Checking it twice

This morning I went out to run a few errands. At the first store, I impulsively picked up a few Christmas items that were not on my list but looked like a good deal at $17.95 each. Nice gifts for a couple of folks on my list. As I was checking out, though, the items rang up at $19.95 each. Huh. I could have taken a store employee over to the table and shown them the sign, but I decided just to not buy those items. Too much of a hassle. But it made me wonder how many people don’t pay attention to the price that rings up compared to the price you expected it to be. When I have more items, I’m much less likely to notice. Maybe $2 shouldn’t be a huge deal, but it is 10% more than I thought I was paying. I know what it takes to get a 10% return on investments, so I wasn’t caving in.

At the next store, I saw a sign next to a huge display of cute Christmas pillows that said “50% off.” I wouldn’t normally buy Christmas decorations before Christmas, because everyone knows you get a better deal AFTER Christmas. But 50% off is pretty good, and I could give these as gifts to folks recently moved into a new home. How thoughtful of me! I picked two and headed to the checkout line. (One was shaped like a gnome with a long beard made of yarn…SO adorable. Feel free to comment on my taste in decor.) But the pillows rang up full price! Oh, said the clerk, that sign was for the fleece blankets, not the pillows. This time I went back to check. Sure enough, in tiny letters under the huge “50% off,” it said “fleece blankets.” Of course, the fleece blankets weren’t on the large table display with all the pillows. They were on a shelf under that, at shin level, not even a foot off of the floor. Good grief. I left the store without making a purchase.

It is interesting to me that I had these experiences on the same day I read a newspaper story citing the record level of consumer dissatisfaction measured by something called the “National Customer Rage Survey.” Who knew we had such a thing? Apparently this study first was conducted in 1976, when 32% of respondents said that they experienced a product or service problem in the previous 12 months. In the most recent survey, taken in February of this year, 77% of respondents said they had such an issue. That’s certainly not the only thing that has gone up in the past 50 years, but wow! What a sad commentary on…something. The people doing the shopping? The stores themselves? The people providing the service? (Or not providing it, as the case may be.) All of the above?

Or maybe it’s a sad commentary on the people taking the survey. I’m not sure why someone finds it necessary to have a “Rage Survey” anyway, regardless of what causes it. What do people do with this information (other than write newspaper articles and blog posts)? I admit to being irritated about my shopping snafus today, but I wouldn’t characterize it as rage. I reserve rage for more important experiences, such as when I learn that my tax dollars are funding something as silly as a “Rage Survey” or our cable goes out during the Superbowl. (That didn’t actually happen. It was an hour before the Superbowl started. When we were about to have 40 guests who expected to see the Superbowl descend on our home. But that’s a different post.)

The American Heritage Dictionary defines rage as “violent, explosive anger.” Regardless of how annoying a product or service problem is, it seems to me that rage is a bit of an overreaction. But maybe it’s not that the people experiencing the issues are explosively angry, but that the people running the survey are describing them that way. Maybe it should be called the “National Customer Disappointment Survey.” It’s still not great that so many people are having negative experiences, but perhaps “disappointment” is a more accurate reflection of what people are feeling than “rage.”

I don’t disagree that many shopping experiences are less than optimal. I often feel like stores are trying to take advantage of people who are distracted by long to-do lists and don’t focus on things like mispriced items, and that once you in fact make a purchase the service options if something goes wrong are dismal. But goodness, let’s not make it worse than it actually is. It’s irritating, yes, and makes good fodder for conversation at family gatherings. (Well that is terrible, but guess what happened to ME at that store!) Beyond that, there’s no need to rage. We are blessed to have so many shopping options and I for one have too much stuff anyway. Of course, that’s not going to stop me from buying cute Christmas pillows for some friends…as long as they are at least 50% off.