Sank... Company capitulated and .....

Sank... Company capitulated and .....


I wrote a couple brief articles about my getting involved with the fun and travails of a new computer with a really new operating system. Yes I helped my friend out. Here are the original links.

Sink or Swim ? Don't know until you try? And other such ideas.
http://dexterzone.blogspot.com/2007/02/sink-or-swim-dont-know-until-you-try.html

Update on Sink or Swim with a New Operating System
http://dexterzone.blogspot.com/2007/02/update-on-sink-or-swim-with-new.html

Well after some time after the printer/fax machine was working.. The owner of the computer called the people she bought the system .. (computer system + Fax/Printer) The result of the conversation was that the printer was too "new" and no one had turned in any empty ink cartridges ... so they could not sell her any more ink!

So this finally frosted her cookies! So with some notes and encouragement from me... She went ahead and had someone mind her small business while she buried herself in an office for an anticipated battle of a customer return.

To her surprise she found that she part of a wave of unhappy customers and that the company had apparently heard enough complaints lack of resolution of issues that they gave her an acceptable proposal.

She would keep everything except the computer system box itself.
She would ship the misbehaving computer back.

The manufacturer would send her a new tower computer with the previous version of the operating system installed. (Hurrah!)

Yes they did magically find some ink cartridges as well!

I am glad for her. She will hopefully will once again be a happy customer.

I feel sorry for the staff and management of the manufacturer who will have to cycle who knows how many systems back, refurbish and resell. I know its part a fact of life of the business... But no doubt they do not need extra work to do such on top of the normal returns!

In my opinion so much pain could have been avoided. So at best my specific contact will be again paddling water, but there still was a loss in productivity, frustration , and uncertainty.

It was only with some proactive work on the customer's part (With external guidance) to push the issue to some level of attention. I hate to think of how many doorstops were created with this mistake.

I will keep you posted as I learn of the results of their promise to correct her computer problems.

Regards,
Dexter

Update on Sink or Swim with a New Operating System

Update on Sink or Swim with a New Operating System

I have worked too long in Technical Support Organizations to see people report issues that need to be resolved; demend service for the issue; continue to be insistant on updates to resolve their issue; but suddenly disapear when the problem is resolved. So the technical support person has no real followup by the customer to show that the work resulted in solving the problem. Even if it is not for a little bit of human satisfaction, but just to know that doing X+Y+Z does solve the issue for the next person.

The problem is that some Technical Support organizations have no clue to organize incoming information that could help them in customer support. Some know Organizations know how to do this. I know how to do this! In the case of a friend who asked for my help... There was not clean mechanism to report success or failure. I would have to wait a long time the phone support queue to update the support incident in order to simply say the issue is closed or that the problem was resolved. So there really is not much incentive to create closure with the support organization.

So I will have to satisfy myself gentle readers to say that I downloaded that update in 5 minutes on my high speed connection for my friend. ( It would have taken about 5 hours for her on her dial up to get this update) . I succeeded in un-installing the pre-installed drivers and reinstalled the new driver file set. Magically her printer/fax combo now works aok.

However it still is with horror as I watch a number of these pre-installed applications be shut down or blocked by the new operating system as it is not "compatible".

No, I placed my limits on getting her fax/printer combo working. I completed that task.

Its now up to her to continue dog paddling in the computer waters to keep posted on the latest sagas of her current operating system updates.

No doubt. I will be asked for further help... Stay tuned. :)