Word: detroits
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...company that does succeed in providing prompt and efficient service, the rewards are well worth the effort. Starting in 1903, Detroit Edison Co. began giving customers free light bulbs, largely as a publicity stunt, soon went on to free electric cords and fuses. Last year the company sent 275 repairmen on 160,000 fuse calls, 138,000 stove-service assignments, 456,000 other appliance missions, charging nothing for labor and only for parts totaling more than $1. The company knows that nothing cuts electricity sales faster than a dead light bulb, a dead dishwasher, a dead freezer. And though...
...appliance industry can also learn some other important lessons from Detroit Edison. The company's repair experience has turned up frequent evidence of poorly made, badly designed appliances. Plastic knobs, handles and moldings often break almost as soon as the appliance is unpacked. Many appliances are unnecessarily hard to service. The company found one hand iron that took 40 minutes to take apart. Some modern toasters are riveted clear around, require $2.50 worth of labor before the serviceman can even get to the works, much less repair them. Many so-called "built-in" ranges and washer-dryer combinations...
...less than appliance men, Detroit's automakers are fully aware of the repair problem. A Ford Motor Co. poll showed that 94% of all car buyers will return to the same dealer if they get good service, only 21% if service is bad. When Ford set up its new Edsel division, it realized that it would be hard to sell cars without expert service. Ford set up a complete garage where $1,000,000 worth of prototype cars were torn down and rebuilt to lick all servicing problems before the first Edsel was sold. Says Edsel Service Manager Harold...
...DETROIT'S SOFT SPOT this year will be sales of heavy-duty trucks, i.e., more than 19,500 Ibs., which are off 11%, will total about 197,000 for the year. Makers point to tapering off in industries that use big trucks - home building, cement, aircraft...
Diamond Needle. In Detroit, Eugene W. Bader, 11, was awarded $250 in damages after he was bitten by a cocker spaniel during a sand-lot baseball game when a twelve-year-old girl, rooting for the other team, sicked her dog onto him as he was sprinting around the bases on his home-run smash...