How to loose customers

My 2 year old Magellan GPS needs new maps, unfortunately Magellan has decided that there is more money in selling me a new unit than supporting what they sold.

This may sound harsh at first, but one of the selling points for Magellan was that I could update the maps. I just tried to order new maps and was told that “we don’t support that model any more”. Magellan will give me a small discount toward a new unit for my now outdated one.

One question for Magellan, why would I buy another Magellan so that in 2 years you can tell me that you won’t support that one either?

There is an old adage, Once bitten twice shy.

In business it’s much cheaper to keep a customer than to gain a new one and almost impossible to get one back if you loss them. Each business has to decide if they want to keep their current customers or not. If they do want customer loyalty, than every business decision has to be weighed against how many customers you’ll loss because of it.