As a Customer: the dilemma with mediocre cheap alternatives

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What are cheap alternatives? In my case is any airplane flight by Delta or Ryanair. Other examples of such products or services are: winter clothing, sport apparel, laptops, designer and architect services. All of them are high in cost (and can’t be consumed periodically), however you can find cheap alternatives, that for some people might be good enough. The big dilemma is not how much you are saving, but are they really cheaper or good enough? Evermore, is how big is the risk compared to the benefit of finding out if they are good? Here is example:

Recently I took a transatlantic flight with Delta (part of it operated by Air France), from Sweden to Honduras and back. At the moment, this was was the cheapest flight I could find. Overall, the services was really bad compared to my previous flights with British Airways. First, the planes that took me from Paris to Atlanta was uncomfortable. Clearly the design of the seats and screens was not for long haul flights. Second the stuartists where not as friendly, however the worst thing is that when going and coming back, my luggage was delayed one day. In Honduras I had to go to the airport and pick it up the next day, in Sweden it was delivered to me. It was pain, it was inconvenient and the risk of me losing my stuff got higher. What will had happened, if my luggage was lost? Means that the trip will have actually cost more than a proven but higher in cost, such as British Airways.

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Was my case a anomaly? I don’t think so. I was warned before about Delta delivering the luggage  a day after. My theory is that this saves them “fuel money”, by sending the heavy luggage with other airlines. However, me elaborating on it will derailed me from the point of this post. Which is:

Companies that offer you a cheaper alternative in a competitive market, generally will  shave indirect costs from other places, which will contribute to providing a cheaper alternative, but lower in quality.You will not be able to find out how bad the quality is, until you used it.  Or sometimes they just sell you the most basic and functional part of it and charge for all extras.  Same happens with winter apparel. Cheap jackets could only last for a couple of winters, then you will have to buy a new one. Also with architects and constructors, sure they can build you a house at half of the market price, but at the end your house or flat will have more deficiencies if you agreed to pay the market price. At the end of the day companies discriminate their customers through prices: you want the good stuff, pay for it, if not then settle for the minimum and any goodies will cost you.

The dilemma is that sometimes you just need a jacket for a winter, or the inconvenience of the Delta service is just for a few hours. Tolerance becomes a habit and we start to make excuses for the companies! We consider them for the next time, instead of demanding high quality service.  Yes! It is also hard to complain to customer service and demand something back. Also, is so hard NOT to save 300 USD in a flight. Or we like to “gamble” and see if we are one for the lucky ones that get the mediocre experience (instead of the bad one). Like once I was told in a Negotiations workshop: humans are not rational beings.

Next time you are juggling with a decision on purchasing a cheaper alternative, ask yourself this: can you afford to buy the cheap one and the expensive one at the same time, because that is what most of the time we end up doing and worst is that we feel unsatisfied.