Saturday
Apr282012
Question: Customer service?
Saturday, April 28, 2012 at 3:00AM What’s the best and worst customer service you have ever received? I would go for Apple as the best when I had a problem with my 2 year-old Mac Mini and Argos as just dreadful when we ordered some furniture a few years ago.
Reader Comments (8)
Apple every time had been amazing to sort out issues with hardware our learn about software.
Argos was nightmare with an issue with my nintendo ds. Had to write to the chief exec who then got replacement sorted. In store they wouldn't resolve.
Dell - shipped an alienware M11x, got lost in transit and they insisted I pay to investigate it! Also terrible for faults - wait ages for the item to be returned, verified then reshipped.
HTC- when I was selling smartphones/PDAs their service was the worst. Had to spend hours on the phone getting permission to return the device, wait weeks for them to receive it and even more weeks for refurb model back.
Apple- best service in town. Was in New york, decided to get a dvd drive bought in Australia checked out, did not have a receipt or any proof of purchase , but the genius replaced it on the spot. Also have brought in a smashed iphone and had it replaced for freeon the spot on goodwill. NO other retail experience like that anywhere else, period.
Clove and Piel Frama best.
Not happy with how Samsung Galaxy S II will not OTA to ICS.
I cannot seem to get connected to their Kies.
I find anything that is proprietary rather than standard will never be best. (Sorry you apple lovers).
Best: HP, repaired the laptop of my son which was out of warranty for almost a year without any costs (new trackpad, new battery, new keyboard because of a missing key)
Worst: Apple, didn't want to replace my broken,14 months old, macbook pro charger. Had to buy a new one without any discount.
Dell as worst. I bought a 3 year warranty, I thought, for a Dell laptop. When I had a fault I was told that I had not bought all the right warranty services! The hard disk had failed.
Best, in recent times, is Samsung.
Best: SVP (they sell blank DVDs etc.). This was many years ago; I ordered 25 blank DVDs, worth £40, and they sent 100, worth £160.
I told them about the mistake and they said to keep them.
Worst: Virgin Media. Long story short, my phoneline never worked. Someone else had my number and started racking up huge bills once they realsed they had free calls (£170 in one month). VM was taking money from my DD even though I'd told them about the problem. VM treated me as if I was lying to them, and even when their engineer has confirmed that my line didn't work they still kept passing me from department to department with loooooong waits on hold in-between. I reckon I spent over 8 hours on the phone over all.
I finally got it resolved but it taught me to hate VM.
Best: Amazon. Swapped a usb hard drive that wouldn't connect to my previous laptop; quickly and with no fuss.
Worst: The roofer who did a crap job for us last month and now won't return my calls!
@Eliyahu Ben-Haim - You haven't got usb debugging mode turned on have you? Kies won't connect if you have.
Best: Apple — replaced a broken hard drive on a machine I bought secondhand on eBay. I wasn't even the listed owner on their systems, and it didn't matter at all.
Very good: a local electrician. Came round to look at some overheating canisters about 35 minutes after I called him, and was very helpful. I ended up ordering some LED lamps from him (to the tune of about £180), and he got hold of them for me, delivered them, and emailed me the invoice for payment. A great (local) service.
Surprisingly good: Halfords. Part of a bike I'd bought from them failed 12 months and 3 days after purchase. I was expecting a real fight for what was clearly a manufacturing fault since it was that tiny bit over a year old, and was blown over when the manager looked at it, said "that shouldn't have happened" and booked it straight in for replacement. (I was ready for the Sale of Goods Act fight, and it never even came close...)
I find anything that is proprietary rather than standard will never be best.
What about a proprietary implementation of a standard?!