Mar
16

Customer Hardware versus Software Problems

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We had a customer come in with a computer about 2 weeks ago for viruses and spyware. We eradicated the problems and gave the customer their computer back. The customer calls two weeks later and says that their computer won’t boot up. We tell them to bring it in at no charge. We diagnose the system and find out that the main board in the system is bad and needs to be replaced. The customer loses their minds and says that we should have tested that when we had it in two weeks ago. The customer also says that they hadn’t used the computer since they picked it up, but then they countradicted themselves and say that some of the software work that was requested wasn’t done correctly. So which is it? We try to explain that hardware is different than software. We worked on software before and now they have a hardware problem. We removed viruses and spyware and now their mainboard has a problem. Sometimes you just can’t get information across to people. What do you think?

Mar
13

Hold that Computer

money-out-the-window

Customer comes into the store on Monday and leaves a $50 deposit for us to hold a computer for him until Friday. We take the custom computer off the shelf and set it aside for him. The customer calls us on Thursday and says that he found a better deal, he saved $8 off another computer with the same specs. The sales rep tells him that we will give it to him for $12 less so that he can save a little money on the deal. The customer says that he already purchased the other computer. We gave the customer his deposit back. This really upsets me for 3 reasons:

1. The customer gives us a deposit on a computer and continues to shop for another computer.

2.  We are taking our inventory off the floor so that it can’t be sold to someone else.We have to order more equipment to replenish stock.

3. The customer doesn’t give us a chance to help him out, he buys a different computer from someone else.  He could have called us before he purchased it and said something. It would have been nice if he would have given us a chance considering we spent time with him and educated him on what he needed to buy.

I am not sure if it the economy or if some people are just this way every day. What do you think?

Jan
30

Crazy Customer with a Trackball Mouse

Customer comes into the store and buys a used computer. He is very nice and everything is going well. He pays for the computer and takes it home. We don’t hear from him for several hours and then he calls and says his mouse doesn’t work. We try to do the usual diagnostics over the phone, but we can’t seem to get the mouse to work over the phone on his computer. It appears to be connected correctly and it should be working. We recommend that he bring it in so that we can check it and he hangs up on us. We figure that he will be on our doorstep any time now.

The customer shows up on our door step and he puts the computer down on the counter and he vents on us and tells us that Windows doesn’t work right and that he can’t get the mouse to work. We pickup the computer and plug it in using our mouse to check the port. The computer sees the mouse fine and we show it to the customer. He then complains on how the desktop is setup and we put the pc into classic mode so that he can see the icons on the desktop. We then shutdown the computer and begin to plug in his trackball (all the while he is going crazy on us) and we notice that the pins on the trackball are bent. We show it to the customer and he apologizes up and down, and he leaves on good terms.

I don’t understand why people have to go off and be so upset without any provocation. We were more than willing to help him. We obviously couldn’t see the trackball over the phone so we couldn’t tell that the pins were bent. What are your experiences?

Mar
26

Seagate will not allow a hard drive to be sent back under warranty

Seagate will not allow a hard drive to be sent back under warranty to Seagate because they sold the hard drive to another company that sold it to me.

Here is a quote from Seagate’s warranty checker page:

The product you identified was sold as a system component. Please contact your place of purchase for service. Seagate sells many drives to direct OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) customers. These products are usually configured for the OEMs only, as components for their systems. You must contact your place of purchase for any warranty support on these drives.

What Seagate is doing is making the company that I bought it from deal with the warranty and making me wait longer to get my hard drive back. They want me to send the hard drive to where I purchased it, and that vendor has to send it back to Seagate. I would bet that this policy really cuts back on warranty returns and it also really upsets customers who won’t buy their products again. I went round and round with Seagate on the phone today to no avail. Does this seem stupid to you or is it just me?

Mar
15

One hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing

Work Yesterday:

I work in a retail/service business selling and repairing computers. A lady just called and was upset that she hadn’t heard about her computer repair. The thing is that she didn’t drop the computer off, her son did. We have her son’s information on the paperwork including his cell phone number. We don’t have her phone numbers. She was upset because the computer has been here for a month. The son was supposed to come in and figure out what he wanted to do with the computer, but of course he hasn’t, even though we have called him repeatedly. Is it just me or is it the son’s fault for not following up with his mom?

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