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More and more, I’m feeling like a boiled frog.

Why?

This is really hard to express but I’ll try.

First let me say that I’m not crying or whining at the state of the business that I’ve been involved with my entire adult life.  Things change and we must change with them.  Electronics repair has been good to me.  Very good indeed.  I’ve raised my children and put them through college, bought a nice house in a nice neighborhood and I’ve had the freedom and flexibility that can only come from running your own business in your own way.  I like my life.

There is no such thing as a self-made man.  You will reach your goals only with the help of others. - George Shinn

Without question I have had help from others and I have experienced good fortune for no reason of deserving beyond simply recognizing the moment.

I've heard it said that the best way to boil a frog is to put him in a pot filled with cool water and then slowly turn up the heat.  If you drop him in boiling water he may react quickly enough to hop right out of that pot.  You have to make him comfortable to get him boiled.

I’ve been comfortable for a long time now.  Things are pretty routine day in, day out.  Long ago I stopped wondering if there will be the “next” customer.  The water is so pleasantly warm.  Why would any self -respecting Froggy technician want to make waves?  So what if it takes a few minutes more to click on this button or that.  They pay regularly, they always have.

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.  Charles Darwin

I keep noticing things. Small things.  I spend more and more time each day on the computer.  More and more “Ts” need to be crossed, more and more “I?s” need dots these days.  Who did this before I did, I ask myself.  Did it even need doing before?  Before what?

 Does it feel warm in here to you?

Questions buzz like flies around my ears.  Everywhere I look there are unanswered “this” faxes and “that” emails.  Call your field rep for email support.  An unpaid claim is easy just call warranty. they’ll straighten it out for sure, I'm told.  Do you have the tracking number I’m asked.  “Did you get our fax yet”, comes another question.  That is in your service area according to our information says the customer service rep on line 3.  Detail after detail the temperature rises yet I'm still warm and fairly comfortable once I’ve gotten used to it.

The statements come in and the work begins.  Calls come in and the excuses go out.  A elderly woman asks for some of my time.  She deserves some kindness and I give her my time?  Unpaid.  The manufacturer told me to call YOU!  How nice of them I reply.  I sooth his rage.  Unpaid.  Customer relations wants you to fax them the receipt.  Customer relations wants you to fax them the details.  Customer relations wants you to fax them the receipt.  Again?  And again.  They said it would be covered.  They said that they would cover it.  No they didn’t give me any numbers.  No, I don’t remember who I called.  Can't you just call Circuit City and find out for yourself?  They said you should fax them.  Besides its  only three weeks past the warranty date.  No, I don’t have a receipt.  I don’t know the model number.  I bought a contract.  I thought home service means you will fix it here, in my home!  I can’t be without my TV for that long.  My kids will drive me crazy.  Every time I call customer relations I get someone I can’t understand.  Does anyone in that company speak ENGLISH!?  That's the last time I’ll ever buy another ______________ ! (fill in the blank).

Always look on the bright side of life. ? The Monty Python

They’ve credited that to your parts account?  I'm told.  "Did you get our fax?”, I’m asked.

I need to remind myself to get an RA# for that part.  Why is there a restocking fee?  It was ordered for a warranty repair.  Why do I have to pay to repair your faulty TV?  I didn’t get the RA label you said you would send me.  This TV is only three months old why are the parts “NLA”?  I did call my field rep and he told me to call you.  The model “extension”?  They use different parts in the same model depending on the factory where it was made???  How do I know that in advance?

 Tech support said to change all three boards, that's why.  I’m just doing what I'm told.  This time I've got you; I kept the conversation tracking number.

Is the air conditioner working yet?

What is in that unopened box over there sitting in the corner?  Tell Ms. Smith that I'll be an hour late.  The panel MUST have been broken BEFORE you brought it in.  Did you research the part numbers?  Did you check field support for tips?  Is there paper in the fax machine?

How does a man serve so many masters it’s not easy.  Ron Freeman

The next day dawns and the requests for additional authorizations fall behind even further.  Every “I” needs it's dot, every “T” needs to be crossed.  Sitting on the phone listening to the same tune over and over I wonder who is paying for this time.  We have increased our efficiency 10 fold in the last five years but only a 20 fold increase will do.  I'll eat lunch at my computer today.  A customer calls on line two.  She wants to know when her TV will be ready.  I'm on hold, afraid to move because I'll lose my place in line. "I'll call you back" I say.  I just created another job for myself without thinking.

What?  Me worry?  Alfred E. Neuman

The UPS driver, DHL driver and the FED-EX lady too, they all want a moment but they are easy.  I sign here and they drop at box at my feet Only later do I find out it's damaged or the wrong part or was meant for someone else.  This can’t cost me money could it?  But who pays for the time?  Go to the web site, print the labels, store the tracking number in the right block so that maybe, just maybe, one day when I’m asked to prove that I did what I said I did I'll have a number.  It seems a number that says what I did is more important than the word of a grown up human being.

Hello?  A machine asks me if I accept credit cards.

I open the mail and I find out that manufacturer “A” has reduced my rates again.  They have cleverly couched their words so it would seem that this will work for MY benefit. I've read too many of these before however.  I see right through it.  Under the words on the paper it says “take it or leave it!”.  Next envelope, next problem.  Manufacturer “B” will no longer pay for "re-solder" jobs.  It seems the sets are too well made for that to happen.  If I get called, and I go out on a service call, I better change a part or I won’t get paid.  Manufacturer “C” wants me to know that they have extended the warranty on models X, Y and Z?.  That’s nice of them.  Now retail repairs become wholesale repairs.  Worse still, if the part doesn’t comply with the strict description of the problem then it will not be paid for!!! I have to decide for them.  They get to decide after the fact.  I wonder if I have ever collected for a single repair once it has been denied warranty coverage.  No matter, I’ll just make the customer jump through the same hoops that I have to jump through.  They’ll hate me, I know, but customers are not important anymore it seems.

"Do you repair clock radios?”  A voice on the telephone asks.

The great virtue of free enterprise is that it forces existing businesses to meet the test of the market continuously, to produce products that meet consumer demands at lowest cost, or else be driven from the market.  It is a profit-and-loss system.  Naturally, existing businesses generally prefer to keep out competitors in other ways.  That is why the business community, despite its rhetoric, has so often been a major enemy of truly free enterprise.  Milton Friedman

Sometime during each day I find a moment to spend on the bench.  My bench.  My refuge.  A place where my mind can just relax and be without structure.  My thoughts can flow whichever way they would like to go while my hands and experience do their work.  I can create solutions to technical problems that have a beginning and an ending.  This is what I want to do. I?m happy here doing this. All the rest is for the money.

It's nothing personal, Sonny, it's strictly business ?  Michael Corleone to his brother.

Anyone want frog legs?


Ron Freeman
Village Electronics Service
2453 No. 54th Street
Philadelphia, Pa. 19131
(215) 879-2122 Fax:(215) 878-3258
ur.free at verizon dot net