See you in court...
August 18th 2009 02:43
I was reading Jeff Jarvis' book, What Would Google Do? at lunchtime today, and enjoying it.
He discussed in one of the earlier chapters the saga of when he wrote a blog post about Dell
Computers, and the subsequent (unintentional) firestorm this caused on the Net, to such an extent that Dell finally came to the party, changed their customer service (bad) habits, and did some major repair to their image by actually talking to their customers.
At the end of July I wrote a post about my wife's cellphone and the seeming inability of the assistant manager of the shop we'd bought it from to understand that a relatively new phone shouldn't go kaput within a few months, and that it should also be able to withstand moisture/water problems - which the shop's repairers claimed the phone had had.
I didn't mention the shop at the time, but I should have. It's one of the Noel Leeming chain of shops that exist around the country, and which specialise in selling stuff at great prices but apparently without the customer service to back the sales up. This isn't the first time I've had problems with them.
In contrast to the attitude of the assistant manager at NL's, the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution service couldn't have been more helpful, although in the end, since what we were seeking help for wasn't really their area of expertise, they had to pass us over to another retail-linked person: the Vodafone dealer support manager. This person was supposed to get back to us in five business days. Five business days in the age of the Internet? Come on.
I'm not even sure whether he or she did get back (it was to my wife) but obviously they didn't do anything further. Now the ironic thing is that in spite of having forked out a refundable $55 to Noel Leeming's to have the phone checked out (and not getting it back, of course) we got the phone back. And the phone worked perfectly! Yes, you heard me right. The phone worked perfectly.
In spite of the repair place putting in writing that the phone was damaged beyond repair, the phone worked perfectly when we got it back. So obviously what it needed was a clean-out, not a throwaway. Seems that it's time for the repairers to stop assuming that just because a certain little light goes on that the phone is finished.
I haven't been back to Noel Leeming's. It's too much hassle, and my suspicion is that they'd be loathe to give back the deposit anyway. (Maybe I'm maligning them...?)
What I'd like to suggest is that in future they don't charge people in advance for repair work, even if it's supposed to be a deposit. That they don't talk to customers as though they're fools or liars when they complain about the poor functioning of a phone or similar appliance. That they go out of their way to provide a warranty that means something, and isn't full of exclusions. And that they read the Consumers' Guarantee Act (there's a handy abbreviated version readily available - and free). It would show that they don't really have a leg to stand on if the customer decides to take them to the cleaners.
Obviously they rely on relatively mild people like us not to get riled up to the point where we say 'See you in court!'
He discussed in one of the earlier chapters the saga of when he wrote a blog post about Dell
At the end of July I wrote a post about my wife's cellphone and the seeming inability of the assistant manager of the shop we'd bought it from to understand that a relatively new phone shouldn't go kaput within a few months, and that it should also be able to withstand moisture/water problems - which the shop's repairers claimed the phone had had.
I didn't mention the shop at the time, but I should have. It's one of the Noel Leeming chain of shops that exist around the country, and which specialise in selling stuff at great prices but apparently without the customer service to back the sales up. This isn't the first time I've had problems with them.
In contrast to the attitude of the assistant manager at NL's, the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution service couldn't have been more helpful, although in the end, since what we were seeking help for wasn't really their area of expertise, they had to pass us over to another retail-linked person: the Vodafone dealer support manager. This person was supposed to get back to us in five business days. Five business days in the age of the Internet? Come on.
I'm not even sure whether he or she did get back (it was to my wife) but obviously they didn't do anything further. Now the ironic thing is that in spite of having forked out a refundable $55 to Noel Leeming's to have the phone checked out (and not getting it back, of course) we got the phone back. And the phone worked perfectly! Yes, you heard me right. The phone worked perfectly.
In spite of the repair place putting in writing that the phone was damaged beyond repair, the phone worked perfectly when we got it back. So obviously what it needed was a clean-out, not a throwaway. Seems that it's time for the repairers to stop assuming that just because a certain little light goes on that the phone is finished.
I haven't been back to Noel Leeming's. It's too much hassle, and my suspicion is that they'd be loathe to give back the deposit anyway. (Maybe I'm maligning them...?)
What I'd like to suggest is that in future they don't charge people in advance for repair work, even if it's supposed to be a deposit. That they don't talk to customers as though they're fools or liars when they complain about the poor functioning of a phone or similar appliance. That they go out of their way to provide a warranty that means something, and isn't full of exclusions. And that they read the Consumers' Guarantee Act (there's a handy abbreviated version readily available - and free). It would show that they don't really have a leg to stand on if the customer decides to take them to the cleaners.
Obviously they rely on relatively mild people like us not to get riled up to the point where we say 'See you in court!'
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