04-15-2011, 08:56 PM | #91 | ||
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I've only ever (knock on wood) have needed "proper" customer service twice in my life so far. First time was with Amazon and almost a year old product that broke down. I initially contacted the manufacturer who told me they were not able to collect it and therefore asked me to contact Amazon from where I had ordered it. Filled the Amazon form, less than 2 hours later got reply from them advising me that a delivery company would contact me by end of next working day to arrange collection (thing weighted over 40 kilos), Company didn't call so I sent an email to Amazon customer services. Got reply to that in less than 30 minutes where they apologised for failure and told me that the delivery company would call me within three hours. And they did, less than an hour later.
Because I had changed my phone number between the purchase and item return, Amazon told me they can't send me a replacement, instead they will refund me on my credit card, the refund would be on my card account within 30 (or 21 can't remember) days. 3 days later my card was refunded. Not a penny deducted for collection or anything. Needless to say I was impressed. However, if I've ever seen service going beyond the call of duty was with HP. I've got old, HP510 laptop, which was, when I bought it, already end-of-life model at rock bottom price. I have forgotten the BIOS password so couldn't reset it because I intended to sell the laptop. Tried all possible instructions and nothing helped so I though to send an email to HP support as a last resort. Here's the story what happened then: My original support request replies to HP: Quote:
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About two hours later my mobile rang. I answered and there was a call from HP support (actually same guy who replied above) asking if the fix worked. I told him I haven't tried it yet because I don't have laptop on me, but will do so in the evening and let him know the result. He asks me, that in case of above doesn't solve the problem, would I be able to arrange remote connection for them to log on to the laptop and try to solve the problem for me! As promised, I was asked next day what time it would be convenient for me to take a call from them and let them to logon to the system. I missed the first call (it was bit late and I was busy at work) but I got left message that they tried to call and will call again. About 30 minutes later he called again and I got instructions on how to logon to HP's site where they make remote connection. Got through the formalities and remote logon script installed and handed the machine over to their technician. He pretty much did everything he could to get the BIOS reset but unfortunately none worked, how ever, he told me one last possible solution regarding resetting the BIOS (standard remove CMOS battery and turn machine on don't work). He even asked if he can call me back in half an hour or so to check whether the last solution worked but because removing CMOS battery on this laptop literally mean it has to be taken a part, I had to say 'no' (I'm at work). Remember: Now this laptop was cheap (cost me £370 at the time - July 2007), was at the time almost two years out of warranty and I am not a business customer, not even a small one, and they're going to this kind of trouble to help me out when they could have as well leave it to above email. I then closed the support ticket but that wasn't the end of it. On Monday April 12th I got a call from their support, they want to give one more go to try to reset the BIOS. So it'll be another try on Wednesday. On Wednesday we went through the remote logon again and they tried few more tricks, unfortunately none worked. Even then they didn't give up, they told me the last resort solution to try if I wanted. Unfortunately that failed as well. Although the password reset wasn't solved, it really wasn't the end of the world, but the service they provided was just astonishing. I had to send feedback to HP with description what they did and remembering to mention names of those support people who helped me thanking them for such an amazing service, that went to to CEO and President Mark Hurd of HP. Of course you can't expect personal reply from him, he probably doesn't even read them but I did get thank you reply signed "CEO Customer Relations" that wasn't scripted so it seems that they keep that "personal touch" up throughout the organisation. Needless to say, any time there are two equal products, one HP and another some other make, I buy HP - at least until I get bad service from them Last edited by pete_1967; 04-15-2011 at 09:08 PM. |
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04-15-2011, 09:18 PM | #92 | |
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Really, it was almost comedic how godawful it was to deal with Kobo. I had a couple of friends that were in the market for an ereader and neither of them went with a Kobo, probably because they heard about the experience I had. One went with a Kindle 3, the other went with a classic Nook. |
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04-15-2011, 09:21 PM | #93 | |
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My mother would have understood as well about the canceled gift card. |
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04-15-2011, 10:26 PM | #94 | ||
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I think the very fact that I haven't even looked at Dell's website for all these years is a perfect example of how wrong they got it when it came to dealing with one lil' customer who just wanted one lil' file. The futile website searching, the frustrating phone calls, and especially the moronic replies to multiple emails, led to me being so ticked at Dell that I've never known if or when they fixed any of the problems because I never went back to look ... until now, actually. And even though I can acknowledge that they may have learned a lesson, they're still not getting my money. There are plenty of places eager to sell me hardware, and most of them don't drive me to red-faced fury when I interact with them. Lack of fury is a big selling point. Edit: I dug around on some backups, and the incident in question happened in 2002. Yeah, Dell managed to tick me off so badly that I've remained ticked for 9 years. Here's part of the final email from Dell: Quote:
That's just stupidity, though. The bad customer service comes from the multiple times (in four separate emails) in which they did not read my email, did not respond to what I was actually saying, and in one of the more memorable ones, said "Support for all third-party software and peripherals is provided by the original manufacturer of the product." (mind you, this was after several emails, including the one that was in reply to, in which we had been discussing specifically a Dell monitor) The entire exchange was like that, ranging from the ridiculous to the surreal. They might have cleaned up their act. I'll never know, because that monitor was the last piece of hardware I will ever own with a Dell logo on it. And they can thank their assorted cut-rate offshore customer disservice personnel for that. Last edited by Worldwalker; 04-15-2011 at 10:45 PM. |
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04-15-2011, 11:09 PM | #95 |
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You know I've been reading this thread and I have to say that the slurs agains the OP's mother are really distasteful. Is it so hard for people to imagine that the OP's mother could be a wonderful person but that the OP would possibly be embarrased by the whole situation? Say what you will about the OP but leave her mother's character out of it please.
Last edited by Miss Understood; 04-15-2011 at 11:13 PM. |
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04-15-2011, 11:27 PM | #96 | ||
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04-16-2011, 09:07 AM | #97 |
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Please don't assume that I'm posting without having read any of the previous posts. That's unnecessarily insulting, and doesn't lead to a more productive discussion.
As for where it said that her mother was dissatisfied with not being given two gift cards: First of all, as you pointed out, her father called her to ask why this had happened. Her father called her. So the spurious card had become a subject of discussion between the two parents, and apparently a sufficiently contentious point that the mother couldn't just email her daughter and ask "hey, what's with the gift cards?" -- a phone call from her husband became necessary. Second, the amount that the OP was planning to spend was an issue. I've still not entirely understood this. If someone gives me a $50 book, I might not know exactly how much they spent -- they might have bought it at a premium at a rare book store or cheaply at Costco -- but if they give me a $50 gift card, there's really no room for ambiguity about exactly how much they paid for that card. She says later that she bought another $50 gift card for her mother. Remember that she had only intended to spend $50, not $100. There was a problem, an accidental duplicate was sent and then canceled. With my mother, that would have ended it (except for the obligatory "oh, that's too much, you shouldn't have" that attends any gift worth more than a dollar). With every mother I know, that would have ended it. People who like their mothers -- and there's no reason to believe the OP doesn't -- generally spend as much as they can afford, or as much as their gift-giving budget will allow, on special-occasion gifts for said mothers. Therefore, it's reasonable to assume the original $50 is at or close to the limit of available funding for birthday gifts for her mother. It's as much as the OP was planning to spend. Yet she ended up spending twice that. If spending $100 on a birthday gift for her mother was trivial, she'd have done it the first time (who gives their mother only half what they can afford to give her?). As a result of the interaction with her parents regarding the spurious gift card, and the fact that "it was a glitch, they accidentally sent it twice, just delete the second one" wasn't sufficient, she spent twice what she intended. Why wouldn't the original $50 be sufficient? Why wasn't it the thought that counted? Why did she have to spend twice what she had budgeted on gift cards? Her basic personality was demonstrated by her initial demands for a free gift card from Kobo, her selection of the most expensive book she could find to "stick it to them", and her coming here to try to recruit an online army to complain to Kobo and demand her free gift card. That doesn't impress me as someone motivated by pure generosity (and why would a generous person have only bought her mother half what she could have afforded to give her anyway?). Therefore, between the giver and the recipient, since it isn't from the giver, the motivation must come from the recipient. That is, the original $50 wasn't sufficient for her mother, making the purchase of the second card necessary. Hence my assumption that it was her mother who wanted two gift cards for her birthday, rather than being satisfied with one, or none, or just a nice card. For the tl;dr crowd: if she could have afforded $100 in the first place, she would have. Because she didn't, it stands to reason that someone other than her induced her to do so. That would seem to be her mother. |
04-16-2011, 10:42 AM | #98 | |
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Gift cards have their value clearly written all over them. Period. Even if it were not stated on the card, it would have bought her no more than 50$ worth. Her mother would have known anyway she spent 50$ on her. So why is the second card so much of a problem? So this was a problem for the whole family. It was discussed (obviously between the parents and) between father and daughter. None of us has a family where this would have been a problem, as everyone here stated also very clearly. And I should add, I guess the strange behaviour of the parents is why she is so greedy to try to press a 50$ gift card as an "apology" from Kobo. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I don't know why any of these observations is rude as the facts were provided by Unicorn happily as long as she thought we'd cry out on her behalf and attack Kobo. Which just didn't happen. If you have any emotions to spare, Miss Understood, you should have pity with Unicorn. The life of a grown up led in greed and fear of her parents can not be a happy life. Last edited by Poppaea; 04-16-2011 at 10:54 AM. Reason: typed who instead of why :blush: |
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04-16-2011, 12:24 PM | #99 |
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Perhaps my objections come from the fact that I tend to think well of everyone. I don't assume anything about anyone, especially someone I have not had any kind of contact with whatsoever. The OP posted here, not her mother, and no one really knows what kind of relationship she has with her mother. People do not always become jerks because of their parents, sometimes people have wonderful parents but the child is. . .not so much. I just think it's unfair to malign the OP's mother when we have seen no posts from her saying that the initial $50 gift card was not enough. I think the OP was oversensitive about the idea that through a glitch, either her own fault or the fault of the Kobo system, her mother started out with 2 $50 gift cards and then one was taken away. As a mother myself, I'd rather my kids didn't spend any money on me so if something like that happened I'd probably be upset about the excessive amount of money spent on the 2 gift cards.
As for my own opinion about the poster's situation, no, I don't think Kobo owes her anything. She should have checked to see if the initial order actually went through before initiating another one. I think Kobo went above and beyond by offering her a free book and I think spending $38 on a gift set was excessive. My issue was with the characterization of the OP's mother who isn't even here to defend herself. |
04-16-2011, 12:37 PM | #100 |
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I think the difference between the 2 amounts should be between the OP and her Mother, period, even though the OP brought it into the discussion, which I am sure the OP is now regretting, or not. Forget all about the Mother, thats not the issue.
To me and to a lot of other posters, it looks like the OP wanted something for nothing, we could all be wrong, but generally when this many people have the same view of what someone said, it usually means thats what they said. |
04-16-2011, 01:15 PM | #101 | |
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Last edited by Miss Understood; 04-16-2011 at 01:24 PM. |
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04-16-2011, 01:27 PM | #102 | |
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The OP shouldn't have brought up her mother, but she did, so people got side tracked a little |
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04-17-2011, 01:12 AM | #103 |
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The OP brought her mother into the discussion and made her fair game for the rest of us to try to dissect motivations behind the tale. None here should feel that they've stepped beyond bounds by including her when they tried to make sense of the situation.
The majority of us here apparently have/had mothers who would have followed the "why did you have to waste your money buying me a present" school of thought. Running into mention of a mother for whom that does not seem to hold true is a strange and unique thing for most of us - something that is virtually incomprehensible and worthy of discussion. |
04-17-2011, 06:21 PM | #104 |
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My mother tells me not to worry about birthday presents as she has everything she needs. I am telling my adult children the same thing. Sounds trite but it used to be that it was the thought that counts. And now we read the father was involved. Somehow I don't think kobo's customer service is the real issue here.
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04-18-2011, 12:52 AM | #105 |
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I'm not stating an opinion on the OP here. But I will say that this “double click” theory is crap. If the Kobo web site is so poorly implemented that clicking on a button twice actually causes two purchases, they should take it offline until it's fixed. And maybe beat the help more. There's no excuse.
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