Companies ‘delivering’ poor quality, our expectations and standards

A few weeks ago in America, some 20,000 pieces of undelivered mail were found hoarded in a US postman’s garage. The missing mail is said to have included many important documents such as cheques, bills and official letters.

Thinking about the implications of the undelivered mail bewildered me. It’s an absolute outrage that this happened! What if something extremely important went missing? One assumes that when mail is posted that it will reach the destination in a timely manner, un-tampered with. This is the trust we place in our postal service. We expect high quality, we expect high reliability.

Why is it, then, that we accept sub-standard performance from other organisations and institutions? Many times we are unhappy with a service provided to us; the quality of a product; or the timeliness of a delivery. Why do we not hold other organisations to the same standard as we hold the postal service, in the example outlined above?

It’s unfortunate that companies, institutions and governments get away with so much, unscathed.

Do you agree?

5 Replies to “Companies ‘delivering’ poor quality, our expectations and standards”

  1. Many times we are unhappy with a service provided to us; the quality of a product; or the timeliness of a delivery. Why aren't organisations held to the same standard?

    Confusing sentence please re-write.

  2. The more personal a service. The more you expect.

    Post- Personal
    Plumbing- Not so much
    Photo printing- personal
    Buying a book- Not so much.

    They may be crappy examples. But the point it that if you are potentially loosing personal letters and information you are going to have a more emotional attachment and therefore response. A service such as plumbing is more basic- therefore less is expected.

  3. In a word: yes. It's unfortunate but it's almost as if society as whole as come to accept the unreliability of government. Sadly this unreliability and deception seems to be the defining characteristics of politics nowadays. But then again, hasn't it always been?

  4. @Christa

    The point I'm getting at is WHY do we have to put up with this? If your plumber does a crap job (no pun intended), why is it acceptable? And more-so, why is it expected?

    I'm at the stage now where I expect poor service from the majority of organisations I deal with. It's a surprise when I get some decent customer service.

    I find this unfortunate. How do we change this attitude? Can we?

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