Customer Service Experiences?

[kimsland]

Hey because Keyboard Cowboy posted a good example of customer experience, I'll put one in:

Customer: here is my computer it keeps "freezing" up, when I play games
Me: I'll need to run some tests, and let you know. There is a set minimum $50 cost, not including any required hardware
Customer: thanks I'll leave it with you, please let me know before replacing any possible hardware
Me: Ok

Testing: Malware; Checkdisk; Driver/software/Windows Updates; programs starting; Programs installed; Testing the "games" so forth... ~1 to 2 hrs on bench
All tests come out ok, no Issue with software. Issue seems to be hardware related. Start testing Ram with Memtest
As soon as testing Ram, fault found to be faulty single Ram card, many errors reported
Rang customer to inform Ram card replacement, and also possible increase in Ram amount

Me: The fault is with your Memory "Ram" card, it will need to be replaced
Customer: my son has just ordered two Ram cards so I don't need you to replace them
Me: That's lucky. OK then that'll be $50 (even though it was on the bench for ~ 2 Hrs)
Customer: What for? I could have worked out the fault myself or fixed it just by putting the new Ram cards in!
Me: Yes but you didn't know it was the Ram, otherwise you wouldn't had brought it to me
Customer: So, for your 5mins of work, you expect me to pay $50??
Me: It took 2Hrs, of testing until I found the fault, and yes.
Customer: but I could have fixed it in 5mins myself, do you know what you're doing?
Me: I have created a report for you, it will be a minimum $50 charge as stated to you already
Customer: I won't be going to you again!
Me: That's your choice.

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Oh, just thought of another even better one

Customer: I need my Windows re-installed on my new drive, my old drive has died
(Customer hands over Computer and a "standard" Windows Setup Disc only)
Me: It will take ~approx 3hrs to the job, you will be charged exactly $120 (as usual - cheap)
Customer: No it doesn't ! It takes about 20mins to install Windows
Me: Once Windows is installed, all your drivers require updating and Windows Service Packs and further Windows Updates completed (not including many other areas: Adobe; Optimizing; Antivirus so forth)
Customer: What a joke! I just need you to install Windows only! Not this other stuff
Me: I can't help you (knowing he definitely will not be satisfied with "Windows only") You will need to take it someone else that can do it for you
Customer: At that price; I'd rather do it myself

Note: The customer's computer was seen, by me 2 weeks later, for Malware removal, as he had forgotten to install Antivirus software
After some negotiation the computer was clean installed, the customer paid $150 due to some data backup

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But just on that "joke" reference part
Most people do not understand how much time and work is involved servicing/updating a computer
I have had many people say to me that only takes a few mins to do. They have no idea
The "20 minute" Windows install, always makes me laugh though (even if the customer had a "Restore" disc)

So anyone else..

 

[Harper]

My favorite has to be my customer from ****. Some of the older TF memebers here know about this one as he the same idiot that took me to court over the fact that I would not fix his virus infected computer under warranty.

Customer :- About this new computer I purchased from you, how do I connect the it up to the DVD player?
Me :- (Thinking) OH Dear. He's not expecting me to explain to him video capture. He barely understands media player.
Me :- Connecting the computer upto the DVD player? What are you planning to achieve by doing this?
Customer :- I don't know.
Me :- If you don't know what you are trying to achieve then can not tell you what you need to do in order to do it.
Customer :- Your computer expert.... (hangs up)

I really also hate those people that think that just because you are good with computers you can fix just about any thing else that is computer related. Same idiot wanted me to fix a 404 Error on some else web site. And I had to painfully explain to him how to use MS Outlook Express to contact the webmaster from the other website that they have a problem. However this was not good enough "Why can't you fix it?"

 

[Jorsoft]

I work for a corporate helpdesk and people get pretty ****ed that their unauthorized Firefox and Chrome browsers can't pull up the sharepoint sites correctly. The "they're not supported, sorry" answer is never good enough for them.

They're especially bad when you get the odd Mac user connecting from home. They get incredibly ****ed when their Safari (a substandard browser imo at any rate) won't work with corporate websites and I have to tell them they can either download IE for Mac or find a PC to use.

 

[bmxfreakrider]

What about firefox? I would (not the best term, but) assume that it should work, if the mac user is completely anti-microsoft. Didn't have any horrible experiences today, else I would add, today was fairly a good day, only made about 10 sales in 7 hours, but no issues none the less, and one customer actually ordered me to find ther the manager when i finished checking her out (scared the crap out of me, i thought my job was at stake) and when she finally came over, she simply told her that I was probably one of the finest HT associates that she as ever dealed with. Shows how much two minutes of customer education can change their expeirence (drew a diagram on how to hook up a dvd/tape player AND dtv converter + digital antenna, so I grabbed a blank pricetag and sharpied a real quick diagram on the back, and walked her through it)

But in reply to kimsland, I see your point, but this was the first time I have ever encountered this problem with any customer. Now (done three times just today) I am sure to notify the customer of the delivery window:

me: What would be the best day for us to deliver the tv to you? (as I turn the monitor around to show them the calendar), ALL of the days with green are available.

customer: I think (insert day) is the best for me.

me: Just to inform you, the delivery window does range from 9am to 5pm, but we will give you a call the day before to give you a tighter frame of when we will be arriving, generally a 2 hour bracket.

customer: (either objects or agrees, if object, happened once today) we do offer a premium delivery service that we can schedule down to a 2 hour window one week in advance for 349 (which includes hanging tv, connecting up to 7 devices, assembling any furnature, etc.), or for an extra $30, we can upgrade you to next day delivery, and we can tune your time window down to 2 horus.

 

[95BlackGA]

I really hope I get one of the open positions at my local BB. Of course, I hope I'm not going to be like I am now. I go to best buy to find deals, and while I'm there, I'm usually in the computer department. I usually hear the sales people pulling **** out their *sses, so I just join the conversation and tell the people what they're really looking at, and if they'll need anything else for what they're needing the computer for. They usually walk out, thanking me.

 

[iFargle]

All that commotion for a +-1 hour time frame... I would have been ROFL'ing if I saw that

 

[bmxfreakrider]

Speaking of, when i got off of my shift i went to the geek squad desk to see about pricing for a new charger for my laptop, however while I was waiting, a couple brought their tower and were trying to diagnose a no display issue.

all the whole while im standing behind them looking over them watching the geek squad guy. he hooks it up, presses the power button, lights up, no display. he pulls out a dvi adapter, trys that port. no display, trys the onboard no display. hooks up a serial post debugger, failing post in early stages. He cracks it open (while I notice the front sticker says 3gb, (obviously 3x 1gb sticks of matching ram, and on darker green stick of ram, first thought in my mind, cust added ram.) all the whole while the geeksquad guy never asked any questions. just completely silent. so he pulls the gpu and tries another. no display. trys onboard again, no display. pulls out new gpu and tries onboard. no display. pulls off heatsink and inspects cpu, removing all thermal paste and puts it back on, still no display. unplugs every conponent, no display. i go "i cant take this anymore, remove the darker stick of ram from the 3rd slot". he does so. it boots straight to vista. I turned to the customer and asked if they did anything to it, they said that they had her son upgrade it. boom, problem solved. he put in a 2gb stick of ddr2 when the board already had three 1gb sticks. board caps at 4gb.

some ppl just don't know what they are doing lol... at least he had one thing right, it had vista x64.

 

[Jorsoft]

What about firefox? I would (not the best term, but) assume that it should work, if the mac user is completely anti-microsoft.

FF is poor at best in terms of the intranet sites and sharepoints I've had to support and again, it's not a supported browser in any major IT department I've dealt with. IE6 (and 7 mostly) is the standard most corporations center their sites around. In this case, it's not even a question of the Mac user being anti-MS at all, they're almost always just too dumb to know how internet browsers work and doing anything beyond telling them what they need to install means that I would be supporting their personal computer which is a big no-no.

 

[Harper]

I work for a corporate helpdesk and people get pretty ****ed that their unauthorized Firefox and Chrome browsers can't pull up the sharepoint sites correctly. The "they're not supported, sorry" answer is never good enough for them.

They're especially bad when you get the odd Mac user connecting from home. They get incredibly ****ed when their Safari (a substandard browser imo at any rate) won't work with corporate websites and I have to tell them they can either download IE for Mac or find a PC to use.

My Ex-GF was like that. She's full on Linux and Free BSD. However she has this very one sided view when she can not log on to work. You tell her to just go back on to windows because at least that it works, and she thinks it's the end of the world. He's cluey about Linux serves, so she's then telling her work admins how to do thier job by telling them that the should convert to linux.

Most linux users that i know seems to hate windows, but will use it if they have too. Eg. Remote log on to work, internet banking, etc etc. My Ex-GF treats windows as if it was some sort of highly infectous disease

 

[bmxfreakrider]

just like some pc users treat mac's... and are too afraid to touch linux because the fear that they will not know how to use it. I used to be very anti mac back in the day, but my room mate has a mac and our wireless router is a pos so I must use her mac to check my email when my laptop cant connect to that pos router. my theory is, they all take you to the same place: THE INTERNET. GGNORE lol