Good customer service experiences: Because it does happen

[FrankenFretter***]

Update: I just heard from Gibson this morning. They've already got a new set of strap locks in the mail.

Have to also give props to Dennis of addiction-fx on Ebay, who's been really great to deal with when buying pickup magnets.

I may tackle Samsung this weekend. I have a Blu-Ray player that only seems to play the discs it likes, even discs that are fresh out of the box. Very irritating. I'll cross my fingers that they're going to be another good customer service experience.

[otaypanky***]

When I come across somebody who is just outstanding in the way they do their job I will quite often contact someone higher up the food chain at their place of work and let them know what a great employee they have working for them.
It only takes a minute to make a phone call or send an email and when some one goes out of the way for me I appreciate the chance to return the favor ~

[FrankenFretter***]

I have another one to share; this one is with the Kodak company.

I bought an all-in-one Kodak printer about 10 months ago. About three months ago, I started having problems when I tried to print photos. There were no problems printing anything else, but the photos turned out looking like blobs of ink...really bad. I emailed Kodak, and they sent a new print head. I installed the new head, and tried to print a photo: Same thing. At this point I'm getting a little pissed. I emailed again, and this time I got back a lengthy reply/apology and...wait for it...a request for my shipping info so that they could send me a new printer. Well, it arrived today (about five business days after I sent my info), and it's actually a bigger, better model than the one that it's replacing. I do have to ship the old printer back, but it's on Kodak's dime. That's pretty good customer service, if you ask me. I'm happy I went with Kodak for this printer, and because of this experience, I'll probably continue to buy Kodak products. Just thought I'd share that with everyone.

[Spudman***]

Wow! That's awesome.

I have another one to share; this one is with the Kodak company.

I bought an all-in-one Kodak printer about 10 months ago. About three months ago, I started having problems when I tried to print photos. There were no problems printing anything else, but the photos turned out looking like blobs of ink...really bad. I emailed Kodak, and they sent a new print head. I installed the new head, and tried to print a photo: Same thing. At this point I'm getting a little pissed. I emailed again, and this time I got back a lengthy reply/apology and...wait for it...a request for my shipping info so that they could send me a new printer. Well, it arrived today (about five business days after I sent my info), and it's actually a bigger, better model than the one that it's replacing. I do have to ship the old printer back, but it's on Kodak's dime. That's pretty good customer service, if you ask me. I'm happy I went with Kodak for this printer, and because of this experience, I'll probably continue to buy Kodak products. Just thought I'd share that with everyone.

[oldguy]

Very nice story, FF. Timely as well, since we're needing a new printer. You just made the choice easier. Thanks!

[Kazz]

Frank

The blu-ray issue is probably as simple as your player needing a firmware update. If you have a network capable player you can download the firmware from inside the menu of the player....if not you will have to download it to either a cd, dvd or usb drive and install it. The issue resides when the blu-ray you are trying to play is considerably newer than the blu-ray player itself. Keep in mind Blu-Ray is still evolving technology and they are making it better for us every day.

I love my 2 Blu-Ray players.

[Beerman***]

I was tiring of the sound of my Ibanez acoustic and wanted another brand that sounded as good as a Martin but didn't cost my future. I had heard of the Zager Guitar company a few years back and looked at the website and the positive reviews were overwhelming. Certainly this was being overblown.
I emailed a question and got a reply in 15 minutes! Fluke right?
Then I kept searching for other options but kept going back to Zager. I figured if they gave me 30 days to try the guitar and would even pay shipping back, what could I lose? I bought one.
During the 3 days before it shipped I had a few questions and I sent an email on a Sunday night shortly after 9 pm. Bam, got an answer in 20 minutes. Even after the sale the customer service was excellent and of course, I'm loving my Zager guitar.

[FrankenFretter***]

Frank

The blu-ray issue is probably as simple as your player needing a firmware update. If you have a network capable player you can download the firmware from inside the menu of the player....if not you will have to download it to either a cd, dvd or usb drive and install it. The issue resides when the blu-ray you are trying to play is considerably newer than the blu-ray player itself. Keep in mind Blu-Ray is still evolving technology and they are making it better for us every day.

I love my 2 Blu-Ray players.

My Blu-Ray is actually connected (hardwired) to my router, and it always tells me when there's a new firmware update available. I've had somewhere around six or seven updates since I bought the player. The last update was a couple days ago, and I haven't had any trouble since then, but that might not mean anything. We'll see. I do keep hoping.

[FrankenFretter***]

I was tiring of the sound of my Ibanez acoustic and wanted another brand that sounded as good as a Martin but didn't cost my future. I had heard of the Zager Guitar company a few years back and looked at the website and the positive reviews were overwhelming. Certainly this was being overblown.
I emailed a question and got a reply in 15 minutes! Fluke right?
Then I kept searching for other options but kept going back to Zager. I figured if they gave me 30 days to try the guitar and would even pay shipping back, what could I lose? I bought one.
During the 3 days before it shipped I had a few questions and I sent an email on a Sunday night shortly after 9 pm. Bam, got an answer in 20 minutes. Even after the sale the customer service was excellent and of course, I'm loving my Zager guitar.

Nice. I'll have to check out their site sometime.

[FrankenFretter***]

Very nice story, FF. Timely as well, since we're needing a new printer. You just made the choice easier. Thanks!

Cool! Hope you get one you like!

[FrankenFretter***]

I have another one to share; this one is with the Kodak company.

I bought an all-in-one Kodak printer about 10 months ago. About three months ago, I started having problems when I tried to print photos. There were no problems printing anything else, but the photos turned out looking like blobs of ink...really bad. I emailed Kodak, and they sent a new print head. I installed the new head, and tried to print a photo: Same thing. At this point I'm getting a little pissed. I emailed again, and this time I got back a lengthy reply/apology and...wait for it...a request for my shipping info so that they could send me a new printer. Well, it arrived today (about five business days after I sent my info), and it's actually a bigger, better model than the one that it's replacing. I do have to ship the old printer back, but it's on Kodak's dime. That's pretty good customer service, if you ask me. I'm happy I went with Kodak for this printer, and because of this experience, I'll probably continue to buy Kodak products. Just thought I'd share that with everyone.

I can no longer recommend Kodak. The printer that they sent me is doing the same thing the old one was doing, and it doesn't matter which computer I print from. I replaced the print head and the cartridges, and I ran all the maintenance protocols. The problem is still there.

From what I've been reading on the Internet, this is a problem with a lot of Kodak printers, maybe all of them. I think I'm stuck with a lemon. It will still print simple documents, but photos are a bust. You would think a company like Kodak, who's name is associated with photography, would produce a printer that could actually print more than a dozen photos before going TU. Not so much, apparently.

I've once again sent them a sternly worded email, and received the stock "use our online troubleshooter" reply. If I keep pushing, they'll probably send another refurbished printer that will eventually exhibit the same problems. I imagine that I'll have to find another brand of printer and just bite the bullet.

[marnold***]

I've had good experience with Best Buy/Insignia. Bought one of their plasma t.v.s last Sept. I have a problem with it restarting itself when accessing certain menu options the first time. Someone from the Geek Squad is going to drive here to replace the one board in it which should fix it. All the people I spoke to were very helpful and clearly not in India. Color me impressed.

[Duffy]

I have owned a kodak photo printer and several hp's. I have a Canon now that I especially like.

[otaypanky***]

This past Thanksgiving was the 3 year anniversary of the date I bought an iMac online during their Black Friday sale. I got the 3 year Apple Care plan too.
I had only 1 minor problem in the 3 year period, sometimes the 'puter wouldn't wake up from sleep mode. I had to disconnect the IEC cord, plug it back in, and then hit the power button to get it going. I didn't want to take it just anyplace for repair, I figured taking it to an Apple store was best. But the nearest Apple store is an hour away. I decided since it wasn't critical and I use it everyday for business I would wait until the end of the 3 year period in case something else happened I'd get the whole thing checked out. I called to set up an appt. and they told me my plan had expired. I didn't take in to account that Thanksgiving is a day later each year. I explained to them if I'm only 3 days out consider the fact that the computer was shipped to me after purchase, I didn't have it for a week after buying it online. They said the warranty starts when the unit is paid for. That didn't sit well with me, grrr, and I was persistent in asking to speak with people higher up the food chain at Apple corporate until I finally got to speak with the right person who authorized a warranty repair.
It was an hour's drive to the Apple Store, they checked it and said I had to leave it. An hour's drive home. A week later it's done. Two more hours of driving to pick it up. They had replaced the entire motherboard and a fan. The problem occurred 4 or 5 more times over the next several weeks. They wanted me to bring it back again. I asked what they thought the problem could potentially be since they had replaced the entire motherboard already 'guessing' that would fix it, they didn't really find the reason for the problem. I asked for the head tech to ask what the game plan might be. I explained it's 4 hours of driving and a week without my business computer. Doing it again would be 8 hours drive time, another week off line, and still no guarantee if it was fixed since no one had an answer to why it happens. I told him I thought was an awful lot to expect from a customer so they could replace parts 1 or 2 at a time in the hopes they fixed it.
How many times was I expected to do this???
I guess the driving part convinced him, maybe he hates traffic too, but he decided to authorize a new iMac for me !!! Yikes !!! A brand new machine for my 3 year old one. Nada, N/C, on the house, friggin' freebie all the way. Thank You Apple man, that was awesome

[Spudman***]

I guess the driving part convinced him, maybe he hates traffic too, but he decided to authorize a new iMac for me !!! Yikes !!! A brand new machine for my 3 year old one. Nada, N/C, on the house, friggin' freebie all the way. Thank You Apple man, that was awesome

That is super sweet. Congratulations.

[Tig***]

I have owned a kodak photo printer and several hp's. I have a Canon now that I especially like.

We've had several color inkjet printers, but the latest one from Canon has been the best, most reliable by far.
I saved almost 30% on ink refills by buying via Amazon. The ink refill place here does a crappy job and the cartridges print results were sloppy.

[deeaa*]

I have a HP photo printer/copy machine, but it's been out of ink nearly a year now.
I also have two laser printers and another scanner which I seem to primarily use.

I've been considering buying new inks (it has four reservoirs, black and the three colors) but I dunno if it's worth it any more...those refills cost such a big percentage of a new printer it seems crazy. Lemme see how much actually...

Costs almost 80 euros for all new ink cartridges it seems...new printer costs 129 euros.
80 euros for ~300 pages (or a couple dozen large photos) makes almost 30c per printed page, or something in the range of 2-4 euros per printed photograph just for the ink, not including the paper!

Now, the net is full of printing services that print photographs for as low as 0.9c per picture, and bigger ones at 15c etc...and those are REAL photographs, not printed ones.

After all, no matter how great a printed picture _looks_ - well I can't tell between a shop-made real photo and one from my printer by eye...if you take a magnifying glass to it, or especially if you try to repro-scan it, you notice it is after all way lesser quality.

So, the photos cost half as much ordered than when printed home - and if you wish, you can also edit the photos/make them into cards if you like - you just send them over online and they are delivered to your door in 2 days - they are of way better quality, and there's no hassle...WHY would I ever want to print my own when this is so?

B&W is usually quite good enough for me anyway...and even one of these cheap laser printers is capable of ~4000 pages before the ink runs out...and by then it's usually always cheaper to buy an entire new printer too. The last time I bought a new cartridge, and it's fine, but I won't buy another but a new printer instead. Because you never quite get the quality after a few cartridge changes, there will be some small spots now and then; I can't clean up the system well enough for a new cartridge. And, often it's cheaper to buy a new printer anyway. Although the new ones only have a smaller cartridge for ~2000 pages, it's still at least like a year of use and no worries about dirt and specks on prints.

I've been thinking I should really buy me a color laser, and if I want some vibrant colors on like birthday cards, I can laminate them or something.

But, hardly makes sense to buy inkjet printers or inks for 'em these days it seems to me.

[deeaa*]

BTW it just makes me so sad that in the space of the last decade or so I've tossed 3 laser printers, one matrix printer, two scanners, at least 3 inkjet printers into the garbage...loads of landfills only because the manufacturers have made it so much easier and better just to buy new stuff.

Not to mention all the monitors, TV, 3-4 computers and the loads of other appliances I've taken to the dump in the same time...hell it's enough to fill a small room I'm sure.

It should be made illegal to sell anything that lasts only a few years and is cheaper to replace than keep in shape or refill. I would gladly pay 300-400 for a printer I'd know would for sure last me at least a decade and refills would be just a few dollars, instead of nearly the price of a new machine....

[sunvalleylaw]

Story of two printers. Well, two types of printers.

I have at my office a HP 5mp laser printer that I still use every work day and have since purchase in December of '95. They still sell the cartridges for it, and it prints just fine. A little slow on PDF's as compared to the new Brother my paralegal has, but still. The Brother has been good over the first two years too. OTOH, our inkjets at home have been an endless stream of garbage printers that use a ton of ink, jam up regularly, and in the end fail. We have a HP L7590 right now that jams too much, uses too much ink, etc. When it dies, I am seriously thinking about getting a laser printer for home too. I would probably go black and white, and just keep a color inkjet for if we really need to print color.


Good Customer Service story: When I purchased my tele at GC Boise the other day, the workers were all quite good and helpful. The manager ended up handing the transaction, and tipped me to a used molded hard shell case for $10. It was a good shopping experience. Not the same as the old independent Boise store that folded last year, but still a good customer service experience.