The inspiration for this column started with my outrage at a specific company called Polaris. They abandoned our market up here in the Adirondacks due to their rather inane and insane policies. I’m hoping someone at the company will read this and either make good or at least kindly offer corrections. Hey, maybe I’ll write another column praising your response.
    The owner of the local Polaris dealership retired not too long after I bought our snowmobile. I understand why he didn’t tell me: if you do that you chase away customers.
    Sure seems we will NEVER get one back. No you have to haul your sled 60 some odd miles to get it serviced and there are some items my local Cat dealer and non-dealers can’t handle because, well, like some car companies Polaris wants to make it so only THEIR dealers can service their machines. Dealers must must sell and service.
    Why no Polaris dealer coming here? Because the company insists dealers must have big expensive buildings stocked with lots of expensive product, and in our very rural area no one can afford to do that.
    We are snowmobile country. This is one of the areas where people in the Utica, Syracuse, Herkimer and Watertown, NY go more than other locations to snowmobile. We have miles and miles of trails going to fascinating places like Beaver River: a town with no roads going to it.
    Seems like a horrid business model. Seems that they’re basically raising the nasty finger at their own customers. And “cuss” is what I have been doing a lot of when it comes to business lately. Especially as the years go by snow season gets less shorter and shorter and some years there’s not enough snow. That’s down from 6 feet and 40 below not being abnormal.
    I tried to get it fixed across the road at the Cat/Yamaha dealer. But he doesn’t have access to the tech or the parts. Sure be nice if dealers like this could at least have that access and be certified to work on Polaris, even if for a reasonable fee. Not for what they would have to pay to be Polaris only.
    I admit I am not happy with where the industry has taken snowmobiling. Snowmobiles used to be family friendly off road vehicles that could take two people to so many places. ALL snowmobiles used to what they call “2 up.” That means 2 people can ride. No reverse but they were so light you could lift them up and flip them around. No heated handle bars… yeah, they’re nice… but you can wear good gloves or mittens in most weather and be OK.
    So to make more money most if not all sleds are now one up and you have to pay extra for two up.
    This is not some just one “businesses giveth then taketh away” policy that only applies to snowmobiles. NOT EVEN CLOSE.
    Microsoft… all my computers came with Word. Now I’ve got to keep paying hundreds of dollars over the years to get and keep it.
    This business model is what I would label, “The Scam.” It’s kind of like you’ve been willing to pay taxes for police protection: which is part of our taxes, and the mob takes over the police department and forces you to pay protection money to get the “protection” you had while still paying taxes.
    ”Hey, that’s a nice computer you got there, but if you want what used to come with it to keep working ya gotta grease the palm.”
    ”Hey, we’ll sell you a super heavy sled that will freeze to the ground causing belt problems and will go over 100. But offer 2 up so someone in the family can have fun too? GREASE THE PALM.”
    When it comes to grocery stores, gas stations and other businesses, anyone else think that if you have to get some loyalty card to pay less that means the prices might be inflated? And if they partner with another business and you have to use 2 cards the prices are even more inflated? Two business ganging up on you to assure loyalty. Don’t use the card(s) and you get over charged.
    ”Hey, unless you’re loyal to both of us you-ah gonn-ah pay out da nose!”
    A snotty thing to do, eh?
    Nissan, my old mechanic used to tell me, deliberately makes odd size belts and other very specific items mess up the after market. They seem determined to make sure those who buy Nissan only get serviced at Nissan, a problem if you live some place like we do 60 to 100+ miles away from a dealer,
    Back to Polaris, but not just Polaris-related, if the company would assign repair shops and supply them with parts and the information they need that would be a step forward, and show they ARE interested in keeping their customers, care for their customers. Let those shops do warranty work. But it’s as if companies like this want to go out of business, or at least hate their customers.
    If you work at my very un-local dealer this is not targeted at you. I imagine their policies also drive ya crazy too.
    Then you have government collusion. Example: Sirius bought out XM. Now they say there’s still is competition, but not in the satellite radio business. Satellite radio is a MONOPOLY. And they charge accordingly.
    You would think some entrepreneur in some of these cases would start a company that sells services and/or products that give back what we once had. Example: snowmobiles. Make them like the old ones where they’re not so expensive, aren’t so heavy, no reverse but so light in the back they can be flipped around, give us back the 2 up and maybe even offer a 3 where a young kid could also go with the family. Doesn’t go 100+ miles per hour, but will go bout 40 to 50. No suicide sleds:. Hey, your ski catches something or you go down a hill at the wrong angle and you could lose your head… LITERALLY, or at least your neck.
    Break neck speeds on snowmobiles literally ARE break neck speeds. Nothing to lose your head over… oh, wait, never mind. ‘Never mind?” Oh, a pun… my word.
    I was in business offering a product: entertainment, for 30 years. Always made a profit except one year when a mechanic blew my engine. Not a lot, but profit. I had the same policy Studebaker had, “Try to give the customer more than they asked for.”
    Studebaker went out as a car maker for many reasons, one being they were competing with other businesses that increasingly didn’t have that model. Didn’t care if the aluminum block was not like M&M’s: WOULD melt behind your back, was unstable, would catch fire if rear ended. My father told me on his deathbed that even when he was employed it was getting like that even for employees. Not paying venders or making good are signs of a bad and scam business, as Stude found out when they vended out to GM for body parts.They were all made wrong and then GM told the plant that made them not to respond to any calls from Studebaker.
    I ALWAYS got paid, even if I had to drive hundreds of miles to get a check or dangle a lawyer in front of them.
    But since I was a kid, IMO, business has leaned more and more into Scamsville, and too often in competition it’s the bad boys who survive by sabotaging the good guys. And screwing over their customers.

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    “Inspection” is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 50 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
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