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This thread--- http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=75423 reminded me of something that happened to me. So as not to threadjack, here it is:
I had similar issues with Dell. When I graduated high school, I was given a laptop as my graduation gift from my parents. At the time, they paid for a 3 year warranty. Three years later I went to extend my warranty as my parents birthday gift to me and it was like pulling teeth.
First guy I called and insisted I was giving the wrong identifying information (address it was billed to, address it was delivered to, phone number of original purchaser). Hung up with him. My dad thinks he was trying to get his average call time increased.
Called a second time, talked to a woman. Gave her the exact same information as the first guy, and it all checked out this time. Hmmm. She tells me that it would cost $XX.XX, but my dad would have to call to make the purchase. We were given her direct line. So my dad calls her, and now the price is $YY.YY (more than the original, but not by much) because she had "miscalculated." Also, the credit card machine is down, but they can put it on the computer and as soon as it's back up, they'll charge him. Then she gave him a confirmation number.
He called the next day to confirm it happened. It didn't happen. They had a record of the call, but the computer didn't save the information, so it never charged his card. They could help him out, however, and do it now for $ZZ.ZZ (about twice of $XX.XX). He said the original quote and asked that they honor that. They have no record of the first conversation I had with her, just the second one my dad had. He talked to the supervisor, but he insisted on $ZZ.ZZ, so my dad finally just said nevermind.
A couple weeks later, after I had calmed down, I decided to try one last time. I got through to a young guy who, when asked me what kind of computer I had, started laughing. "We don't even make those any more. The parts wouldn't even be lying around. Why would we extend a warranty on a model we have no way to fix. Buy a new computer. That's all I can suggest to help you." I tried insisting, which, not only made him laugh longer, but also, stop a coworker, tell him that I was trying to extend a warranty on <model>. The coworker and him start laughing together, saying how insane it was someone would want to have a working <model> despite the fact that the machine was less than three years old.
So, the fun part is this: At the time, my dad worked for Dell. So, he wrote a politely worded e-mail explaining what happened to him, e-mailed it to the bosses of all these people. He had, in the past, worked in tech support (although a different department), and knew some of the bosses. In the e-mail he also said, basically, that he was trained to (1) document all calls (2) quote the price on the computer on anything to be purchased (3) never laugh at a customer (4) help all customers who call in, despite your call time average, etc. So he basically suggested they look at how well these worked were trained. Don't know what happened because of it, though.
I had similar issues with Dell. When I graduated high school, I was given a laptop as my graduation gift from my parents. At the time, they paid for a 3 year warranty. Three years later I went to extend my warranty as my parents birthday gift to me and it was like pulling teeth.
First guy I called and insisted I was giving the wrong identifying information (address it was billed to, address it was delivered to, phone number of original purchaser). Hung up with him. My dad thinks he was trying to get his average call time increased.
Called a second time, talked to a woman. Gave her the exact same information as the first guy, and it all checked out this time. Hmmm. She tells me that it would cost $XX.XX, but my dad would have to call to make the purchase. We were given her direct line. So my dad calls her, and now the price is $YY.YY (more than the original, but not by much) because she had "miscalculated." Also, the credit card machine is down, but they can put it on the computer and as soon as it's back up, they'll charge him. Then she gave him a confirmation number.
He called the next day to confirm it happened. It didn't happen. They had a record of the call, but the computer didn't save the information, so it never charged his card. They could help him out, however, and do it now for $ZZ.ZZ (about twice of $XX.XX). He said the original quote and asked that they honor that. They have no record of the first conversation I had with her, just the second one my dad had. He talked to the supervisor, but he insisted on $ZZ.ZZ, so my dad finally just said nevermind.
A couple weeks later, after I had calmed down, I decided to try one last time. I got through to a young guy who, when asked me what kind of computer I had, started laughing. "We don't even make those any more. The parts wouldn't even be lying around. Why would we extend a warranty on a model we have no way to fix. Buy a new computer. That's all I can suggest to help you." I tried insisting, which, not only made him laugh longer, but also, stop a coworker, tell him that I was trying to extend a warranty on <model>. The coworker and him start laughing together, saying how insane it was someone would want to have a working <model> despite the fact that the machine was less than three years old.
So, the fun part is this: At the time, my dad worked for Dell. So, he wrote a politely worded e-mail explaining what happened to him, e-mailed it to the bosses of all these people. He had, in the past, worked in tech support (although a different department), and knew some of the bosses. In the e-mail he also said, basically, that he was trained to (1) document all calls (2) quote the price on the computer on anything to be purchased (3) never laugh at a customer (4) help all customers who call in, despite your call time average, etc. So he basically suggested they look at how well these worked were trained. Don't know what happened because of it, though.
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