When did paying more start getting you less?

This week on I’m Okay Being a Karen, we’re talking about something millions of us deal with but rarely question anymore: paying more and getting less.

This episode takes a blunt look at the state of customer service, why accountability seems to be disappearing, and why customers deserve better when they’re paying premium prices.

Have you noticed the same thing, or am I just being a Karen?

Get in touch at imokbeingakaren1@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to I'm a public care. My name is Sterling, and here we talk about daily life, real situations, and the exact moments that test my patience. So grab your coffee and join the conversation. I've noticed something lately, and I'm curious whether you've experienced it too. Does it seem like companies keep charging us more while giving us less? Today I want to talk about Amazon. Not because I hate Amazon, because truthfully, I'm probably one of their better customers. But that's exactly why this bothers me. When I pay for a service every year or month after month, I expect that service to be delivered. Years ago, Amazon Prime felt revolutionary. Need something today, same-day delivery. Need it tomorrow? Done. Didn't qualify for that? No problem. Two-day shipping was practically guaranteed. That reliability became the reason millions of us paid for Prime instead of just ordering elsewhere. Well fast forward to today. Now the product page says expected Tuesday. Expected. Well expected isn't a promise, it's a guess. And when the expected date comes and goes, nothing really happens. No explanation, no accountability, just another updated expected delivery date. The standard has quietly shifted. The price of Prime has continued to rise, but the service that justified paying for it has slowly disappeared. And that's where my frustration begins. Then comes customer service. Or should I say, the obstacle course that's pretending to be customer service? Before you ever reach a human being, you're pushed through chatbot after chatbot after chatbot. Tell us your issue. I don't quite understand. Here's an article that doesn't answer your question. No, I do not want another FAQ. I don't want to type my problem six different ways. I just want to talk to a person. Call me old-fashioned, but if I'm paying for a service, I shouldn't have to fight artificial intelligence just to explain why that service wasn't delivered. I think technology should make life easier. Instead, too often it feels like it's designed to keep customers away from actual employees. And even when you finally reach someone, many companies, including Amazon and plenty of others, have outsourced customer service overseas. Now let me be clear. This isn't about people answering the phones. They're doing the job the way they've been hired to do it. The problem is the system. When there's a heavy language barrier, when the representative struggles to understand what you're saying, when you struggle to understand them, and every response sounds like it's being read word for word from a script, the conversation stops feeling like customer service. For me, it becomes customer frustration. Sometimes I spend 15 minutes or more just trying to explain the issue before we can even begin solving it. And that's not efficient, that's exhausting. Companies will tell us that outsourcing outsourcing saves money. And I understand that. Businesses have to control costs. But here's my question if you're saving all this money, why do my subscription prices keep going up? Why am I paying more every year? While customer service gets harder to reach, shipping gets slower, and policies become more rigid for the customer. Where are those savings going? Because they certainly don't seem to be coming back to the customer. Somewhere along the way, businesses figured out something important. Most of us will complain and then keep buying anyway. Why? Because convenience is powerful. Amazon knows it, streaming services know it, cell phone companies, insurance companies know it. It's easier to tolerate declining services than it is to completely change where we shop. And companies count on that. Here's what bothers me. We've become conditioned to accept lower standards. Long hold times? Normal. Chatbots instead of people? Normal. Missed delivery dates? Again, normal. Higher prices every year? Unfortunately, normal. At what point did we decide this was acceptable? Maybe we didn't. And maybe it happened so gradually that we barely noticed. Now I'm not asking for perfection. I know packages get delayed, weather happens, warehouses get backed up, and mistakes happen where people are involved. That's life. But when those things happen, I expect transparency. I expect accountability. And I expect to be able to speak with someone who can actually solve the problem. That's what customer service is supposed to be. Not another automated menu and not another scripted apology. An actual solution. So here's my Karen moment of the week. If you're gonna charge premium prices, deliver premium service. Don't advertise convenience while lowering the standard. Don't replace people with systems that make customers work harder. And don't ask customers to keep paying more while giving them less. Because eventually we notice. What do you think? Has Amazon changed? Have you noticed customer service getting worse across other companies too? Or am I just becoming that person yelling at the clouds? Let me know. I'd love to hear your experiences. Until next time, remember, just because a company can charge more does doesn't mean they should deliver less. Thanks for listening to I'm OK Being a Karen. I'll see you next week.