Reputational Suicide - Nearly Instant Karma
I wrote a post on Levi's jeans two months ago because all of the pairs of jeans I had bought within the last year had torn, pockets came apart or failed in another spectacular way.
I had posted a picture of one pair that came apart in the crotch and told a story of how I bought ten pairs and all had failed except the one I was wearing at time. Well that last pair just came apart near, but not at, the seam. I will snap a shot of that catastrophe below if I have room.
Since that time, I have been trying to find some good jeans and have bought a pair here and a pair there in an attempt to fine one brand that actually holds up to the rigorous work I do. I sit at the computer and do remote computer work on-line and it can be brutal on pants.
While in the process of buying test pairs of jeans, I ran into a Levi's store at Abasto shopping mall and went inside. I told them about the near 100% failure of the jeans I had bought, now 100%, and he said that Levi's don't do that. I would agree from all my life experience, they had never done that.
I then asked him if his store was affiliated with the one on Viamonte and he said it was.
I promptly told him that the jeans I was talking about were actually Levi's and I had bought them at their sister store. Then I shook my head and walked out. As I said in my last post. This country is full of stores that offer products that look like the real thing and are not.
Aside from that...
I have another pair of pants that I bought here in Argentina that are still quite good and they are well over fifteen years old. I cannot find any label or other identifying marks on them, inside or out. If I could, I would have bought that brand and given it another try.
I am not sure if they are knock offs that these places are selling or if the Levi's company has begun to fail in more ways than the obvious 'Bud Light' and 'Target' companies have recently. I had hoped not,
but it is quite likely that their quality is gone as are their morals.
Karma
About a week ago, I went down Viamonte street heading elsewhere and I past by the store that I had dragged my kids into and bought them the same kind of jeans I have been wearing for more than 30 years. I was not planning to go inside, but I did notice they had changed their sign and decor...
Who could have guessed that after just a year or so of charging "good jeans prices" for bad jeans, a store would suffer from "word of mouth" syndrome.
Yes, when people pay high prices for a recognizable name and have their close come apart as they walk to or sit at work, they tend to learn their lesson. People talk and clothing places who often survive only on repeat business lose those repeat customers.
Real Denim does not do this....
Like the others, this one also failed in the part that is nowhere near the seam. I had not planned to write to Levi Strauss & Co. about this since I have moved to the south side of town as it relates to the globe (or disk if you prefer), but I may want to bring some franchising heat on the people who are doing this for massive profits.
They may listen. If not that is okay too. Either way, the brand has lost its luster for me. I remember when I was fifteen and my mother bought me K-mart brand clothes and I had gone out to shovel snow and cut grass to have the good stuff. Those memories are toast now.
Next, someone will tell me that Chevrolet is not quality any longer. What is this world coming to?
Here is another shot of the scene of the crime.
I am sure all the folks that were robbed here are passing by and thinking that someone got their just desserts!
Hard fought reputations
There are many, many companies and established iconic household words, so to speak, that have opted for deception or depravity. Among the ones that have torn down their reputations for who knows why are; Levi's, Bud Light, Target, CNN, MSNBC, the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize, Time, Forbes, Google, The US Dollar, PayPal, CloudFlare, Patreon, and numerous others who did the unthinkable and will never have my respect, money or clicks again. Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
What would possess someone to toss decades of success out the window in order to sway opinions, cover up the crimes of others, award the unworthy, or deny service to people who are voicing their opinions or expertise? One article I read calls out scandals saying, "the “misbehavior” really has reached the level of pathology." but the article does not speak of companies mistreating their customers. It talks about people betraying their oaths and morals.
It comes down to one thing. People who never put in any time to build a reputation, tend to use the company reputation for their own purposes as if it were a napkin. But you cannot just 'get another one'.like you can a napkin. It is also a bit like a father who leaves his fortune to the kids who spend it all in a year or less as if they can just get another father to work 70 years and build another fortune that they can squander.
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