Complaint Review: Lenscrafters -

What is wrong with business in America? In the old days, there used to be a sense that businesses won and lost. So long as the quality of service was good enough to keep the business fighting, they took a loss, knowing that they could have a clear come-back. That's called competition. Today the all-American business empire only wants to win.

Case in point? Lenscrafters.I bought a pair of glasses 3 months ago and they are already scratched. Sure, they have a 30-days no questions asked guarantee, and they also offer a 1 year protection plan for your glasses. But give me a break!

I chatted with their corporate office. They said they would have to check if I bought their protection plan. I had not bought the plan, and that's when all hell broke lose.

I told them that the previous glasses I owned, from the other stores, would last me anywhere between 3 - 5 years without a single scratch, and that I had given these glasses the same care as the others. In fact, I was cleaning them with a cleaning care kit I bought in their store. How it is then that these had a smudge in the middle of both lenses with only 3 months of use?

I told them that if I had known that the quality of their materials was so bad, to the point where they wouldn't even withstand the course of what an average user would expect, I would have bought a 5-year plan. Or better yet, I would have bought no glasses at all. Of course, they panicked and sent me to the store to get a free replacement for the lenses.

Has "programmed decadence" hit an all-time low?

It turns out that the problem is not in the glass material, but in the anti-reflective coating. Here again, business America is selecting cheaper materials, inefficient processes, and dirt cheap employees, only because they want to make an even greater profit than last year. They can't lose for once, and this makes the coexistence of the CEO, the employees, and customers, a cutthroat experience. Willing then to sacrifice the quality, and even putting people at risk, for that extra profit.

And then what happens is that you get a bad rap, people leave the brick and mortar store, and gravitate to other businesses that can still offer decent quality: the online store.

So typical of what is going on today all over America. Makes me think that even capitalism could be under siege. When companies like Boeing make decisions that costs lives, and that will most likely make their business fail. I don't want to ever hear that Boeing is too big to fail, meaning to say, that they are too important and must be salvaged. The online market is open to everyone.

Sadly, we are not living in an age of competition, but rather in an age of acute capital cannibalism; and this is reflected in all markets. What my dad use to say still holds true: "What seems cheap, usually turns out to be a lot more expensive."