DWP

Over the weekend I get a questionnaire in the mail from J.D. Power and Associates, asking me to respond to a passel of questions about my experience with having the E500 serviced, and about my experience with the car in general. They enclosed a crisp dollar bill to guilt me into completing the form. So, I was happily answering the many questions when I came to the last questions, and ... full dead stop. It was the demographic part where they ask about age, education, income, etc. At that point I concluded that the preceding questions were just a ruse to get me to give up marketing data about myself. I returned their dollar to them in their prepaid envelope with a note advising them (as if they cared) why they weren't getting a survey form back.

Was I being hasty? Does J.D. Power, as part of compiling data about driver experiences with various cars, including Mercedes, have any legitimate need for demographic information about the driver? To put it another way, if I tell them that my E500 has been in the shop X number of times over the past year, or that I would rate my satisfaction with the car as "8" on a scale of 10, how is my age, education, or income relevant?

mleskovar

Demographics could affect how you answer the questions. Maybe they're trying to find out if any of these factors have a bearing on your answers. Maybe people with high incomes, more education, and more age are harder or easier to please? The more answers they get the more validity to trends they can claim. For any survey, the more information that can be gathered the better.

FlatlineEF9

I think them asking about your background information is very relevant as well. They would have a publishing field day with mercedes if they found out that older white males are treated better at MB than young black/hispanic/asian etc males/females. hmmmmm.......that explains a lot. lol.

smb7420

First off, I must commend your good intentions and actions.
I'd have kept the dollar and set it ablaze...or do something odd with it.

It all boils down to what they were interested in, i.e. did the title say "Satisfaction of MB Service Survey" or did it include race etc. in the title clause. If it was simply the title I wrote above then I'd be pretty annoyed at why they're asking for personal info.

I remember reading how the C-Class broke barriers as i think the article said it was the only MB not 50% or more purchased by Caucasians - don't quote me on that, but i do know it broke some sort of consumer racial/age group barrier

MB is a, if not THE, symbol of financial success. I've heard the 1st most recognizable corporate logo/symbol in the world is Coca-Cola.
Guess what #2 is...