ad campaign and print and mail that doubling their initial investment. On the contrary, once the website has been created the expense of changing the look or feel of your campaign is minor.Both online and
This is so unbelievably callous that the average consumer can’t believe it’s happening. There seem to be no answers to their questions. And anyone who has experienced the endless misery and disappointment of owning a lemon vehicle has many unanswered questions. For example:
If there is a quality problem or a known engineering defect, why doesn’t the manufacturer just admit it and do everything possible to correct the problem?
Why don’t they just give me another car that does what all the fancy ads said it would do?
Why all the BS?
Why are they doing this?
These are questions from the heart. They are fair questions, which unfortunately almost never get answered. Instead, there is a cruel, even sociopathic aspect to the manufacturer and dealership’s response to the consumer’s questions.
The label ‘sociopath’ generally refers to an individual who is incapable of expressing the normal range of human emotions. Another characteristic of the sociopathic personality is that he or she may be an excellent actor (they pretend to care), always appearing charming, calm and collected. If it seems like I have strayed from the point, bear with me.
Regarding the sociopath’s charm and ‘niceness’, remember the last time you talked with a manufacturer’s representative? What warm and humane people they seem to be. They were helpfulness and understanding personified, right? But did you get help? Were the defects with your automobile, RV or boat fixed? Did the long saga of fruitless trips to the dealership actually cause something good to happen? Were the dozens of calls to various representatives returned? And when they did call back, did it result in fixes for the vehicles? I will let the reader answer these questions.
I am not suggesting that all the employees of Ford, GM, Mercedes, BMW or any of the other manufacturers are sociopaths. Perish the thought. However, we don’t need to be a gaggle of fruitcake psychiatrists to know that all organizations reflect the character of their leaders. This isn’t disputable. And it isn’t a great leap of intellect for anyone with a higher than room temperature IQ to observe that many manufacturers operate as though they were, indeed, sociopathic. This behavior starts with one or more persons and spreads downward through the organization like a foul poison.
In Shakespeare’s King Henry II, when driven to distraction by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas ? Becket, Henry said in the presence of his close advisors, “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest.”
Later Henry’s “senior management team” met to discuss business. Someone might have said, “Okay guys, pay attention, Henry wants this problem solved and he wants it now!” From that point Thomas was toast. Soon thereafter King Henry’s pals murdered Thomas. Henry never said, “Boys, go kill Thomas ? Becket, he’s a royal pain in the ass. Thomas certainly didn’t have the opportunity to argue this particular distinction of moral responsibility.
There is an interesting lesson here, a parallel to modern times. It is not difficult to extrapolate a similar set of circumstances in today’s corporate culture where we have level after level of arrogant, vain, amoral graduates of Wharton and Harvard who’s only moral imperative is promotion. Quality customer care, any sense of what the purchasers of their products experience day to day is as remote as a star in another galaxy.
We can imagine it going something like this. The word filters down from the to
Health Insurance works on the principle of sharing risk between the carrier and the insured. The carrier I represent is BlueCross of California. If you were to subscribe to a particular insurance plan, you would be the insured.The number one way to avoid frustration when using insurance is to understand how it is meant to perform when it’s time to drive it. If you purchased a Ferrari but no roads you drove on allowed you to exceed 30 mph, you might get a bit frustrated . You simply bought too much car. To avoid buying more than you need, it’s important to understand the nature of what you are purchasing. Health Insurance is no exception.Health insurance carriers share the risk of the insurance plan with the insured through the following overall approach:You Pay the Deductible You Pay the Co-insurance and/or Co-pay You reach an out of pocket max and get everything covered at 100% after that.Hey, what’s with all the "you pay" stuff? Well, along the way different insur
Why all the BS?
Why are they doing this?
These are questions from the heart. They are fair questions, which unfortunately almost never get answered. Instead, there is a cruel, even sociopathic aspect to the manufacturer and dealership’s response to the consumer’s questions.
The label ‘sociopath’ generally refers to an individual who is incapable of expressing the normal range of human emotions. Another characteristic of the sociopathic personality is that he or she may be an excellent actor (they pretend to care), always appearing charming, calm and collected. If it seems like I have strayed from the point, bear with me.
Regarding the sociopath’s charm and ‘niceness’, remember the last time you talked with a manufacturer’s representative? What warm and humane people they seem to be. They were helpfulness and understanding personified, right? But did you get help? Were the defects with your automobile, RV or boat fixed? Did the long saga of fruitless trips to the dealership actually cause something good to happen? Were the dozens of calls to various representatives returned? And when they did call back, did it result in fixes for the vehicles? I will let the reader answer these questions.
I am not suggesting that all the employees of Ford, GM, Mercedes, BMW or any of the other manufacturers are sociopaths. Perish the thought. However, we don’t need to be a gaggle of fruitcake psychiatrists to know that all organizations reflect the character of their leaders. This isn’t disputable. And it isn’t a great leap of intellect for anyone with a higher than room temperature IQ to observe that many manufacturers operate as though they were, indeed, sociopathic. This behavior starts with one or more persons and spreads downward through the organization like a foul poison.
In Shakespeare’s King Henry II, when driven to distraction by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas ? Becket, Henry said in the presence of his close advisors, “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest.”
Later Henry’s “senior management team” met to discuss business. Someone might have said, “Okay guys, pay attention, Henry wants this problem solved and he wants it now!” From that point Thomas was toast. Soon thereafter King Henry’s pals murdered Thomas. Henry never said, “Boys, go kill Thomas ? Becket, he’s a royal pain in the ass. Thomas certainly didn’t have the opportunity to argue this particular distinction of moral responsibility.
There is an interesting lesson here, a parallel to modern times. It is not difficult to extrapolate a similar set of circumstances in today’s corporate culture where we have level after level of arrogant, vain, amoral graduates of Wharton and Harvard who’s only moral imperative is promotion. Quality customer care, any sense of what the purchasers of their products experience day to day is as remote as a star in another galaxy.
We can imagine it going something like this. The word filters down from the t
There are jillions of desperate salesmen, and saleswomen, on the web trying to sell a product, with very little or no success. Don’t even try to sell! You have to market your product. You have to understand the basic principals of marketing. People don’t want to be sold. You have to get into their head and make them want to buy.Think of your last half dozen large purchases. How many of those things that you bought did you really need? You probably saw a few of them on TV. Then first time you saw the commercial you were interested and may have thought “That would be nice to have”, but you didn’t really consider buying it. By the seventh time you saw the commercial you decided that you just couldn’t live without it. The marketing people planted an idea in your head, then reinforced it, and reinforced it until you just couldn’t resist it any longer.I’m not saying that they did anything wrong. That’s what drives our modern economy. If we would be honest with ourselves, we would admit that we could l
I am not suggesting that all the employees of Ford, GM, Mercedes, BMW or any of the other manufacturers are sociopaths. Perish the thought. However, we don’t need to be a gaggle of fruitcake psychiatrists to know that all organizations reflect the character of their leaders. This isn’t disputable. And it isn’t a great leap of intellect for anyone with a higher than room temperature IQ to observe that many manufacturers operate as though they were, indeed, sociopathic. This behavior starts with one or more persons and spreads downward through the organization like a foul poison.
In Shakespeare’s King Henry II, when driven to distraction by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas ? Becket, Henry said in the presence of his close advisors, “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest.”
Later Henry’s “senior management team” met to discuss business. Someone might have said, “Okay guys, pay attention, Henry wants this problem solved and he wants it now!” From that point Thomas was toast. Soon thereafter King Henry’s pals murdered Thomas. Henry never said, “Boys, go kill Thomas ? Becket, he’s a royal pain in the ass. Thomas certainly didn’t have the opportunity to argue this particular distinction of moral responsibility.
There is an interesting lesson here, a parallel to modern times. It is not difficult to extrapolate a similar set of circumstances in today’s corporate culture where we have level after level of arrogant, vain, amoral graduates of Wharton and Harvard who’s only moral imperative is promotion. Quality customer care, any sense of what the purchasers of their products experience day to day is as remote as a star in another galaxy.
We can imagine it going something like this. The word filters down from the t
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows the deduction of the discount points on your income tax return. Discount points which are one of the most important tax deductions to homebuyers are paid upfront to reduce the mortgage payment.Calculate the Discount PointsEach point equals one percent of the principal. For example, a 2 discount points on $150,000 mortgage comes to $3,000 ($150,000 x 0.02). The Closing Statements shows how much is your discount points. If you do not see discount points, have no fear. Discount points are also called Loan Origination Fees, Maximum Loan Charges, or Loan Discount.First Time Homebuyer Discount Points For a first time buyer, IRS allows to claim the full amount of discount points on the year paid. For example, Joe bought his first home on 2005. In his closing statement, the discount points come to $3,000. Joe claims the full amount on Schedule A of his income tax return.Discount Points on refinance without home improvement the character of their leaders. This isn’t disputable. And it isn’t a great leap of intellect for anyone with a higher than room temperature IQ to observe that many manufacturers operate as though they were, indeed, sociopathic. This behavior starts with one or more persons and spreads downward through the organization like a foul poison.
In Shakespeare’s King Henry II, when driven to distraction by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas ? Becket, Henry said in the presence of his close advisors, “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest.”
Later Henry’s “senior management team” met to discuss business. Someone might have said, “Okay guys, pay attention, Henry wants this problem solved and he wants it now!” From that point Thomas was toast. Soon thereafter King Henry’s pals murdered Thomas. Henry never said, “Boys, go kill Thomas ? Becket, he’s a royal pain in the ass. Thomas certainly didn’t have the opportunity to argue this particular distinction of moral responsibility.
There is an interesting lesson here, a parallel to modern times. It is not difficult to extrapolate a similar set of circumstances in today’s corporate culture where we have level after level of arrogant, vain, amoral graduates of Wharton and Harvard who’s only moral imperative is promotion. Quality customer care, any sense of what the purchasers of their products experience day to day is as remote as a star in another galaxy.
We can imagine it going something like this. The word filters down from the t
At times the power of persuasion has eluded me. I'm not a natural persuader, a good negotiator maybe. In negotiation you develop strategy and options and work to a plan but with persuasion it seems you require verbal speed and mental flexibility which does not suit my somewhat logical mind.New things interest me. New technology, new products and new techniques, anything that helps to improve my skill level. Some scientific facts have recently been established that come into the art of persuasion.Getting to yes using these facts can be easier. A major pharmaceuticals company recently had some great success in selling one of its' products by training a telesales team in the art of persuasion and getting to yes.By analysis the company established that the sales team were taking orders, not asking questions and not selling. By establishing what the team could do to offer customers a better service and then training them how to use influence, the power of persuasion made it possible to raise o
There is an interesting lesson here, a parallel to modern times. It is not difficult to extrapolate a similar set of circumstances in today’s corporate culture where we have level after level of arrogant, vain, amoral graduates of Wharton and Harvard who’s only moral imperative is promotion. Quality customer care, any sense of what the purchasers of their products experience day to day is as remote as a star in another galaxy.
We can imagine it going something like this. The word filters down from the top, from the CEOs of Ford, GMC, Mercedes and most of the other manufacturers; “Who will rid me of these meddlesome owners and their constant complaining about defective automobiles. Who will fix my damn balance sheet?” Down through the levels of ambition, avarice and arrogance, the character of the leader is transmuted and translated until it reaches the bean counters, the accountants.
There the justifications of corporate cruelty and avarice are made real. Two choices are placed on the scales of corporate profit and loss. Here are the numbers used to justify an execution of corporate torture you and I wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy.
Note: Various studies have found that the percentage of lemons manufactured is between 1% and 10%. In California alone, approximately 1,500,000 vehicles are sold every year. These numbers are fairly conservative.
If the manufacturer handled all of it’s defective vehicles fairly—such as buying back or providing the customer with a new vehicle—this would be 37,500 lemon vehicles X $50,000 (approximate total cost of vehicle). This would cost the manufacturer $1,875,000,000. In case this is too many zeros to comprehend, this is almost two billion dollars. As Senator Everett Dirksen said, “A million here, a million there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
Average total cost to the manufacturer to buy back a vehicle:
· $50,000 Manufacturer buyback cost
· $25,000 Loss of value to manufacturer due to defects and lemon labeling
· $5000 Cost to manufacturer of warranty repairs before lemon disposition
· $2,500 Legal costs to manufacturer aside from attorney fees to settle case
· Approxiamte Total costs: $82,500
If we assume that 2.5% (it could be higher but doubtful that it is lower) of all vehicles sold in California are lemons; this is 37,500 vehicles. Currently approximately 2,500 lemon law cases are undertaken every year in California. As the bean counters might say, “Let’s do the numbers.”
Here are the numbers for the manufacturer to settle 2,500 lemon law cases. This would be 2,500 times $82,500. The cost to the manufacturer is $165,000,000 million. If I can do these numbers, you can be sure Ford, GMC and Mercedes have people who can do them far better. One can hear the accountant’s conclusion as clear as the thump of the guillotine falling on some pathetic Frenchman’s neck. “Well, there it is boss. There is no profit in settling these cases.”
Accountants and actuaries at the various manufacturers know the actual numbers very well. They know just as the bean counters at Ford knew the Pinto was a bomb waiting to explode and still said nothing as families were burned to death on the highways and byways of America.
The bean counters make their calculations based on the following concept. “If you have a group of consumers, each with a lemon vehicle, how many have the fortitude, the aggressiveness and the know how to go after the manufacturer and get what they are due via the lemon
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