The shopping equivalent of a smash and grab

I’m a difficult customer. I know I am. When I pay for a service I expect the best, but then I usually expect to have to pay a little over the odds for it. I’ve been tempted recently to buy some commodity products based on price alone. Who wouldn’t?

• What difference is there between the car insurance on a price comparison site and via an insurer direct? My car is still covered and I won’t get into trouble with the authorities.
• What difference is the plane seat I pay £10 for and the one for £200? Both will get me there.

As consumers we’re being educated by companies to chase the deal, close the deal and get out of the store as fast as we possibly can. As consumers, not many of us realise that it’s the shopping equivalent of a smash and grab. Seemed like a good idea at the time but the consequences afterwards can be significant and – here’s a thing – we only have ourselves to blame.

An ASDA customer received an online quote and proceeded with insurance. The customer then sent the ‘no claim bonus’ form as requested but then they charged an extra £300 as the customer’s form was unacceptable and further no explanation was given. The customer decided against proceeding with buying the insurance so was charged a £50 cancellation fee.

If we buy a £10 plane seat and turn up at the airport with bags to check and get charged for it, who can blame the airline? How can the economics of a human being transported hundreds of miles at less than a train fare possibly stack up without having to charge for additional services? With 200 people on a flight at £10 each the airline hasn’t covered the cost of the fuel to take off, let alone the cost of the cabin service staff, the plane, or the people flying it.

No-frills airline Ryanair might want to send its staff to charm school, following research that shows travellers are fed up with its poor customer service. The budget carrier took a hammering in the Kaizo Consumer Advocacy Index, a twice-yearly survey of major brands. Comments from 280 websites were analysed, based on whether the customer would recommend the company. Ryanair came bottom of the rankings with minus 40 points. Poor service and extra costs – the airline charges £8 to check in a bag – were among the biggest complaints. Even British Airways did better, despite the disaster of the Terminal Five opening. Virgin Atlantic took the top spot, with BMI coming second.

When buying insurance on price, Fully Comprehensive is a catch-all for your own car being insured as well as those you might bump into. The only thing which is comprehensive is the varying range of insurance levels which could be included in ‘Fully’. As far as insurance is concerned, we only tend to have an issue with the cheap product we have bought when we have a negative experience we never expected could happen to us.

The house next door to me burned down. If I’d known then what I now know I would never had bought the insurance products I did, or indeed have bought house and contents insurance through two different companies.

In both instances – and there are many more examples – we get annoyed and frustrated with ourselves for having been duped. Companies have ‘educated’ us to buy from them fast and loose. They have woken up to realise that this does not necessarily translate to long term economic success – 0% interest on credit card products have created huge contingent issues in that industry. The process of re-educating that those amongst us who are high risk need to pay more is well underway.

More and more bad customer experiences which have been driven by low prices are being blamed on the companies who sold us the products. People who don’t do well in life blame their lack of success on others and blame it on their education. It is someone else’s fault my life is so terrible. It’s someone else’s fault I bought a cheap product and had an underwhelming experience.

Not true, the only person who is in control of the situation is you, the consumer. Those amongst us who are successful (by whichever yardstick we measure our own success) question, challenge and get rewarded accordingly. The kids who make it to university are the ones who challenge the question and refuse to accept things at face value. Price is only one subject in a Fully Comprehensive degree course.