> > Pay lots of money, get good service? I wish I
> lived in
> > whatever world you're in. It sounds nice.
>
> Why yes, it mostly is nice here, thank you :)
So where's "here" in this case?
> Seriously, although cost is never a perfect
> predictor of service
> level, there does tend to be a correlation
> usually....after all, if
> nothing else, if you are ripping someone off that
> badly, you want them to come back for more!
This does make sense. Sadly, what I've found is that there's a positive correlation only where service is specifically what's being paid for: going for the club lounge on a ferry crossing, that sort of thing.
If I'm buying a specific physical item, the place that charges the most is also the one staffed by ignorant idiots with no interest in their customers (assuming you can even find one such ignorant idiot to buy things off). Most big stores, really. Go to a small dealer, and they know what they're doing, they'll give helpful advice for free, and the product is cheaper, too.
As far as I can see, the economics of this makes no sense whatsoever. But then, I never did understand economics.
The psychology probably does make sense, though, if you assume that service levels are provided by the employees simply because they feel like doing it. Being part of a small team makes you feel more "empowered" (sorry!). So the small company provides better service because they're just happier people who take a pride in their work.
(Hmm. This implies that we should shop in Sartar, not the Lunar Empire. Sounds about right.)
Of course, what we're looking at here is buying the same product from the same (small) company but in fancy packaging. I've never considered doing this in any other circumstances, so have no standards of comparison.
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