rs54@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Richard Sucgang) (05/15/91)
Hi ya'll Remember when someone started a thread asking for Horror/Hero stories about mail order companies? Well, I kept a transcript of posted replies, and after a while, forwarded them to MacConnection, who seemed to get unanimous kudos. Peter Haas, of their Customer Affairs, returned a letter, which I will write below: ...It is always fun to see a competitor being bashed, but at the same time I have to wince a little bit, because we actually do make mistakes ourselves. I would like to think that we make fewer of them, and then handle them better when we do, but every now and then the planets seem to line up the wrong way or something, and we really make someone unhappy. For instance, a customer will get a defective product, we fire out a replacement, but it gets lost by Ariborne or UPS. We try again, and they get the package all right, but we somehow send the wrong thing. Somehow, despite out best efforts and intentions, thing s like this can happen, and I am always a little nervous when I read accounts like this, because I expect someone to shime in and say "Oh yeah, well let me tell you about my MacConnection horror story." We do work hard to avoid this kind of thing, and we try to be sure that the customer is happy in the end, bit it sometimes keeps us awake at night, worrying about some loose end we might have overlooked. ..... Comments, guys? Actually, I am rather impressed that he took time to respond, and with such a pragmatic letter, too. Cheers! -rich Richard Sucgang : Dept. of Anatomy and Cell Biology Columbia University (sucgang@cuhhca.hhmi.columbia.edu; de slime god rs54@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu)
cjeff@ghoti.lcs.mit.edu (Carl J.M. Alexander) (05/15/91)
rs54@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Richard Sucgang) writes: >Remember...[the thread on] Horror/Hero stories about mail order companies? >Well, I kept a transcript of posted replies, and...forwarded them to >MacConnection, who seemed to get unanimous kudos. He then quotes the reply he received from Peter Haas of MacConnection: PH>...we actually do make mistakes ourselves. I would like to think that PH>we make fewer of them, and then handle them better, but.... He then tells a story illustrative of Murphy's law PH>Somehow, despite out best efforts and intentions, things like this can PH>happen, and I am always a little nervous when I read accounts like this... PH>it sometimes keeps us awake at night, worrying about some loose end PH>we might have overlooked. >Comments, guys? Actually, I am rather impressed that he took >time to respond, and with such a pragmatic letter, too. I'm not surprised at all. You're a customer, you sent a letter, they replied. That's part of how you get a reputation for service in the first place. Peter Haas' rather paraniod pragmatism is another part: if you're always on the lookout for ways to avoid ill-serving your customers, it makes it much more likely that on balance you will serve them well. And of course around here it doesn't hurt their reputation at all that they give free ground shipping to Boston Computer Society members. Just a satisfied customer. --Carl Alexander News Editor, The Active Window cjeff@ghoti.lcs.mit.edu
bc@Apple.COM (bill coderre) (05/15/91)
Richard Sucgang: |Comments, guys? Actually, I am rather impressed that he took |time to respond, and with such a pragmatic letter, too. Until you have worked a Tech Support or Customer Service role, you can't begin to understand just how hard it is to do. Here are some "horror" stories I've had while working for a hard disk company. The Unlucky Customer The drive failed out of the box. They sent it back, we replaced it with a new one, delivered overnight, which also failed. They sent it back, we lost it. They called, we scoured the place, eventually found it, but rushed them a new drive beforehand. It failed, too. We refunded their money, with our sincere apologies. The Clueless Customer The customer honestly had never heard of head crashes, yet had one, destroying all her precious files. Shipped it in, we tried very hard to recover, but couldn't. Much precious data lost. The Obnoxious Customer Who refused to believe that backups were necessary. Wanted us to ship him the appropriate number of floppies, gratis, to do his backup. Yelled at every rep repeatedly, got referred to the manager, who read the owners manual to him, and offered him a refund if he didn't like the way we do business. Suggested he try to find anyone else that would. The Just Plain Weird Customer shipped drive to Europe, and plugged it in. Although the power supply will work with 220V, the surge protectors won't, and they caught fire. Customer was holding drive at the time, dropped it, crashing heads. The Impossible Case Customer could not print with drive on. Worked fine with drive off and attached. No inits. No special printer. No special hardware. No nothing. Hair is torn out, as rep calls "experts," calls woman back, spends three hours troubleshooting. Finds out that Memory Cache is set to 512K (out of 2M). Because the disk driver takes up memory too, this doesn't leave enough memory to do printing. The Picky Customer Complained that drive module was 5.25" instead of 3.5", despite assurances from sales that company would NOT guarantee this. (Actually, this particular 5.25" platter was faster and more reliable than the 3.5" brand.) Returned it, upgraded to bigger drive, decided it was too noisy. Wondered if we would send him several to choose from. Got mad at the answer. Refunded money in full. The Happiest Loser Customer sends back drive after 5 years of service. Is delighted that it can be repaired, and doesn't mind price of repair. (now THAT's strange!) The Second Happiest Loser Drive has stiction. Customer is advised to "give drive a wallop" to get it started. Does so, is delighted to beat up on machinery. Files intact, backup made, and drive is left on, permanently. Customer refuses to repair drive. The Incompatible Customer Drive causes Claris Cad to crash. No other programs, just that one. After debugging for a while, called Claris. They knew immediately, supplied patch to customer. Now THAT's service. The Happy Customer Never met one. There were hundreds of thousands, but they never called. bill coderre these stories are "fictionalized" but represent actual cases. They are not connected with Apple Computer.