AT a car rental office at Los Angeles airport, the concerned employee was late by about 40 minutes to prepare my rented car. I was surprised when he gave me the keys of a car, which was much superior to the one I had booked, and offered me a remarkable discount on the daily rental price. The irony was I did not even notice the delay and so was worried by it. Nor did I expect to be compensated for such delays. However, this was an expression of apology by the company for the delay even though I did not complain about. This is the culture of respecting the consumer, which is normal in all business sectors in the United States. I asked an American friend about the secret behind this deep-rooted culture. He told me that companies are competing to achieve customer satisfaction. He also said the awareness of consumers of their rights has further consolidated this culture, which has accumulated over the years and has become part of life in the US. On the same day I read the Saudi Railway Organization (SRO) had compensated the passengers of a train, which was late by two hours. It reimbursed their ticket prices and transferred them to another train to complete their journey.
