How corporations rob the bank of humanity

Has something ever happened to you that has left you in a complete state of disbelief? Not in only in a how could this actually happen kind of way, but also in a how could we as a society have let this become the way we operate kind of way. Ok, we probably all have to some extent. The story that follows is one such case of this happening to me. I’d like to think it is a story filled with spills and turns and all sorts of Keyser Söze moments, but I hesitate to build it up that much… but while it was happening, it sure felt that way! I hope you enjoy it and try to do something to help make the world a better place as a result.

What happened (severely condensed)

In late January I was travelling for business, and my partner was using my 1 month old new car. She filled it up at a nearby Petro Canada, the closest gas station to where we live in Ottawa, Ontario.

Within about 20 minutes of driving, the car shuddered and stalled in the middle of an intersection, warning signs flashing that there was an issue with the fuel. A quick dash and a jerry can full of gas later, she managed to get it to the nearest gas station, but could move it no longer.

It was towed to a dealership, and after some foggy misdiagnosis, it was soon determined that the gas tank was full of 90% water.

Communication

Between the mishap itself and getting the diagnosis from the mechanic, I had spoken with a manager from the gas station. They were sounded legitimately surprised and confused about what had happened to us. They indicated they would take care of things.

The mechanic at the dealer reported that other clients had come in with the same issue, and had come from the same gas station. He postulated a theory that given a recent large thaw we had, it’s entirely possible lots of runoff water got into the station’s reservoir.

The car was at the dealer mechanic for the next 2 weeks, and we had a back and forth email exchange with a gentleman from Suncor to whom we were referred (who the entity known as Suncor was was never communicated to us, but through the process it became clear they are Petro Canada’s parent company). He asked for receipts and said for anything under $1000, they could pay it without a more detailed investigation on their part. The conversations were all rather transactional.

During this time, I was away from home and partner, and this placed me in a bit of a prone and helpless state. After not having the car for 2 weeks I was feeling like nobody was taking the situation as seriously as it should be, and certainly if I was there to experience not having a car, things would have been different (my partner has a car of her own). I was concerned my car would never be the same, and was also disappointed no one acknowledged the possibility for this to have been a much more serious result.

I played out the series of events as factually as I could, and indicated my disappointment for not feeling taken care of, but more importantly, I didn’t feel anyone was taking responsibility for what had occurred. This was all written up, and sent off to our contact at Suncor, and he assured me that someone from their team would contact me.

The return of my car

When I arrived home from my business trip, one of the first things I did was go pick my car up (it had been ready for a few days). The mechanic had told my partner that for what happened to my car we need not be concerned with long term damage. He did cite certain extreme scenarios where engines did end up getting replaced as a result of water in a gas tank, but he assured us that in our situation they were able to take care of things and we could expect no long term damage.

However, after starting it and immediately driving the car to the closest gas station and filling up, I was immediately confronted with the reality that all my night be well… it was still reporting being on empty. The sensor wasn’t working. I took it back to the mechanic immediately — they took a look, and indicated that perhaps they weren’t able to get all the water due to freezing and lack of access into the fuel tank. They recommended a fuel additive (from another dealer), and indicated if it didn’t fix it I would need a new fuel tank.

Shortly after this visit we got an email from the man from Suncor, and he indicated they had a cheque ready for me. He indicated they would send it after I signed an attached release form to get access to the funds. My layman interpretation of the release form absolved Petro Canada of any responsibility, indicated that it was in no way accepting responsibility, and that by signing I give up any rights to further damages being paid. Given the state my car was in at the time, I told them there was no way i could sign it. I was delighted and surprised when a short while later they said they’d send the cheque anyways.

Customer (un)support

I eventually did link up with a woman from customer support at Petro Canada to discuss the situation. She was very nice, but it was clear the conversation was not fully transparent.

She acknowledged the situation that had happened to me, in a way that I interpret as;

I acknowledge hearing the words that are exiting your mouth. I understand what these words mean. I understand that you have experienced some discomfort as a result of the words that you are saying.

But there was clearly no line between what she was saying and anything close to acceptance of responsibility. She indicated that there was no proof of the cause and effect of what happened, that an investigation was still outstanding, and that the result of the investigation would not be made public. She also said that it’s impossible to permanently damage a vehicle with water in the gas tank, indicating the things I was saying couldn’t possibly be true. I felt somewhat gaslit. (Get it? Gas? Gaslit? YES I SAID IT TOO oh boy what a feeling!! If you didn’t follow this part and take nothing else from this, please follow the preceding link and learn what it means!).

During the call she expressed a desire to know what they could do to improve. I was initially frustrated by the call and in my petty state not feeling a strong desire to help. But after a couple days of simmering I ended up compiling a retroactive wish list that I shared with her, an idealistic list that more or less would have made me a brand evangelist for Petro Canada had some of it occurred. Here it is verbatim;

When my partner initially contacted the gas station, the owners/workers should have a well established protocol for dealing with such issues (because obviously, they do happen)
It should include a complete care approach for the individual reporting the issue — apologies to the customer that something happened, an offer to pick them up / drive them to where they need to get to, or at least communication that they’ll receive compensation for travel expenses.
Offer to tow their car to the dealership of their choice.
An explanation of the process from here on in. Acknowledgement that however rare, mistakes do happen, and they’re here to take care of things.
Acknowledgement that they’ll send a free gas card equivalent for at least a few tanks of gas.
An offer to allow compensation for a rental car
An expectation for how long any investigations will take
Knowledge that if an issue is found, compensation will be available for all expenses and inconvenience caused by the issue

I believe the customer support worker when she said she would do everything she could to make it right. The important words there are she could. And I know, she really did want to make things right, and offered additional compensation to help make up for our negative experience.

I decided in that moment, additional compensation was not actually going to make me feel better or resolve the situation, and that ship had sailed. What I really wanted was an apology, and for them to take responsibility. I asked for this repeatedly on the call. And this was the one thing I was told they couldn’t possibly give me.

The bank of humanity

After some education and sharing of this delightful anecdote with close friends, the reality set in that corporations cannot take responsibility for mistakes. To do so, would open them up to legal issues that could cost them money. To me this is a nasty cycle. I’ll call it the Corporate Humanity Thievery Cycle:

An unlikely situation occurs at a corporation’s place of business that involves a customer, likely to be called a mistake internally

they cannot admit fault as that would open them up a legal can of worms to be avoided at all costs
they instruct their people to not apologize or admit fault, and to protect the company

The corporation tries their best to mop up the situation and make it go away, but don’t admit fault

This causes the good people that work for them to have to act in inauthentic ways

conversations occur where both parties are frustrated to a core level predicated on an absurd assumption that corporations are perfect
this leads to negative self esteem and lack of engagement on the part of the employees, lack of trust on the part of the customer, and a lack of humanity on all parts due to the dishonesty and inability to actually empathize

The customer is left feeling unsupported, with a negative view of the corporation

the corporation appears as like a faceless entity, a cold, inhumane organization that really doesn’t care about them or their experience

The corporation loses a customer, but perhaps avoids a large legal battle

lawyers lose in this scenario as well

The customer tells their friends and family about their negative experience with the company

the corporation loses more customers

The cause of the original issue could be solved internally, but the heavy trickle down effect of negative business has no real data attached, so could never be justified to make improvements to the system

the lack of transparency into these operations also further contributes to lack of any business justification to make improvements

Everyone feels more meh than when this started

Denouement

We live in a society that practically holds corporations to a higher standard than individuals. Yet corporations consist of a collection of individuals, with arguably far more chaos given their multitudes of bureaucracy and stymied communication paths. To think customer-affecting mistakes don’t happen in corporations frequently, if not constantly, is preposterous.

A corporation’s fear of negligence leads to wasted human effort and people spending their time not actually contributing to the greater good of humanity, but living in a protection bubble — protecting their jobs, their boss’s job, and ultimately the corporation… but at a cost being paid by the bank of humanity.

If it is not yet crystal clear I would like to make it so; I don’t blame the individuals I communicated with regarding this situation at any level — I’m blaming the system. I actually don’t specifically blame Petro Canada or Suncor here either, my unvalidated assumption is this likely happens at every gas station out there, and they’d likely all deal with it in a similar way.

This is a hard problem to solve, for sure. I will tender my naive and academic recommendation that could solve this and prevent it from happening again, from the ground up, within the corporations; a holistic customer success strategy. It’s really all in this book. Make the customer happy dammit, it’s your only job. I just happened to read this recently, and I’d like to think if they had taken this on, I’d be singing their praises rather than lamenting my lack of faith over the soulless business world.

Halfway through that last tank of gas, the gas sensor started working again. My car has worked flawlessly ever since.

Thanks for reading! If you’ve had similar situations like this — please share!

I actually have a lot of faith in the corporations of the future. Technology gives customers more options for singing their praises (and lamenting their failures), there are more opportunities for accountability, and sliminess of this variety need not be hidden behind a veil any more.

Special thanks to my lovely partner who bore all the risk, confusion, second guessing, and guilt of this ordeal. And for reviewing this post ❤️