..And a cup of loyalty, super-sized

I don't know what has happened to customer service in this country. It seems that nine times out of ten, some company really couldn't care less if I'm satisfied. I feel like consumers are taken advantage of all the time.

I remember when I bought a huge 64oz refillable mug to take to work with me. It was from convenience store A and had their logo on it. One day, I stopped at convenience store B for gas and to fill up my mug. The refill cost 59 cents. The clerk saw my mug and told me for the same 59 cents, they'd trade my (store A) mug for a (store B) mug, and every time I filled up at (store B) with that mug, I'd get my refills for 49 cents.

I took the deal without thinking much about it, but as I was driving away, I realized "hey, they just bought my loyalty for 10 cents of soda!"

And it was true. I went there to fill up all the time after that. It wasn't so much the money, it was that they were TRYING to get and keep me as a customer. They treated me as if my small amount of business was worth their time. As a result, I probably ended up spending hundreds of dollars on gas there that would have gone to another company... all for an offer of 10 cents off soda.

What happened to the days when companies really competed for prices and tried hard to treat customers well? What happened to "the customer is always right?" It seems that many big companies have turned the other way and have teamed up against customers as if to say "what are you going to do about it?"

I for one am going to keep looking for those customer-centric businesses and giving them my business.