Please rate my AWA: The following appeared in a memo to exec
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19 Aug 2012, 05:18
ESSAY QUESTION:
The following appeared in a memo to executives at a company that manufactures industrial equipment:
"We are spending too much on free customer service after a sale has been made; we need to limit our warranty to two years in order to improve our profit margins. The current lifetime warranty can lead to costs decades into a product's life cycle. Also, we pay our customer service employees a premium because they must possess expert skills across the entirety of our very diverse product line, including products we no longer sell."
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. Point out flaws in the argument's logic and analyze the argument's underlying assumptions. In addition, evaluate how supporting evidence is used and what evidence might counter the argument's conclusion. You may also discuss what additional evidence could be used to strengthen the argument or what changes would make the argument more logically sound.
YOUR RESPONSE:
The argument claims that the company wants to increase its profit margins by doing two things. First, the company propose to withdraw the current lifetime warranty on its products and introduce, in its place, two year warranty. Second, the company wants to rationalise customer service employees in the light of the proposed two year warranty policy. Both these proposals may go a long way in helping the company achieve its objective of increased profits, but a little strengthening of the proposals would help the argument to be more sound and persuasive.
The argument asserts that lifetime warranty is leading to, and can still lead to further, increased costs that can be curtailed by limiting the warranty period to two years. This can be a profitable proposition for the company if i can be proven that lifetime warranty policy is not a significant determiner for the buyers of the company's products. If evidences can be presented that the buyers are influenced by product features such as top quality, competitive pricing and abundant third party after sales service of the products, rather than lifetime warranty, then the argument could have been strong. Furthermore, limiting the warranty to two years would save the company costs on customer service employees, especially on those who service products that the company no longer sell. Information about costs on customer service employees handling different products could have strengthened the argument.
Based on above observations, it can be said that the argument is coherent. However, it would have been further strengthened had the argument thrown light on above mentioned items.
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Please rate the above essay. If anyone could provide with a link to some essays where response has been for the argument, I would be obliged. Thanks.