In this second episode of the “It’s a trap!” series, I’ll tell you about something that happened at an internet café.
I needed to scan a deposit slip, and as soon as I finished lunch I was already thinking through my options. Where would I find a shop open during lunchtime? I wondered. I eventually found one a few meters from where I had eaten. Great, I thought—I had solved my problem.
I went into the shop, which was very elegant and had an innovative advertising setup. Since the computers were along the sides, there was a shelf in the middle with several magazines. It served to:
- Keep customers in the shop, browsing the displays.
- Give internet users a little privacy, since it formed a barrier that partly blocked the view from one side to the other.
- Keep customers occupied if there was a line for a single cashier, so they would not get bored.
I was already impressed by the innovative design of the place! I went to the counter and asked whether they scanned documents and how much the service cost.
The attendant told me the price was R$1.00 (one real). He scanned it, and at the end told me he had copied the file to one of the users’ computers. That was when I asked if the price would stay the same. He told me the charge started at R$0.50 (fifty centavos) and would increase depending on how much time I spent. If I remember correctly, it went up after half an hour of use.
I told the attendant I was not interested in using the internet access service. I only wanted the scanned image on my flash drive, or for him to email it to me—the scanning service.
At first he said that would not be possible. I did not understand. Why couldn’t I plug my flash drive into the USB port on his computer and simply copy the file? I took his answer in stride and said that the digital world was much more flexible than the physical world (since it does not involve concepts like space, gravity, and other factors inherent to physical objects), so digital services should be as flexible as possible, with as many options as possible to make things convenient for customers.
He seemed a little confused, but then said he would try to email it to me. So I added a legal argument. I told him that trying to force me to receive the scanned image by making me use a second service (computer time) was classified as tied selling under the consumer protection code, and that it was illegal.
Each service or product must be independent of the others, so customers are free to choose.
Here is a simpler example, using a chocolate bar: Suppose I ask for a chocolate bar and am going to pay one real for it. The seller tells me I can only take the bar if I also pay for a scoop of vanilla ice cream costing R$0.70 (70 centavos), making the total R$1.70. That is tied selling: I can only get one product if I pay for it and another one as well. In my case, I was not allowed to get the scanned image on its own.
Back to the internet café attendant: he got a little mixed up trying to send the email because he had forgotten the password, so he let me use his computer to copy the file.
After all that back and forth, which took about ten minutes, I finally solved the problem in about 25 seconds. I copied it to my flash drive, paid R$1.00 for the scanning service, thanked the attendant, and went home.
I do not think the attendant intended to make the service more expensive. I could tell he was a little unprepared when it came to basic tasks like sending an email. But what kept me there was his effort to understand me, despite the difficulties, and his willingness to accept my suggestions.
The lesson here is that traditional processes and procedures in digital environments and services tend to make customers feel suffocated by unnecessary bureaucracy.
So different media call for different procedures.
The second lesson is that we should read more about our rights so we know how to make our case in an emergency.
To learn more about consumer rights, visit this site: www.direitodoconsumidor.org.
Best wishes to everyone. Until the next episode of “It’s a trap!”