Quote:
Originally Posted by Hydroglen
I don't think BCL was selling a defective product. ...
The BIG issue was the lack of a satisfactory answer to the client and by
sayng he was the only one to complain, it was sort of blaming the customer.
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First a nationality comment: In America the ethos on customer support is consumer heaven because it is a culture of generosity and excess. If something is wrong, they replace it or refund your money, and if they have screwed up they give you a gift to say sorry. In contrast, in England, the culture is one of scarcity and deprivation.
This is a direct outcome of the Norman Conquest where the winners confiscated all the wealth of the nation, and then allocated just enough to the losers for them to survive and keep the economy running. Over the generations, the losers (Anglo Saxons, Celts and other pre-Normans) began to integrate this scarcity mentality into their belief system. When money took over from land as the core definition of wealth, this scarcity mentality was so deeply embedded in the genetic make-up, that it continued even as the losers became wealthy. By wealth I mean all the food and clothing one can imagine, a warm home that one can own, education, suffrage, freedom and means to travel more than 10 miles from ones birthplace, an infinite choice in entertainment, etc. This embedded national psychic damage can be baffling as well as maddening for any non-Brit when they go to buy something from an Englishman.
The American attitude is lowest price, best product, best relationship with customer and give something away for free. The British attitude is highest price the market will bear, provided of course we are paying attention to price, eccentric product, relationship? what's that have to do with business?, and even if it was free to us, we'll charge you for it. Gradually this attitude is going away as GB plays in the global market and learns the new rules.
So our friend Eric is first of all encountering a cultural roadblock. He just doesn't get it.
Next distinction has to do with size. In a company the size of BMW, one has thousands of engineers and business types all working like a bee hive to make sure that everything works with precision. In a company the size of Bristol, we are remarkably reliant on the knowledge carried around inside the skulls of a few gentlemen. Not only that, but instead of just focusing on the last 10 years of their product (which is all that is required by law), they maintain a knowledge base that expands each year, going all the way back to 1944. Clearly this is not a business. These gentlemen do this because they are British. It's like cricket.
On the one hand, this is both charming and delightful, as well as useful. When one needs to know something, first-hand knowledge is there. On the other hand, it can result in the sort of problems Eric encountered. While it is easy to puff about how this is bad form or incompetence, in fact, it is a natural outcome of the structure of a small company. It is why small companies do not survive in the car industry. Bristol survives only because their price tag is not governed by competition, they have a niche.
In the end, Eric is applying the wrong standard. He should accept that in owning a Bristol based product he is working with a small group of enthusiastic men who have chosen to work to keep an eccentric, distinctly British icon alive, and as such, the problems he has comes with the territory. He can prod them to do better, and no doubt that will help in the specific case of the missing hole, but overall, these sorts of things will happen because of the inherent nature of small businesses that do their own engineering (if you doubt this, try buying software from a small company).
I do note that Eric has not complained much about the Arnolt Motor Company which is where he should be focusing his ire. After all, they commissioned and sold the products, Bristol was merely a wholesale supplier. Of course the reason he does not complain about Arnolt is death... both the owner and the company died. And that is the point. He is targeting Bristol because they are still in business, and he throws their own aspirational words back at them when they fail to attain.
Eric, my advice to you is to sell up, move on, and select a marque that has no survivor. Bond with a vintage restoration place that will make from scratch whatever you need and have more fun and less angst with your hobby. After all, vintage cars are not a necessity of life. We play with them to have fun, to enjoy the company of other collectors, be it racing, or the more genteel jaunt across the countryside enjoying bucolic vistas whilst stopping in a country inn for a meal and glass that brings great joy.
Claude