RE: SuSE

[Mark J Hewitt<nospam [at] elsabio.demon.co.uk>]

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On 2 Dec 99, at 20:35, Ruediger Berlich wrote:

> sheflug - http://www.sheflug.co.uk

[elided]

> So what are your bad experiences with Dixons and other shops ?

I'll give you one Dixons story - not directly relevant, but illustrates the
point.

Once, I was rash enough (perhaps impatient enough) to buy a Palm
Pilot from Dixons. Against my better judgement, I bought their
extended warranty (because a Palm Pilot is easily stolen, and that was
covered). One windy day, the inanimate malice of the elements blew
the car door against my coat with that Palm Pilot in the pocket and
smashed the glass to shards. I took it back to Dixons. This was about
6 weeks after purchase. This was very close to me leaving the country
for a trip, and I needed my Palm Pilot, so I tried to get a promised return
date. The assistant (who must have been some sort of specialist since
he had to be specially summoned to answer the question) offered to
mail the replacement device out to me. so:

Problem number 1: This was a well intentioned offer, but if they knew
the product they might just realize that unless I could get the thing to
my desktop PC, I could not reload it, and being empty, it would not have
been of much use to me.

I left the device with them in all good faith. Two days before I was about
to fly I was telephoned to go and collect my replacement device. I
asked if it was a replacement of a repair (with a new screen) and they
confirmed it was a new device. So I went to the shop and collected the
device, all nicely wrapped in bubble wrap. I unwrapped it and ...

Problem number 2: The device was my original, still broken. I carefully
re-read the report selotaped to the outside. What had happened is that
Dixons had sent this away for repair at their own service centre, and
since it was clearly irreparable, they had returned it to the shop with a
not saying that they would have to pursue a replacement through their
own channels. Firstly, the staff should have checked the state of the
returned device before calling me to collect it, and secondly, it was
obvious that this was either a specialist repair or a warranty
replacement, so should have been sent directly to 3Com and not to their
own repair centre.

So I remonstrated with the shop, and after a while, the store manager
took a box from his stock and gave me a new device from it saying that
he would replace it with that sent to replace mine.

Problem number 3: Why couldn't they have done that sooner and not
wasted my and their time?

So I thanked them (!) and took the new machine home. Except that it
wasn't. When I took it out of the foam envelope, the writing area was
badly scratched and there were Dutch appointments entered all over the
calendar.

Problem number 4: When is a new device a new device?

So I took it back again. I had another devices from their stock, and to
date, this one has worked. But why did all this have to happen to get to
this position of satisfaction?

I've heard many worse stories, but mine I know to be true - so I offer this
as an example of customer service that I for one found unacceptable to
the point that I will never shop their again.

#!/mjh

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--
Mark J. Hewitt at home mjh [at] elsabio.demon.co.uk
As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.
The next best leaders, the people admire. The next, the people
fear, and the next the people hate. But when the best leader's
work is done, the people say, We did it ourselves.
Lao Tzu, 6th Century BC.

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