^ They started doing that a few years ago. Instead of raising the price of two quarts of ice cream they just put less in the container and hoped no one would notice.
Customer Service is dying, but not at my local motorcycle shop:
Today I participated in a fantastic group ride up to Bodega Bay and back, but the day didn't start out well. I arrived at Berkeley Honda Yamaha, our start point, only to find that on my way down the zipper for my Tour Master saddlebag had failed! The bag was hanging on by the zipper pull, but it had dropped onto my hot exhaust pipe and melted through to the lining of the bag, leaving a bubbly sticky mess of hot vinyl. I tore the bag off the pipe, but I didn't feel good about doing a long ride if it could happen again - also, I was pissed that my two-week old saddle bag was ruined and would have to be replaced. I took the bag inside and talked to one of the guys, actually, I think he was the same one who sold me the bag in the first place. He didn't even blink an eye - they would replace the bags right there on the spot. I had no receipt but he said, "Don't worry about it, we back up our customers" and less than a minute later they brought a new set of bags out to the lot. As he took the melted bags away, he said he would "have a talk" with the Tour Master rep when he comes in next week.
Now, that was enough to win me over as a repeat customer, but the guy came back. He had noticed that I didn't have any bag supports on my bike. I don't really need them because my small saddlebags rest on the fender support and rear suspension. The bags have nice soft backing, so I'm not worried about the finish. Well, he figured I could use a set anyway so he offered to order me some saddle bag supports for 10% off. I gave him my card and he went to order the parts while we did our pre-ride briefing. He even asked his "detail guy" about the best way to get the melted vinyl off the pipe.
Berkeley Honda Yamaha has certainly earned my repeat business. They could have told me to come back with a receipt and sent me on my way with a faulty bag, but they took care me so I could make my ride. They really went above and beyond by offering me the accessory at a discount for my trouble.