Local service excellence

For the last 3 months I have been having problems with my Laptop power supply, finally yesterday it stopped working all together, and that was it, I was moving to the UK where things worked. Let me give you the sequence of events, which frustrated the heck out of me. So the power supply stops working after another Eskom power cut, it just doesn’t come back on, I still have power and log onto the Sony website find out what the warranty period is, 10 minutes later I find out its only one year, the laptop is 13 months old! (go figure) Ok so I find a Sony repair centre in Cape Town who insists I bring it in so technicians can asses it, they run a whole load of diagnostics takes 3 days, I don’t have 3 days all my data is on the laptop and I can’t operate without it. At this time I am so frustrated I drive around the block to calm down. The whole office decide to steer clear of me, my eyes are blood shot and I’m stressed.

Compare this to the experience I had at our local computer repair shop Compuworld in Vredenburg, I arrive at 8.30am, and head straight to the back office, which is full of computers being repaired, I head directly for Eugene the owner who drops what he is doing and takes my laptop puts it on charge and continues to test the power supply, he tells me they have these issues all the time, and explains how they work and what he is going to do to repair it, don’t worry, he says “don’t worry, how much” about R150, but more importantly when can I have it back, “today, come back in 2 hours” that is what I call Local fantastic service, you can NEVER get that sort of service from a chain store because nobody takes responsibility, compare that to the service I received, I dealt directly with the owner and he took total control and responsibility for the situation.

At the same time my buyer Eon has also taken matters into his own hands, sourced one in Cape Town, had our local courier Pegasus collect it on an over night service and I have it at 9am in the morning, compare this too visiting the returns department at a large chain store, which goes something like this, and how they make you suffer!

1. Dig out receipt from my filing cabinet

2. Drive to mall and find parking

3. Stand in queue at customer service desk

4. Explain what was wrong to vacant 16yr old behind counter

5. Explain what was wrong to equally vacant 50 something behind counter

6. Wait while they phone around trying to find out what to do

7. Hold for Europe call centre

8. Explain to call centre what is wrong

9. Get told I should just charge the unit

10. Explain that it's fully charged

11. Get told to take it home and charge it for 24 hours

12. Explain that it's fully charged

13. Get told again that to take it home and charge it for 24 hours

14. Give up and go home and charge it for 24 hours

15. The pain continues The next day:- Drive to mall and find parking

16. Stand in queue at customer service desk

17. Explain what was wrong to same vacant 16yr old behind counter

18. Explain what was wrong to same equally vacant 50 something behind counter

19. Wait while they phone around trying to find out what to do

20. Hold for Joburg call centre

21. Explain to Joburg call centre what is wrong

22. Get told I should just charge the unit

23. Explain that it's fully charged and that I have already charged it

24. Hand phone over to vacant 16 yr old behind counter

25. Wait while she gets instructions

26. Hand broken item in and ask when it will be ready.

27. Wait while vacant 16 yr old phones joburg call centre

28. Get told maybe 28 days

29. 3 and a half weeks later I got a phone call saying unit is repaired Drive to mall and find parking

30. Stand in queue at customer service desk

31. Explain that I want my widget to vacant 16yr old behind counter

32. Explain that I want my widget to equally vacant 50 something behind counter

33. Wait while they hunt for the widget

To Eon & Eugene thank you very much. Local is Lekker, consider the cost of ownership before you decide to spend your hard earned Rands, at the faceless chain store.