Tioga Herald

Best Buy Geek Squad people, upon a visit to fix computers at home, told me that my laptop, purchased from Best Buy in early 2019, had to be fixed by setting up an appointment at the local Best Buy. It has taken me some time, but today, I made the attempt schedule an appointment by calling the Vestal store of Best Buy. I was told the local store is not answering the phone and was transferred to centralized scheduling. I can’t talk to a human being about what is happening. No. I have to speak with someone who is sitting in a chair somewhere. Not that person’s fault, but if I mention that I don’t like this being tossed somewhere else and not able to speak with the local store, I get hit with, “I am having trouble hearing you.” Thanks. Thanks Verizon for your lousy American phone system, too, because I face this quite frequently. They don’t face such problems with Internet and cell phones in socialist democracy, Denmark. They don’t face such problems in capitalist democracy, South Korea or Taiwan (yet communists in China wish to take over Taiwan and do to those people what they have done to people of Hong Kong). The American feudal system modeled after Medieval economics with supply side economics really sucks when considering big business in America.

But this customer service person at Best Buy, who actually spoke with me with an American English accent, was mean and rude to me for my wishing to speak to a local person. She ignored me when I said that there is a better return on investment for Best Buy if they worked that way. Another example of people of America who don’t know one damn thing about what capitalism is about and just brush it off.

I have the appointment and now have to drive to Vestal. A monopoly called Best Buy and I will be damned if I can find local businesses who will compete with Best Buy and provide better service.

According to Barbara Ehrenreich (i.e., books, Nickel and Dimed, Natural Causes, Bait and Switch, Living with a Wild God, Had I known) discussed how much Americans are being nickel and dimed, yet they think everything is peachy when it comes to the cost of goods and services. Ehrenreich makes me think about this current situation I face. She also makes me think about my dad’s small business which big monopolies have destroyed, as well as others which are similar to my dad’s business. In other words, Americans, blinded by big business conglomerates, go for supposed enlightenment regarding “high-volume purchases in retail and the wonderful idea (false) that it’s all about selling at a lower price.” Wrong. This is true about lower prices. But in the process, big corporate monopolized industries have ended up jacking up exponentially the cost of servicing such products with “warranty” coverages and at-home visits with a minimum of $100 or $200 per visit, plus jacked up prices regarding parts and services. The big fat cats and fat pigs at the top and those owning most of the stock end up making a bundle, as they close local offices, ship jobs of customer service overseas, and doing centralized customer service with no concern for “bedside manners” (to borrow a phrase about medical doctors) and give praise and honor to the thought of being like used car salesmen.

Corporation after corporation does this. And this is supposed to be good for American consumers when corporations no longer provide the products and services in one bundle (to borrow a phrase from Progressive Insurance which “bundles” its insurance). Instead, some very good corporations, one which is facing bankruptcy and uses the bundling situation as an excuse (any excuse will do, right?), hiring third-parties to do the service and nickel and diming the customers in the process. Meanwhile, customers believe they are doing so well in paying “lower prices?” BS. They are losing out, while small businesses which bundled products and services together, are being trashed by big corporate conglomerates and no one has the balls to challenge the big corporations. Thus, with Best Buy, we don’t have local competition to give the company a run for its money, so the customer service can treat its customers like dirt (or s**t?).

And the “third-party” approach for service does not accept credit cards and insists on same-day payment, rather than a bill and then pay it. They evidently think they are HMOs or PPOs which ask for a set co-payment price at the time service is rendered. However, even in cases of health providers accepting HMOs or PPOs, they accept credit card payments.

And consumers face the sublime to the ridiculous. Those who insist on immediate payment for services rendered and those who refuse to divulge the cost of the services and let them pile up, perhaps to see how much they can grab at the financial balls of the consumer and strangulate them?

Once more. An America with no concern for fellow Americans, allowing the “bedside manners” to go to hell. One more time and I am speaking out against this development in America, the land where I saw many of these things in a much better light than today. America needs an attitude adjustment. Sad to say, but I definitely don’t like a reliance on the lawyers who make themselves careers from ambulance-chasing and government politicians in government. Lawyers who make so much money, even like McConnell in the U.S. Senate, from ripping off the taxpayers while having huge salaries, the best health benefits, and the best retirement benefits. May they go to hell as they get delight out of pitching one American against another. As I said. America needs an attitude adjustment, but no one seems to care to pursue the solutions to make this happen. I am mad as hell and ain’t going to take it anymore. These are lawyers on the take from big business/industry monopolies who destroy capitalist competition and then support this lousy status quo.