The entitled consumer.

I'm back from haiatus, friends! And what better way to get my feet wet again than with a timely rant? I would like to talk for a little bit about something that's really been peeving me lately: the entitled consumer. Entitlement is quickly shooting to the top of my Most Awful Human Traits list, and nowhere is it more evident and prevalent than on the internet.

As many of you know, I work in communications, and I spend a lot of time on the internet. For the most part, I'm a big believer in social media and I tout the pros of online interaction with friends and strangers on a daily basis to earn my keep. Social media is awesome. The internet is awesome. But sometimes, it can also become a catch-all for some really unappealing human behavior - especially when it comes to entitlement and consumer griping.

Recently, I feel like half the things I read in people's Facebook streams are about how much they hate this or that business, organization, or website. And not just how much they loathe these businesses, but how these businesses are mistreating and abusing them. I understand that people like to share their experiences, good and bad, with their network of friends, and I do it too. It's just that lately it really feels like more than just complaining or "having a bad day"-type whining. It's this whole consumer attitude of, "How dare this company do X to me, personally, and wreck my first-world life?" And I have to say...I'm sick of it. 

For example, how about the whole Netflix/Qwikster debacle? First Netflix raised prices. While I agree that the way this change in pricing was announced was less than smooth, asking people to pay a few more bucks per month for an unbelievably underpriced service seemed fairly reasonable to me. But the people, how they moaned and groaned. Then, when the company announced it would split its DVD and streaming services into separate companies (Netflix and the unfortunately named Qwikster), it was anarchy. People swarmed the interwebs to let all their fans and followers know that THEY WEREN'T GONNA TAKE IT. They were ditching Netster, by god, for DARING to charge them more money and change their business model. I'm no fan of the name Qwikster, and I'm skeptical as to how long the company will stay afloat under this new business model, but for my money, I still can't watch movies any other way for a better deal...so I'm sticking around. And not complaining.

Then there was Bank of America, who announced that they will begin a monthly fee for debit cards. OH, HOW THE PEOPLE RAGED. "We're switching banks!" they hollered in anger. Now, let's stop for a second, kids. First of all, it's $5 a month. It's not like they're going to charge you per swipe (which really would be an issue). And banks are businesses, not free services for the people. So they're going to charge you money here and there. Paying $5 for the luxury of swiping a magical card doesn't seem so insane to me. - probably because I'm still amazed that I get to manage all my accounts and bills via BoA's fairly amazing online banking system. Also, people fail to see the value in time saved. It wasn't so long ago that people had to actually GO TO THE BANK to obtain cash with which to spend money...or, horror of horrors, WRITE A CHECK. Do you know how much TIME that takes? And guess what? You can run off to another bank, but I'd check the news first. Several other banks have mentioned that this fee may be in their futures as well. And let's not forget, changing banks is a GIANT PAIN IN THE ASS. I would say it's worth the $5 a month to not have to deal with the hassles involved in a bank change. Imagine if you went to all that trouble to avoid the $5 fee, and then your new bank started charging? Then you'd REALLY have something to yell about.

And last but not least, there's Facebook. People just love to bitch and moan about Facebook making tweaks and changes to their site that require users to spend all of 3-7 minutes learning something new in order to use the site, or even MORE dreadful, read the privacy settings and think for a minute about what they're posting. To all of the people of the world who are whining about Facebook, a reminder: Facebook is free. You don't have to use it. You can feel free to scoot on over to Google+ where things are simpler. Of course, you'll be very bored if you do.

If you don't like your bank, change it. If you don't want to order DVDs from Netflix, don't. And if you don't like Facebook's game-changing, innovative website, then by all means, LEAVE. But I am so tired of consumers going on and on and on about how this or that company has done them some sort of personal harm by changing their policies. This is America. These are FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS, and you have the power to fix them. You can CHOOSE your service provider. And, happily, if you can't seem to find a way to stop whining about how some company's updated business model ruined your life, I have the power to un-follow you. 

Comments

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=9363059]

I think it's how the transparency of the Internet works. I used to keep an online diary (back before the days of blogging). If you were to go back and read it (it's all still there) you'll see that it's very negative. Maybe its because I was in a much different place in life, but everyone else keeping online diaries at that time was also mostly negative. We love to whine and have people feel sorry for us, I guess?

[FrustratdWriter]

I know some people have good intentions and righteous indignation. And yes, companies can get greedy and go way overboard sometimes, and they need consumers and their investors to rein them in. But that means that consumers/investors need to pick their battles and use their voices **wisely**. I also feel this has gotten out of control.

I think some people forget: Businesses are in business to make money -- not give you things for free (or next to free.) They also have employees and responsibilities to take care of, in addition to having to cover the expense of providing a good/service. And if we are talking about a publicly-traded company, their investors also expect them to make a profit (and all of our 401K/investments, etc., depend on that too.)

It makes me crazy when people buy $3 socks at Walmart and think that's reality and everything should work that way because the reality is -- that stuff was very probably produced by slave labor, or near-slave-labor. A lot of us are completely ignorant of the true costs of production for a good/service -- we **say** we want companies to pay truly living wages to their workers, respect environmental standards, live up to legislation that governs fair penalty charges, etc., etc. ... but then we complain like crazy when a streaming video company changes its rate structure. OVER. IT. Personally, I don't want to watch my money disappear either... but I kinda wish I knew a lot more about whether my money was supporting things I believe in, like child-free and voluntary labor, environmentally responsible/sustainable production, living wages, etc. That way of pricing & operating is NOT the standard, and that's scary to me. To me, this is a place where I wish investors and consumers would start holding more companies accountable, and using their voice. It's important.

In the same vein -- Honestly, I also get tired about people bitching about paying taxes, and acting like taxes should be $0. Yes, I don't want to pay a lot in taxes and will vote against ones I don't like. But please -- we live in a (relatively) civilized society. There is a price tag associated with maintaining that. If someone wants to live in a lawless society free of tax burden, they can go live in a super slum in Southeast Asia, or perhaps a warlord-owned section of another continent (where they may need to pay bribes just to stay alive), or perhaps an island that'll serve as the perfect set for Lord of the Flies.

People forget: There is a price associated with having things. Whether it's government or business, it takes people and resources to make things happen. And there is a price tag associated with that, whatever "that" is.

We get what we pay for.

[Cory Ellen]

I don't necessarily agree with people squawking over facebook or Netflix changes, since they are affordable or free services that provide something meaningful to the user.

I would disagree with the BoA example, though. The banks needed a huge bailout because there was and is something inherently wrong with the way the banks are structured and linked to the government, not because consumers weren't paying enough fees. The banks created the problem, took billions of dollars from the American people to fix the problem (because they are "too big to fail"), and immediately tried to turn around and give a substantial portion of that money to their CEO's as bonuses: good job on ruining the economy, more money for you! At this point, the consumer rightly suspects something fishy when the banks ask for more money, because historically they have abused our trust. So it's kind of about a $5 fee, but I think it's more about the fact that consumers feel burned, and thus very hesitant to feed more money into a system that clearly values its own financial gain over the well-being of its customers. In the long run, $5 is not a lot for an individual, but $5 x 12 months x millions of debit users = tens of millions of dollars for BoA every year, and that is significant. The fee is more a symptom of a systemic problem than a problem in and of itself, and I don't think it's wrong or a mark of entitlement to be concerned or frustrated about that.

[Jay]

I think people are skeptical of the big banks, but we're naive if we think they are simply service providers and not for-profit companies. And I confess: I wasn't making a lot of noise to my congressman as bills to deregulate banks and make M&As easier. If someone if making cookies I don't want but I don't speak up, I get cookies I don't want. I can whine about how I wasn't asked, but if I had any influence (and voters do), where was I?

Airlines are the same. All I see is people complaining about added fees. I wonder how all these occasional flyers would profitably run an airline. I think they might find things a bit more complicated than they assume...