We have all heard it. “The customer is always right.” It is the statement that seems to be somehow still live to this day and has that old-fashion 1950’s business feel to it. Unfortunately over time, the reason for that statement has changed.

“The customer is always right” used to mean, make sure you give the customer good customer service and keep them happy. At least in short that is what it meant, even if you had to bend over backwards a bit for them, but in today’s day and age the term means something more like
“the customer owns you in this unfair world”.

Dreamco Design happens to pride itself in good old-fashion customer service and that is something that is fairly rare today, especially in the web design industry. Typically web developers are some of the worst service minded people and thousands of people that have tried to build a website can relate to that statement, unless you got one through us of course. But the real point here is that we don’t want to live by that “customer is always right” term, we want to live by “let us impress you but let’s keep it fair” mentality.

“The customer is always right” today means “my god, please don’t charge back or I will lose my merchant account.” Now many of you might be like, OK, what the heck are you guys over at Dreamco Design talking about? NO we didn’t have a bad experience, and YES, our merchant will brag about how amazing our track record is. What I am talking about here is that statement in general, not just in the web design industry.

Most people don’t know about it, but by simply flipping over your credit card and calling that number on the back side, you can dispute anything that you have purchased. It doesn’t matter if it was a TV, a box of staples, a website, a bag of potatoes, or a tricycle. Basically most credit card companies just allow you to simply call them within a window of 90 and sometimes up to 160 days and just simply say “I am not happy, I want my money back” and the credit card company won’t even hesitate to argue with you.

Don’t believe me? Well, I am not urging you to try it. Some people still have morals and in my opinion this is out-right theft and taking advantage of someone but the fact of the matter is that you can make that simple call, and literally 9 times out of 10 you will have no issue at all. Don’t believe it? Look up merchant charge-back accounts and statements. Go apply for a merchant account and read the terms and conditions. American Express even ADVERTISES THAT YOU CAN CHARGE BACK! There was a commercial with Ellen in which she didn’t remember if she purchased 1 or 2 socks so she was just going to call AMX to dispute a charge. Yes people, it is getting that ridiculous. The world of credit cards have such a dirty river of money running through them, they are permanently tainted the pretty colors they come printed in.

Why would the credit card company want to upset you. You might take your business and your high interest rates somewhere else and they wouldn’t make as much money from you! So you are probably wondering, what happens on the other side of the equation? Well, basically, merchants get flat out screwed. Even if someone disputed a credit card charge they did not recognize, then suddenly remembered what the charge was for and then called back to cancel the charge-back, the merchant that did the charge has a negative item on their merchant history and the money was deducted from their account for up to 75 days.

Can you imagine pulling up to your bank on a Thursday morning and you go to check your balance and it is $10,000 less because someone didn’t remember if they paid you or not so they called the bank. Then they called the bank back and said, oh yea, I remember, sorry, but then your $10,000 is gone for 3 months! Yup. That is what happens. Why do you think companies like WALMART will let you return a bike from 5 months ago with a flat tire and a bent frame? Do you think it is because they want everyone to be happy? No! It is because they cannot afford a charge back because they could lose their merchant account and the only thing that could put Wal-Mart out of business is if they couldn’t take payments anymore via credit card.

Just think about it. Think of the warming trend over the last 10 years. Over the span of the last 10 years more and more companies have turned to just a “bring it back and we will give you your $ back” mentality. The last 10 years have also seen more credit card growth and usage than ever before. The two go hand in hand. Merchants aren’t trying to always satisfy the client, they are trying to keep the credit card providers happy and it is sick but guess what, no one can do anything about it. The monopoly created by credit card companies is just as bad as some giant oil companies. You simply have no choice as a consumer or business owner unless you want to basically become a Mormon.

So what does all this mean? Morality and fairness need to fight back. “Treat others the way you want to be treated” has a better ring to it than “the customer is always right” in today’s day and age. If people would just smarten up and be fair the world would be a much better place, and not just with credit cards.

Categories: Web Design - Service