Unamerican!

[orikes]

I just had a customer proclaim that Kodak was unamerican because we were 'forcing' her to buy a docking station to recharge the battery in her camera. This was unfair because she was an American and she should be able to do what she wants! And Kodak is just trying to scam her out of more money.

I had to put her on mute and just laugh as she ranted at me.

Comments

[7th-son.livejournal.com]

You can't do this to me!

I've got RIGHTS ya' know!

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

It killed me when she said that. "I should be able to do whatever I want!." Oy. :)

[pomr.livejournal.com]

KODAK IS un-American; it is a multinational corporation. Its roots are in America though, specifically in New York. :)

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/corp/historyOfKodak/1878.jhtml?pq-path=2699

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Hehe. :) That's pretty much what we tell people when they complain about having talked to a foreign call center rep. I also usually point out that it's something that all companies have been doing since it's cheaper for them and to compete in the global marketplace, it's something even Kodak has decided to do.

[jengagne.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nice icon. I love S.A.C... may I steal a copy?

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Enjoy! Not like I didn't gank it from someone else. :)

[jengagne.livejournal.com]

Yes, and we're all violating copyrights, but so what. It's still nice to ask the person in the digital neighborhood who's most likely to notice me using it. ;)

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I'm not!

Well, at least not here with my icons. All my icons are my drawings. ;)

[megatonjustice.livejournal.com]

Actually Kodak is precisely American.

Kodak the company was begun when Eastman took other peoples years of research, made one change and called it his own. Then made hundreds of millions of dollars.

Break it down in economics the next time. She can always spend $8 every time her camera batteries die for lithium celled AA's that last for a couple hundred shots at max. In less than twenty charges it's paid for itself.

Stealing people's stuff, claiming it as ours. Charging people for the privilege and explaining why it's a good deal.

Yep, that's pretty American.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I pointed all of that out to her. I'm like a broken record about batteries.

"We do not recommend using AA batteries. The camera is a small computer and uses a great deal of power. If you look in your manual, it recommends you use lithium or ni-mh rechargeable batteries or crv3 lithium batteries. They will work much better in your camera."

Of course, her complaint was that her old Sony camera used to have a cord that let her plug it into the wall and it would charge the batteries without taking them out of the camera. She thought it was only Kodak that didn't do this and it was our stupid decision to try and bilk people out of more money by making them buy a dock. I finally told her to do a little research on the current camera market and she would find that not many actually do the charging technique that her Sony camera used to.

[jengagne.livejournal.com]

What she SHOULD have done was paid a bit of frickin' attention when she went camera-shopping and said, "Gee, I want to make sure the camera has a rechargeable option without needing extra equipment..."

Kodak's docking stations are perhaps the best known examples in the camera world, but I mean... what if she bought a modern PDA? You need a docking station to charge THOSE, too.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

If people actually did a little research, it would probably cut my calls down by a third. Whether it's a pre-sale call where I basically read to them off our website or a new camera where they won't read their own manual, some people are just lazy.

Then again there are the teeny tiny percentage who know more about the damn cameras than I do and call up to point out inconsistencies in the manual.

[megatonjustice.livejournal.com]

Haha my day job has times when I wish I could just hit play to get through speils too.

Everyone tries so hard to be a well informed, intent consumer, that most don't realize we all end up asking the exact same questions.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

The girl who sits next to me accuses me of sounding like a recording. Even if it's not scripted, I still end up saying the same thing over and over again.

[pomr.livejournal.com]

I SO do that! There are simply certain turns of phrase that I use over and over again. The reason? They work! :)

[niherlas.livejournal.com]

My Canon (S410) camera has a custom-size batery which requires an external charger.

Granted, they bundle the aforementioned charger, but there you go. External charger.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

All of Kodak's cameras that come with a custom battery (Most DX, Z, LS, V, and P series cameras) come with some method of recharging the battery. Some come with a dock, some come with a wall charger. This lady, though, bought one of the C line cameras which is the consumer line, so they use AA size batteries.

I think the non-hobbyist public sees the non-standard batteries and thinks that's bad, assuming that if the camear takes AA batteries, they'll always have batteries. So the companies keep making the lower end cameras use AA batteries. Unfortunately it's not that simple. The damn things eat power like energy is a hot dog at a hot dog eating contest.

[niherlas.livejournal.com]

Assuming that you use good rechargables most of the time, it's actually very handy to have a camera that uses standard battery sizes. In a pinch, you can still walk into the local drug store and buy a pack of cheap AA's to see you through until you get back to your charger.