Man am I ever disappointed!I recently had some very positive customer service experiences that I shared here. I was thinking when I wrote that blog that when someone WOW's me, I need to share that with others. But now, the exact opposite has happened and I wanted to share that as well - hopefully with the thought I might save you from the same fate.
Our personal laptop went south on us, transformer/charger the best I could tell since the light no longer came on and the computer wouldn't charge. So, while in a mall with a Radio Shack I thought why not stop in and purchase a new one.
The district manager happened to be in the store that day, and was the person who provided the help. I described the problem, and he quickly pointed me to the solution: an iGo charger unit. Of course the model he points me too is a rather expensive unit (from my perspective, but there was an even more expensive unit next to it) but I listened to all the advantages the model had so I purchased it. Prior to payment, I again mentioned my laptop make/model to confirm this was in fact the proper model (I had even brought the bad charger with me so I would have all the proper numbers).
So - back at home, install everything and...it's back to business!
But two weeks later, problems again. And, almost exact same problem.
This time, I load everything up and take it to my local computer guy, Tom Reeves of UpTime Computer Services, who quickly discovered the problem: "Power charger not outputting the proper voltage". The unit was rated properly, but it was not putting that amount out. Tom suggested I get it replaced since it was new and still under 30 day warranty.
Our communications with Radio Shack produced no resolve ("Contact the manufacturer" was there advice). Once they found out we hadn't saved the box...TWO WEEKS LATER (and who does that??)...they didn't want to provide us any help, or any suggestions. Unbelievable!!! So, first lesson for me: Never shop at Radio Shack again.
Then, we started contacting iGo. This was an even worse experience!
iGo offers a "contact us for repair" page, which includes in-warranty repair and out-of-warranty repair options. To make a very long story short; after multiple attempts (almost daily in fact) request at these links (yes, I even tried the "out-of-warranty" link) as well as links to them on other pages, the company never once contacted me to resolve the problem. NOT ONCE!
I would provide prior e-mail message notes and dates and to what e-mail address I'd used, as well as asking if I'm contacting the incorrect department to at the least point me in the right direction. Even with all this, I never received any communications from them.
So, a month-and-a-half later, I give up. I'm stuck with a defective laptop charger from a company that provides NO CUSTOMER SERVICE and then had to purchase another charger on top of all this (Tom did find me a great deal on one. Second lesson: I should have gone to him to start with versus trying all this on my own.). But, the laptop is up and running fine since returning from Tom's shop. Final lesson: I'll never shop with or recommend iGo to anyone, ever.
I'm pondering on how these two seemingly huge companies can completely ignore a customer and provide absolutely no customer service. And on top of all that, how they think in today's economy and with even a small voice like mine that can share with an audience (regardless of size), that the Voice of the Customer (VoC) isn't important.
I've very disappointed.
My question: What company have you elected to not do business with anymore because of a customer experience you had?
[Note: photo from http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/]
“Your Success Is My Business.”™
pondering - "to think about : reflect on"
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