By Bill Walsh

Other Voices

For years, I have been dutifully filling out quality assurance surveys from manufacturers of all types who ostensibly cared about my enjoyment of their product, and their desire to make it better. I became suspicious when my numerous comments and constructive criticisms (most, brilliantly insightful, I might add) fell upon non-responsive desks. Pretty soon I stopped filling them out.

Several years ago I became more cynical when the car salesman who sold me my car told me that I was going to be getting a follow-up questionnaire from the factory to assess my sales and product training experience. He further explained that he was in part compensated by his report card resulting from my response, and if I wouldn’t mind, would I please give him 10s in all pertinent categories. Somehow the objectivity of it all came into question. All of a sudden I saw an image of cars being designed by figure skating judges.

This week the industry kicked it up a notch. I received a personal letter from a local car dealer apprising me of the fact that J.D. Power and Associates would be contacting me by survey to assess my satisfaction with their service program. They reminded me that the manufacturer was ranked “completely based upon these survey scores” AND (here’s where it gets really good) “… your score on this survey could directly affect the resale value when it comes time to trade or sell YOUR car.” My question is, am I being blackmailed, coerced, or at least compromised? What is the logical conclusion of this masquerade? It’s like women walking around telling each other how good they look after putting their makeup on in the dark. And who really pays for these ridiculous surveys, me?

Walsh is a Los Altos resident.