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by Joseph N. Bell
Art by John Massey
'hen i bought a new car a few
years ago, I became an un
knowing and unwilling guinea
pig for tubeless tires. I understand
they've been improved considerably
since then, but all the tires on that
1955 car quickly developed the alarm
ing habit of throwing large patches of
tread. Within several months, I had
scattered tires all over the U.S.
When the first tire disintegrated at
4,000 miles, we were far from home
and the dealer who had sold us the
car. I drove into a large service sta
tion advertising the offending brand of
tires and demanded my rights. The
dealer gave me a new tire at a liberal
discount charging me only for the
mileage on my old tire.
This seemed satisfactory the first
time it happened. But when the sec
ond, third, and fourth tires collapsed
in much the same manner, I wanted
no more of that brand. But it appeared
I was stuck with them. All the dealers
told me glibly:
"We'll be glad to give you a dis
count according to the wear on your
used tires. But we can't give you your
money back or sell you any other
brand of tires. You won't have any
trouble with the new ones, anyway."
But I did have trouble. I'd gone
through seven tires all the same
make when I told this sad story to a
friend. He looked at me pitiably.
"What a sucker you are," he said.
"The same thing happened to me
with the same tires. I put up with it
the first time, too. But the second time,
I told the dealer I didn't want any
more of that brand that I wanted my
money back instead. He refused. So I
III
It I ' want to keep you as a customer, :
Vi so fyu nave a Sine gripe, j
DTT
"When they replaced the first
tire, I was satisfied. But when
three more collapsed, I de
manded a complete refund."
called the factory from his office, got
an assistant sales manager, told him
what had happened, and he instructed
the dealer right then and there to give
me a refund on the tires."
Since that day, I've quit being a
patsy for people who are selling in
ferior products or services. Not that
I'm obnoxious about it, but when I
get short-changed, I complain loud
and long. And I've found that in many
instances the people responsible are
honestly glad I did. Oftentimes they
had been losing customers without
knowing why because the customers
meekly refused to complain about a
poor product or inadequate service.
Most Americans are first-class
chumps when it comes to demanding
their money's worth. The present gen
eration has been pushed around so
much during depression years, war
years, and shortage years that they've
fallen into the mental slough of a per
petual seller's market whether one
exists or not.
This is especially true where serv
ices are concerned. During periods
when we had to take it that way or
not at all, we became used to shrug
ging off poor service from hotel room
clerks and bellhops, bcz drivers, wait-
Lt: i i ii i
cia, tauuics, m eci iuh its, ana an suris
of tradesmen to name but a few.
Now we've been beaten down for so
long that we continue to take it on
the chin without a murmur of legiti
mate protest.
Recently my daughter saved pen
nies from her allowance to buy new
batteries for her bicycle headlamp.
After only a few weeks the light ex
pired, and when I took it apart I found
that one of the batteries had leaked
acid into the framework of the lamp.
So I packed up the defective batteries
21 Family Wrakly, Novrmber 30, If St