Who Is J.D. Power and Why Is He Saying All Those Nice Things About Me?

Do you remember the story of the Emperor's New Clothes? That has got to be the truest of all stories. Daily, there are examples upon examples of so-called brilliant individuals who fall victim to the Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome.
One of the biggest examples is in regards to what I consider to be an almost mafia-like shakedown operation known as J.D. Power. Before these huge corporations pay huge amounts of money to J.D.Power to tell them what their customer service is like, and how customers feel about them, why don't these brilliant people at the corporations find out if their customers care a flying flip about J.D. Power surveys.
I know I don't. Especially since I know the J.D. Power Company is dependent on the continued good-will of the companies they're rating in order to stay in business themselves. Is J.D. Power going to shoot itself in the foot in order to give an unbiased report? I don't think so.
Why don't these companies read the S.C. Cook Company report on the J.D. Power Company before they pay huge sums of money to the J.D. Power Company and then go around touting the "scientific survey" results of the J.D. Power Company?
According to the latest S.C. Cook report, the J.D. Power Company does an, at best, adequate job of evaluating customer service of the companies it serves (i.e. makes huge sums of money off of).
They rely on apparently semi-trained morons to report back to them on their findings. And, if you call them (go ahead and do it - 800 274-5372), you may well find that their phone answerers are not all that friendly, themselves. So, if they can't get good service out of their own employees, how can they help other companies get the results they want? Just a thought.
I wonder how much NAME WITHHELD NATIONAL HOMEBUILDER pays J.D. Power to call its customers and ask them if they were happy with their buying experience. If I'm going to buy a $500,000 home, it's not because of anything J.D. Power found out. I don't care what J.D. Power thinks. Unless he's going to help pay my mortgage. I'm smart enough (debatable) to figure out if I'm happy with the product and service being offered.
In fact, if I'd just bought a new home and someone called and identified themselves as being with J.D. Power, I'd be wondering how much that little phone call cost me. Cause, every expense is going into the cost of the house. I'd tell them to have NAME WITHHELD NATIONAL HOMEBUILDER call me if they want to know how happy I am. Gee, I can be a real pain in the neck sometimes. And, a lot of people have an even lower opinion of me than that.
My thinking is that if NAME WITHHELD NATIONAL HOMEBUILDER (or any other company using J.D. Power Company) doesn't know how to ensure that their customers get good service, they ought to stop selling homes until they figure it out. And, if they're going to pay J.D. Power to say nice things about them, just take the money they're giving J.D. Power and give it back to the customers. Nothing makes me say nice things about someone than their throwing a little money at me.
It's not just NAME WITHHELD NATIONAL HOMEBUILDER, of course. J.D. Power does autos and probably a bunch of other stuff. You can see my scientific survey relys more on intuition than science. But, my big question is (still), "Who cares what J.D. Power thinks."
What J.D. Power is really good at is convincing the emperor that everyone with a grain of sense can see the beautiful fabric they're using. And, if anyone can't see it, they're stupid. So, the powers that be at Centex are thinking, "Whew! That was close. I almost said 'I don't get it.'"
Not only does Centex pay big bucks to J.D. Power, they then spend big bucks to advertise for J.D. Power on their billboards. That J.D. Power must be one great salesman. If you notice, on the Centex billboards, the J.D. Power name stands out more than the Centex name. But, those guys at NAME WITHHELD NATIONAL HOMEBUILDER are marketing geniuses. They see it. They love it. They get it.
I still don't get it. I may be stupid, but I've never come to work naked.