28 October 2011

The customer is always wrong, computer bag blues

| ThatUniStudent
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I have just had a less than satisfactory customer service experience relating to0 booking in a computer for repairs. I brought a brand new computer at the start of the year which within the first two weeks had the backspace key break. I took it back to the retailer and after dramas I ended getting it back about a month later. Then three weeks ago the hard drive died so I took it back to the retailer again.

Last time the staff had stated that the fault could be be considered to be hardware abuse (Their way of suggesting I’d hit the thing) so I decided to show that I took good care of the computer by taking it in to the store in the thin fabric bag that the computer came in. So I sat down with the staff member, explained the issue, checked it in with the power supply and white flimsy bag and went off home. Much to my joy I got a call about a week and a half later and picked up the computer and power supply, minus the white cloth flimsy bag. I asked about that and was told they’d get back to me about it.

So after not hearing anything for a week and a half I visited the store on my way to uni this morning and asked to see the manager. She advised me that someone should have called me, and that they had no record of the cover being checked in. I advised that it had been checked in, and she said well she would check the CCTV and that she insisted that I hadn’t checked it in.

Now I don’t have the world’s best memory, but I remember clearly bringing in that flimsy bag and I remember clearly the staff member taking the computer to the cash registerds with it sitting on that flimsy bag before I left the store without that flimsy bag.

As you might imagine, the dollar value isn’t what counts here. I’m sure such a bag could be purchased for a few dollars. I’m sure I could buy a far better one for less than $20. The thing is the principle of it. I take something in to the store and leave it in the care of the staff so I should get it back. Also, if something gets lost, well I should not have to sit there and argue over its very existence and if I actually brought it in or now. Now I’m perfectly willing to accept that the store didn’t have it checked in on their documentation. That’s because I saw he staff member write up that documentation and I know they wrote the computer and power supply and didn’t write up the flimsy cover. At the time I didn’t think anything about it.

In speaking to the store manager over the phone afterwards I advised them that I’d like to see the CCTV footage she did say that she was hardly going to make up that they didn’t have, and never had the flimsy bag considering its value. I can understand that point of view. Who would want to argue over something so trivial? I mean I don’t. But at the same time, I don’t appreciate staff stating that I am wrong and that I never handed in something that I know that I did. She did offer to give me a replacement bag, which I decided to decline until after I had seen the CCTV footage and proven that I was not mistaken, and that I really had checked in the original flimsy bag and that an apology be issued. I encouraged her to check the CCTV footage for herself.

It all seems a lot to do about nothing. But it is about the principle of the matter. I know what happened and what I did. I also know that the staff member that took possession of the bag later incorrectly stated that he hadn’t, saying he had no recollection of it. People make mistakes, and I’m happy to accept that he has. Though personally I think it is a case of a staff member covering his rear end and a manager sticking by their staff (which I guess is a good thing to a point) To get a wall of denial though is really unpleasant, and an apology should be forth coming when the manager examines the CCTV for herself.

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Bails said :

john87_no1 said :

It seems that a lot of your posts are uni related, which is fine, im guessing that it’s due to you being in “uni world” right now. A place where all that matters is school work, your laptop, bingeing on whatever and having fun.

For your own sake you’re going to need to harden up, otherwise you will be in for a rude shock when you join rest of us in the real world, a place with real issues and real problems that need solving.

RiotACT: Where I come for my life guidance, counselling and advice.

No doubt this pearl of wisdom has originated from a public servant, serving out his 7.35 hour day (or more likely is on flex leave on Friday afternoon), on a disgustingly over-paid salary, and its graciously aimed at a Uni student, who is most likely studying 4 classes (each equating 10 hours of work per week), working a few nights and probably both days of their weekend, all to drag in enough money to cover rent and maybe a packet of noodles for dinner every night.

But you’re right John, harden up! Learn to live with people stealing your things, and perpetuate the cycle of accepting absolutely sub-standard customer service!

Well you’re half right…..

ThatUniStudent said :

Schizophrenia is multiple personality disorder. It has nothing to do with any mental health issues I’ve explained I have in other posts. Fankly I find it quite low that you would deliberately make fun of any person who has mental health issues. Do you pick on blind people too? Or maybe harassing women because they are female is more your style?
If you think that it is acceptable for retail staff to call you a liar, well fine. I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree then.
I guess this is to me an unexpected outcome from this post. I didn’t realise so many people considered it acceptable to be called a liar by retail staff. Please keep your posts in mind the next time you think about complaining about similar issues.

They called you a liar? Stick’s and stones sweetheart don’t shop there again and get over it. The best way to deal with a rude retailer is to verbally get it all out right then and there(complete with loud swear words and name calling), and then move on and shop somewhere else completely forgetting about it. The retailer was probably egging you on a bit for a reaction that amuses them.

BTW Schitzophrenia is not Multiple personality disorder. Multiple personality disorder is Dissociative identity disorder, but some psychiatrists doubt the existence of DID. Schtizophrenia is far more common and very debilitating.

“I didn’t realise so many people considered it acceptable to be called a liar by retail staff.”

I bet that once you left the shop, “liar” wasn’t the word they where using to describe you.

Harden up princess, you lost a worthless bag. Grow up and get over yourself.

Good on the manager for sticking up for their staff.

creative_canberran5:55 pm 29 Oct 11

ThatUniStudent said :

Schizophrenia is multiple personality disorder.

No it’s not.

ThatUniStudent5:52 pm 29 Oct 11

Schizophrenia is multiple personality disorder. It has nothing to do with any mental health issues I’ve explained I have in other posts. Fankly I find it quite low that you would deliberately make fun of any person who has mental health issues. Do you pick on blind people too? Or maybe harassing women because they are female is more your style?
If you think that it is acceptable for retail staff to call you a liar, well fine. I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree then.
I guess this is to me an unexpected outcome from this post. I didn’t realise so many people considered it acceptable to be called a liar by retail staff. Please keep your posts in mind the next time you think about complaining about similar issues.

creative_canberran3:07 pm 29 Oct 11

ThatUniStudent said :

The staff member is just covering his ass because he’s hardly going to tell the manager he did something wrong. So because the staff member lied, and his manager is backing him up, they’re both treating me like a liar.

What did he do wrong? Items left for repair almost always have whatever bag or packaging they’re submitted in discarded. Get over yourself.

See this is why we need more funding for schizophrenia research.

creative_canberran said :

“She did offer to give me a replacement bag, which I decided to decline until after I had seen the CCTV footage and proven that I was not mistaken, and that I really had checked in the original flimsy bag and that an apology be issued.”

I would recommend the OP call this number the first chance they get: 1800 629 354

I think OP is too busy calling this number right now: 1800 333 000.

ThatUniStudent said :

For all those that say oh well, I should be happy that the store lost the bag as it was packaging, would you be happy if you took your car in for a service and it came back missing a hub cap? I mean, that serves no purpose other than decoration and covering your wheel hub which does the real work. Plus you could buy some real alloy wheels instead. Of course you’d be pissed off. Especially if the staff then lied and said you never had a hub cap there in the first place and their manager backed them up, basically calling you a liar.

If they offered to replace the hubcap for free I wouldn’t give a toss. You declined their offer for a free replacement. Quit your whinging.

I don’t think losing this bag is your biggest issue.

ThatUniStudent9:44 am 29 Oct 11

Okay, maybe I have not made myself clear here. Yes it was the cloth bag that came with a computer. It wasn’t the wrapping though, that plastic stuff used as padding.
But that’s not the issue here. The issue is that the staff basically accused me of lying, stating they’d never had the bag in store, that I never brought it in, and the manager said that because her staff never wrote it up, it never existed and I was wrong. The staff member is just covering his ass because he’s hardly going to tell the manager he did something wrong. So because the staff member lied, and his manager is backing him up, they’re both treating me like a liar. That’s the issue.
The manager got back to me after I asked her to check that footage and she said they’ve got footage of me entering the store, but none of the cash register area. Yeah, smells of a cop out if you ask me.

For all those that say oh well, I should be happy that the store lost the bag as it was packaging, would you be happy if you took your car in for a service and it came back missing a hub cap? I mean, that serves no purpose other than decoration and covering your wheel hub which does the real work. Plus you could buy some real alloy wheels instead. Of course you’d be pissed off. Especially if the staff then lied and said you never had a hub cap there in the first place and their manager backed them up, basically calling you a liar.
As I clearly stated, the value of the thing does not bother me, it is the principle of being called a liar by the staff when I know I am right.

creative_canberran1:57 am 29 Oct 11

“She did offer to give me a replacement bag, which I decided to decline until after I had seen the CCTV footage and proven that I was not mistaken, and that I really had checked in the original flimsy bag and that an apology be issued.”

I would recommend the OP call this number the first chance they get: 1800 629 354

wildturkeycanoe1:08 am 29 Oct 11

White cloth, flimsy bag. I guess if you ever hand over your wallet to a gun toting thief you’ll be expecting the Italian leather coating back…..Have you never given away items to charity in a soon to be illegal shopping bag? Learn and live, be glad it wasn’t the contents of your hard drive, or was it?

ex-vectis said :

‘SLC’ costs a bit more but is more reliable and lasts a bit longer than ‘MLC’. Shame you dont get a cloth bag with them….

thanks for the tip! Its a shame about the cloth bag, hopefully the companies will include protective cloth bags in the future

Let’s get some terminology straight here. ‘Fabric Bag’, ‘Cloth Bag’, ‘Cover’, ‘Flimsy Bag’ are all just words for what essentially is a plastic bag that the manufacturer fully expects you will throw out along with the rest of the packaging.

‘Where’s my plastic bag’ leading to ‘show me the CCTV footage’ has got to be one of the funniest, weirdest, and downright saddest, things I’ve ever seen here.

Henry82 said :

timeeh said :

Nah… less moving parts, yes, but unfortunately they have quite a limited life.

100,000 writes for every single cell on the chip. Even after the cycles, the SSD wouldn’t die, the capacity of the drive would just get smaller, and you wouldn’t be able to write.

As an operating system drive or a laptop drive, i think its an excellent choice. For a torrenting/downloading drive, i don’t think its great.

Just to add my tuppenny’s worth. If you do go for an SSD (I run two lappys with 32GB SSDs as I too was getting through Harddrives at quite a rate), get a the ‘SLC’ version and not the ‘MLC’. ‘SLC’ costs a bit more but is more reliable and lasts a bit longer than ‘MLC’. Shame you dont get a cloth bag with them….

For what its worth ThatUniStudent, I’m with you on this. It may well have been a cheap flimsy cloth bag but there are some points here that should be addressed;

1. When you said that they had not returned the cloth bag they said that they would check the CCTV footage – fair play. Some may take ubmrage to that but it is fair enough.

2. When the person who then said you had not given then a cloth bag they should have shown you the CCTV footage. If they want to play the CCTV card, fine, but it goes both ways.

3. It is all very well trying to cover for a staff member but not at the expense of making the customer look like a liar when it was them who went straight to CCTV in the first place.

And yes, I agree it is stuff like this that does leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth….

Dont suppose you want to spill the beans on which shop??? 🙂

ThatUniStudent said :

Just to make it clear, I do have a purpose made / purchased backpack for the laptop. The cloth flimsy bag is used as it helps keep the screen clean / free of fingerprints. And yes, I You expected wrong.

timeeh said :

Nah… less moving parts, yes, but unfortunately they have quite a limited life.

100,000 writes for every single cell on the chip. Even after the cycles, the SSD wouldn’t die, the capacity of the drive would just get smaller, and you wouldn’t be able to write.

As an operating system drive or a laptop drive, i think its an excellent choice. For a torrenting/downloading drive, i don’t think its great.

ThatUniStudent2:49 pm 28 Oct 11

Just to make it clear, I do have a purpose made / purchased backpack for the laptop. The cloth flimsy bag is used as it helps keep the screen clean / free of fingerprints. And yes, I know it is cheap. But if I give a computer store something, I expect to get it back.

Anyway, I think you’re both at fault here. Both sides should have checked the bag in with the computer. Having said that, it sounds like the “bag” was the plastic cover that comes on the outside of new laptops, this isn’t a bag, its a dust protector, so fingerprints don’t get on the outside when they pack it. If i worked in IT, i would have thrown it out.

As per my previous post, just get on ebay and buy a wetsuit style laptop case (at the very minimum) they cost $6 delivered for a 17″ laptop. Considering its been suggested that you knock your laptop around, spend a little more and get a proper case.

Eppo said :

Dude, those white bags which come with new laptops are just packaging. Whoever fixed it probably just threw it in the bin.

Don’t you have more important things to worry about?

Says it all, really.

But the fact that you want to go over CCTV footage with a manager to prove your computer arrived with its little white packaging and extract an apology just made my day. I bet that manager has been having two whiskeys each time she gets home from dealing with you.

Go buy a laptop bag/sleeve you tightarse.

shadow boxer2:25 pm 28 Oct 11

timeeh said :

shadow boxer said :

I just assumed less moving parts, longer life. Is that not the case ?

Nah… less moving parts, yes, but unfortunately they have quite a limited life.

as quoted from wiki:
Flash-based SSDs have a limited number of writes (1-5 million or more) over the life of the drive. Software controllers manage this limitation in such a way that drives can last for many decades before failure. SSDs based on DRAM do not have a limited number of writes. Magnetic media (HDD’s)do not have a similar limited number of writes[citation needed] but are susceptible to eventual mechanical failure.

so i suppose you could look at it either way…But in saying all that don’t forget not all HDD’s/SSD’s are made equal, i.e some are made with the quality of a “cherry” otherwise are made with the quality of a “corolla”.

haha, i’m pretty sure ours went through Mexican quality control

john87_no1 said :

It seems that a lot of your posts are uni related, which is fine, im guessing that it’s due to you being in “uni world” right now. A place where all that matters is school work, your laptop, bingeing on whatever and having fun.

For your own sake you’re going to need to harden up, otherwise you will be in for a rude shock when you join rest of us in the real world, a place with real issues and real problems that need solving.

RiotACT: Where I come for my life guidance, counselling and advice.

No doubt this pearl of wisdom has originated from a public servant, serving out his 7.35 hour day (or more likely is on flex leave on Friday afternoon), on a disgustingly over-paid salary, and its graciously aimed at a Uni student, who is most likely studying 4 classes (each equating 10 hours of work per week), working a few nights and probably both days of their weekend, all to drag in enough money to cover rent and maybe a packet of noodles for dinner every night.

But you’re right John, harden up! Learn to live with people stealing your things, and perpetuate the cycle of accepting absolutely sub-standard customer service!

I’m sure the staff had a good laugh at you thinking that the cheap $2 bag your laptop came in constitutes taking good care of it and would protect it from damage. It’s probably why it ended up in the bin, to force you to buy a proper cover so that it will provide some protection next time you bump it against something and you won’t need to take it to be fixed again.. But I’m sure they now regret it after having to deal with a whining baby who think an such insignificant matter is worth spending a lot of time throwing themselves on the floor and having a tantrum about it, instead of being a grown up and building a bridge to get over it.

shadow boxer said :

I just assumed less moving parts, longer life. Is that not the case ?

Nah… less moving parts, yes, but unfortunately they have quite a limited life.

as quoted from wiki:
Flash-based SSDs have a limited number of writes (1-5 million or more) over the life of the drive. Software controllers manage this limitation in such a way that drives can last for many decades before failure. SSDs based on DRAM do not have a limited number of writes. Magnetic media (HDD’s)do not have a similar limited number of writes[citation needed] but are susceptible to eventual mechanical failure.

so i suppose you could look at it either way…But in saying all that don’t forget not all HDD’s/SSD’s are made equal, i.e some are made with the quality of a “cherry” otherwise are made with the quality of a “corolla”.

shadow boxer1:23 pm 28 Oct 11

timeeh said :

shadow boxer said :

We are getting really high hard drive failure rates in our work fleet at the moment.

If you want to keep your computer for a while (and can afford to pay a bit more) look for a solid state drive.

Sorry mate, that’s a big F for FAIL on that comment. The reason they cost more is due to their read/write speeds. Unfortunately they will not last anywhere near as long as a standard HDD. But as far as the white bag goes, you’d be lucky to keep the dust out with it, let alone protect it from anything else… Fair call on the principle of the matter, but by the sound of things you pay for what you get, crap laptop + crap service 🙂

I’m not an expert, I do know our laptop hard drives are lucky to last 12 months at the moment, I just assumed less moving parts, longer life. Is that not the case ?

It seems that a lot of your posts are uni related, which is fine, im guessing that it’s due to you being in “uni world” right now. A place where all that matters is school work, your laptop, bingeing on whatever and having fun.

For your own sake you’re going to need to harden up, otherwise you will be in for a rude shock when you join rest of us in the real world, a place with real issues and real problems that need solving.

shadow boxer said :

We are getting really high hard drive failure rates in our work fleet at the moment.

If you want to keep your computer for a while (and can afford to pay a bit more) look for a solid state drive.

Sorry mate, that’s a big F for FAIL on that comment. The reason they cost more is due to their read/write speeds. Unfortunately they will not last anywhere near as long as a standard HDD. But as far as the white bag goes, you’d be lucky to keep the dust out with it, let alone protect it from anything else… Fair call on the principle of the matter, but by the sound of things you pay for what you get, crap laptop + crap service 🙂

ebay.com.au , try it

neanderthalsis12:17 pm 28 Oct 11

Like you said Unikid, you could get a much better one for a few bucks, so is it really worth the heartache? In fact, if you want one, have one of mine, they were the conference goodies bag filler of choice for a while, so I have a small mountain of them.

I can see how annoying this is, but I think it’s probably best just to let it go, or you will end up spending too much time chasing it up, and worrying. I speak as an expert worrier myself! At least the computer is working now.

This isn’t referring to the white packaging bag that the computer comes in, is it? Surely not!

First world problems.

It all seems a lot to do about nothing.

Yes

The bag you took it in is trash. They did you a favour by throwing away your trash for you.

shadow boxer9:46 am 28 Oct 11

We are getting really high hard drive failure rates in our work fleet at the moment.

If you want to keep your computer for a while (and can afford to pay a bit more) look for a solid state drive.

This is really akin to taking it into the store in a plastic grocery bag, and then complaining that they didn’t give you the bag back. How much of your own and other people’s time have you wasted on this pointless exercise?

Sure, it’s the ‘principle of the matter’. If I were the manager of that store, I’d be ignoring you out of principle. Biggest mountain out of a mole hill I’ve seen in a very long time…

Its Gone…Moove On There Will Be Others

Eppo said :

Dude, those white bags which come with new laptops are just packaging. Whoever fixed it probably just threw it in the bin.

Don’t you have more important things to worry about?

+1

Additionally, if that’s all you have been keeping it in, that is not what I would consider “taking good care of it”. Buy a proper laptop bag/satchel/case/cover and get over it.

lmao.
I’d forgotten how much time I must have had on my hands as an undergrad.

You’re a uni student, you’re not worth the breathe to explain things to and be polite to…
Oooh, looky here, a middle-aged gentleman in suit and tie. I’m sure he’s loaded.
Now get out of my way poor uni student.

That was pretty much the treatment of all shop assistants in ANY computer store/department (regardless of country) that I received as a uni student.

Now that I’m in my middle-age they can’t get enough of me…

It makes sense. Go after the prey…err customer… that yields the highest return. To them you’re too scrawny to afford a chase.

Dude, those white bags which come with new laptops are just packaging. Whoever fixed it probably just threw it in the bin.

Don’t you have more important things to worry about?

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