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Don't Fix What Ain't Broke [1]

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Date: 2023-03-22

While at the Mosaic hospital yesterday for a pre-surgery preparation:

[Nurse’s name removed here] the nurse overseeing the testing process of my blood, blood pressure, etc.—and I were talking about the major issues with the new software release to which Mosaic Hospital has transitioned, and how technology development protocols I knew in my day were to test, test, test before releasing the software. That obviously didn’t happen at Mosaic. It’s not just the patients having issues logging in to see correct messages and test results—it’s within the hospital where the staff are having enormous problems getting data entered, only for the page to disappear or the data disappears, can’t print, on and on and on. [And I have been to the hospital about four times within the last 30 days, and each time, the staff in the various departments have been having issues dealing with the new software.]

That’s when I brought up the issue with buying a Maytag w/d set, and that there were some things that don’t need technology; that in washing my clothes, the technology gets in the way of progress. As I began describing my experience, her mouth dropped open, and she was nodding her head yes. I stopped, “What? You know of another situation like this?” That’s when she said a friend of [her mother, I think it was] had the very same issue. She said they had to call every-frickin-day harassing the warranty department to replace her set, which eventually happened after 3 months of calls. [name removed] advised me to start calling them every other day or everyday until I get the washer replaced.

***

While heading home, I began to wonder that the number of junk machines must be huge, because what are the odds of running into someone who also knows someone who suffered the same experience? In the same town? In a hospital of thousands of staff? Sure, it could be a fluke, but after what I’ve read so far of others’ experiences, the number of junk machines out there must be enormous. And Whirlpool is forcing everyone to buy their mistakes so they can keep the money coming in. Like the Ford Edsel.

I also wondered how and why software protocols were ignored when dealing with the health safety of the people. One would think that of all work environments, the utmost responsibility would be the starting point of protection from death and bad health, meaning information needed prior to starting surgery is paramount to surviving it. I guess it’s because I have extensive background in designing and writing for customer service protocols, which has made me more aware of it. And I’ve noticed over the last 10-15 years how customer service has been relegated to minor priorities at most larger companies. I remember back in the day when it was clear that customer service promotes future sales and less expense dealing with frustrated customers. But now it seems like the operational attitudes are ‘hey you’re lucky we deal with you at all’. It’s short-sighted, and it will come back to bite them. It’s biting them now, but they’re too self-involved to notice it. I’m 70 now. Those now old enough to be designing the development of products are what’s termed in marketing as the ‘millennials’, aka Generation Y.

“In popular culture, millennials are often described as self-centered and obsessed with social media, winning the unflattering nickname ‘Generation Me.’ On the other hand, some evidence suggests they are more altruistic than their apparent social media habits would suggest, as they exhibit an openness to change and concern over environmental issues.” https://www.bamboohr.com/resou.../hr-glossary/millennials.

Altruistic? Openness to change? There’s part of the problem. Baby Boomers were called the same descriptions—Age of Aquarius. It comes with being young and inexperienced during a time of mass communication abilities. Except millennials are trying to change everything just to be doing it—as if it’s just to look busy in front of the boss—then release it to the public at our loss. There doesn’t seem to be forethought as to why some protocols were enacted in the first place, i.e., experiencing the issues that caused the protocols to be enacted.

“According to a 2019 global survey by Deloitte, millennials view world travel as more important than buying a home, and making a positive impact on their community is a higher priority than starting a family.”

Travel more important than buying a home? That says no stability, and what comes with instability is lack of regard for anticipating the outcome of their actions and decisions. ‘You got a problem? Too bad and bye!’ I have literally been experiencing the authorized Maytag repair service in this town as not wanting to hear or deal with the issues the customers are suffering. And for me, have reached a point of threatening me to take my warranty away!!

But their situation is also impacted by this lack of concern and service companies are experiencing the same disregard as the customers. They’re not provided enough time to do the job properly. Their phone rings all day everyday, and all of the calls are angry customers. It’s exacerbated by the fact that Maytag (Whirlpool) service department leaves the repair services hanging online for extensive periods of time, while the service company still has the phone ringing off the wall. And this is just one town out of thousands across the country and probably the planet.

I looked up who is running Whirlpool. The CEO is Marc Bitzer, born in 1965 in Germany and whose work experience is in Europe up to about 2006. Not a millennial, since he qualifies as a Generation X—termed the neglected generation and latchkey kids, since at the time of their births both parents had to work in order to afford a decent life for the kids. I have a projected feeling that Gen Xers are thinking the young, having the most energy, would have the best ideas for their own generation of buyers (which explains the quirky advertising we see with companies like Progressive Insurance, for example). And would a person born and trained in another country other than the U.S.A. be experienced in the reasons for established protocols that used to protect USA customers? Don’t know the guy and haven’t researched him, so it’s a guess at this point for little ole me. Educated speculation at best.

Bottom line: Whirlpool is tricking potential customers into buying what Whirlpool knows are badly designed junk, and they’re using old branding programming in advertising that no longer applies to reality, and they do it to hide the reality from potential customers, followed by creating steps of how to continue to trick the customer about the bad design until the customer has gone beyond the warranty.

Yes, Maytag used to be the most reliable machines out there, because they were made to be reliable. But not now, and it hasn’t been for several years. Claiming it is reliable in their advertising by using old branding is nothing more than blatant lies to the public.

Profusely lying seems to be the new mode of operation in this country now.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/3/22/2159704/-Don-t-Fix-What-Ain-t-Broke

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