free tech support? I THINK NOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[shecky981]

OK. i need to vent here.

as i am sure most of you all know i work fer CompUSA. i had this customer today........

Dude bought an HP machine like 6 months ago, he is having problems burning CDR's, it wont work, the disk wont format, etc... etc... blah blah blah... I offered a few suggestions about media types, etc.. all of which he says he tried. Now be aware this is happening at 2 PM on a busy Sunday afternoon.

I nicely asked him if he purchased the extended warranty with us (i asked him this as it includes toll-free tech support for the life of the plan) he replied with a "f**k no i didn't buy that." (yes, i am quoting him here.) I then explained to him that part of the reason we offer these plans is that we are not allowed nor obligated to provide tech support on the sales floor. I then suggested he can try and call HP for help as he is still within warranty with them, as i can not sit there and show him how to do it by making a data CDR (which is what he wanted me to do. "walk me through how to do it on this HP over here" )

well, sure enough this guy flips his lid, gets all pissed off at me, says "this is B.S." yells that he "dropped $1500 on this PC and this is what i get for it?" (i hate to break it to ya, but people drop a heckofa lot more than $1500 at the store 20 times a day, i am not impressed) and so on and so on.

now, i do not take verbal abuise from customers AT ALL, so as soon as his voice rose i asked him to PLEASE quiet down and used my famous line "Sir, here is what we are going to do, you are going to calm down and lower your voice, and i am going to do everything i can within reason to make you happy today."

well, sure enough, i did not make him happy and he stormed out of the store all angry. etc.. etc.. etc..

well.

people do not comprehend the idea of tech support at all. And asking a commissioned salesperson to spend an hour with you for something that you should be paying for is just NOT gonna happen. The fact of the matter is that while i believe, in theory at least, one should be able to get support on a product from where you bought it, i do NOT believe it should be free, especially on a computer, and especially not 6 months after the purchase date. the industry is such that free support like that does not exist anymore. And i know you are probbabbly all thinking "what a typical compusa jerk" but almost all of my customers love me and come back to buy from me again and again. my retrun rate is very low, and my repeat business is very high, so, i must be doing something right. I am sorry, but i cannot sympathise with these people, we offer them a service option that will provide support for them from us if they wish, we explain what the do and do not get if they do not buy a service plan from us, and then they still come back in and act like we did them a disservice.

ok. done venting. i feel better now.

[Jeremy Byrd]

hi shecky981,

Working in retail for a number of years I can relate to your situation...

I might have suggested to that customer that he come to this site and ask for help

Glad your feeling better.

-Jeremy Byrd

[Edave]

As a customer I feel I get better service if im nice to the salespeople.I too have been in public sales(Managed a NAPA Auto Parts store).Boy I would get some "dandys" in there.I used to love the line "just give me one,there all the SAME".1 hour later they would be in returning it saying "this aint the right one"

[Blankman]

Shecky as I sit and type this I'm unemployed for the first time in my life. I was just fired the other day for a multitude of "trumped" up reasons including being rude to customers. I also have worked in parts and retail and I "agree". Sometimes I wonder what planet people are from? I've had to be nice to people that have run me up one wall and then the other using words a drunken sailor wouldn't use.

The owner of the company where I worked, the one who just gave me the can used to give my name out to family and friends for tech support. Heck, the night he fired me he asked me to sit down and explain the entire workings of the system and where he could find all the information to run the LAN!

[Jason Padgett]

Ah, the nice thing about being a cop. We always seem to win those arguments...and you don't have to be nice and kiss the criminal's butt either. Sure, I'm professional about it, but don't be looking for that premium-level of customer service where the customer is always right. Kind of makes up for the low pay, crappy hours, and getting shot at...