Customer service is the backbone of any major business out there. A company deserves very little credit for being able to sell something everyone wants. Congratulations Canon, you sold a camera! What a surprise HP, you sold a computer! What’s that you say Sony, someone bought your tv?! What is difficult is satisfying customers after the sale has been made. It’s not easy to getan angry customer on the line, defuse a situation, and answer the question. Let’s face it, not many of us call customer service to say “JOB WELL DONE, MY LAPTOP WORKS!!” In that world, a lack of calls translates to a good thing.
It comes as absolutely no surprise to me that in this age of ever increasing technological accomplishment tech businesses seem to be doing very well. What does surprise me though is that customer service is lacking. Now don’t get me wrong, not all my phone calls with customer service reps have gone bad. I own at least 4 products that I’ve needed to make service calls on and I try to make it a practice before every major purchase.
By far I have to say that Canon was the best when I purchased my SD850 from them. They answered every question quickly with a professional attitude.And surprise surprise, they gave me the right answer. A customer service center that knows it’s products is a rarity these days and props go out to Canon. I would gladly purchase a product from them again and the premium price I pay is a small sacrifice for good customer service when I need it.
Next on this list would have to be Creative. Though they’re engaging in some interesting (read: horrible) business practices, at least in one area of business, I have had relatively good experiences with them when I purchased my Zen Vision M way back when. Even when I did not understand and persistently asked the same question they kept their cool. Congrats Creative, you dealt with a difficult customer and made me happy.
Next up on this list is HP. No surprise the last two on this list are computer companies and it should not be a surprise they will both be the two worst experiences I’ve ever had. I’ve owned an HP laptop since 2004. The thing is still running fairly well with only minor problems. When it comes to contacting their customer service reps though, I try not to do it. Their mastery of broken English coupled with their lack of listening skills severely decreases the helpfulness of the reps. Combine this with their lack of product knowledge and I’ll be alright if I never have to talk to them again.
Now then, for the finisher, Dell. Never before have I dealt with such stunning incompetence from any customer service line. Hell, I DON’T EVEN OWN THEIR PRODUCT YET AND I DON’T WANT TO BUY IT. If I could rank Dell in the negative I would, but unfortunately 0 is the absolute worst. The only thing 4 techs could do right was answer the phone and say hello. I would have had a better conversation had I talked to an infant. To get the story right, let me briefly explain. I found a great deal on a Dell Vostro 1500. $599 with a bunch of upgrades. There are two things I wish to get from this call.
1. Is the warranty transferable.
2. If it was, what information would I need to get it transferred to me.
The information I have is as follows:
1. Type of warranty. The regular old one year warrantee that every model seems to get.
2. The name, address, and phone number of the gentleman I will be purchasing from.
3. The model number of the computer.
4. The knowledge that the warrantee was never activated and the product never registered (unless it is done through Dell automatically upon purchase).
Thats it. In my mind this is an easy call. I figure the most the rep will need is numbers 1 and 4. But I had all four since I’m just that good, right?
Well I was dead wrong. I went through four reps and the most I got out of any of them was that the warrantee should be transferable, keeping in mind of course that it is a small business laptop and I am not a small business.
It started off alright, I gave them the information I had. He asks me for the infamous product i.d./service number. I politely inform him I don’t have the product yet and just want to know if the warrantee is transferable. So he transfers me, fine.
Incompetence # 2. I start off asking the same question with the same information, this time stating I don’t have the laptop yet. This gentleman asks me if I have the name of the guy I will purchase it from. I DO! So I thought I would get somewhere. NOPE! This information isn’t helpful. So once again I am asked for my product/service tag. I explain, politely still but with a bit of frustration I don’t have one because I have not yet purchased the product. Well, I’m off to transfer world again and the wonderful maze of incompetence once more. So this time I land at incompentence # 3. Once again he asks me for the SAME DAMN number. After telling him I don’t have it and wondering why someone can’t just answer my question I tell him that I have been asked the same question by at least 3 different people now. He responds with these words: Well sir, if you have been asked by 3 different people don’t you think it’s important. WELL WELL WELL. Mr. I barely knows English certainly knows enough to launch a sarcastic comment my way.
So Mr. Sarcastic, non English speaking, Call Center Man, here we go again. I not so politely ask to speak to a manager when he tells me there is none available. That’s crap, but there’s a great chance they didn’t teach him the word “manager” at Dell. I once again not so politely explain to him that after 3 tries by incompetent people to answer my question at least one of them should have been able to explain that I need the product/service I.D. number. Not so though, as apparently that is all they are trained to say. So after becoming furious at him I hang up the phone and decide to try the website remembering there is a helpful chat function.
Well, are we surprised? In order to speak with anyone through the chat function it appears I need an order number, a product number, or a tag number. Complete and utter failure.
I dare not waste time with an email.
Tomorrow morning I will try again. And probably fail horribly.
So congratulations go out to Dell for the worst customer service team ever. As a matter of fact it might be the only thing Dell excels at. No surprise reports are scattered over the web of Dells fall from the throne of personal computing king. A simple search reveals many more like me with horrible tales of Dells horrible service.
So Dell, let me give you some pointers from my days in customer service:
1. English is a must for employees when English is the primary language of your customers. Broken English just will not do.
2. Attempt some product knowledge. It’s a good thing to know what you’re selling.
3. Try not to yell and get sarcastic with customers. It generally does not work. Lets just think, Acer, Gateway, HP, Compaq, Toshiba. All big names in personal computing and all pretty well off. Sure HP owns Compaq, but I can still buy one from them. All make computers similar, if not exactly equivalent. What will differentiate you from them? Certainly not your customer service.
Marks in the Sand 