From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 9 July

There was a time when dog-eared customer service manuals decreed the shopper was right, always – even when they were wrong! Times have changed, radically.

THESE days, it is caveat emptor: ‘Let the buyer beware’.

Invariably, product complaints are met with indifference, disbelief, and even an accusation of bullying! The onus of proof rests not with the merchant, but the customer. Some shop assistant’s accusatory tone falls marginally short of labelling the complainant a liar, and a pest. The seeming ethos is simple, “You pays ya money, ya takes ya chances!” A threat to take your custom elsewhere is water off a duck’s back.

The first reaction from establishment management is not to sympathise, but to demand a proof. Evidently, the decreed modus operandi in such circumstances is to ask, insolently, “Do you have a receipt?” Experience has shown Aldi to be one of the most uncooperative. The degree of disinterest borders on blatant antagonism. Often times, annoying customer enquiries are heard while the shop-assistant continues to stack shelves, indifferently. Eye contact with the customer is the last resort, and occurs reluctantly.

On one occasion, the spurious argument for a refund refusal was a missing barcode on the receipt. I listened, but said not a word. Instead I stared incredulously, unblinkingly, with widened, hostile eyes. Without further ado, the matter was resolved in my favour.

Apps – a shortening of ‘applications’ – have become the bane of our inexorably, technological lives. By design, I ignore them wherever possible, and not because I am a luddite, but rather because I lack an implicit trust in their infallibility. The obstacles with the City of Ballarat parking app is a specific and galling example of a lack of civil regard. If the public complaint reports are accurate, and there is no obvious reason to doubt their veracity, then something needs to be done to resolve the impasse, and urgently.

The stories of customers being overcharged and then fighting for their refund is disquieting. There are those customers who have been charged for a full day of parking when in reality they were in situ for a specific period of time. The problem it seems lies not in the stars, but in the app, which is not a sentient being. It is an electronic device and vulnerable to failure.

For municipal staff to summarily dismiss customer complaints with hubristic implacability, and to contend user fault since they may have failed to halt the app, is totally outrageous. It begs the question: Has civility truly descended to the base point where one is punished for a genuine mistake?

To compound the felony with a request for a statutory declaration and time-consuming paperwork is a nonsense. According to those who specialise in such things, the app was ill-conceived and always destined to fail.

It could be argued, a palpable pall of workplace discontentedness has engendered a prevailing malaise whereby many are prepared to do unto others what they would find disagreeable, even objectionable, were it them.

However, it is not all bleak. There is a joyous, perverse humour to be found in navigating the trials and tribulations of supermarket shopping.

When I enquired as to the lack of chicken wings for the dogs, I was informed they were a seasonal product. Detecting a possible anomaly, I enquired, “And during which season don’t chickens have wings?” The callow youth stared, vacantly. Sensing our conversation had reached its natural conclusion, I turned and went. The opposition supermarket provided an abundance of chicken wings.

Roland can be contacted via [email protected].