Computer Problems - Page 4
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Introduction |
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| 6th E-mail
7 July Interesting reply... took ages and, like all those before from your department, not a reply at all. I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties with your e-mail system - mine works fine, as you can see - maybe because I don't have your service technicians trying to maintain it. You really should try external sourcing - you would be amazed at how the world of PC maintenance has advanced! There is also the point that I reply to e-mails when I get them - you don't - I know because I have a receipt for every mail I have sent to xxxxxx and I know that every one of them has been opened and read on the next working day - so the delay isn't in you getting them, or in me getting your reply - the delay is entirely due to your department's inefficiency in dealing with customers - even the staff in some of your shops say so!! So don't try to blame "unavoidable delays". No, I won't telephone your dedicated "Customer Services Department" for two reasons: 1. I have telephoned them before and have got absolutely nowhere. This correspondence etc has now been going on for SIX MONTHS with NO MEANINGFUL REPLY from xxxxxx in all that time. When I have phoned, the poor "advisor" hasn't a clue to the background of correspondence etc. Some, the more dedicated ones, have promised to "check the file and get back to me" and haven't. 2. I want (and have) a full record of every bit of correspondence, e-mail etc that has passed between us. Verbal assurances over the telephone can be denied later, either in writing or in evidence, and I am not falling for it. I have had replies to questions I haven't even asked, I have had replies where I have wondered if you have written to the wrong person. I have had no reply to the two basic points - Your salesman misled me - inadvertently or not. Your repair man devalued this computer. My case is clear. I am more than prepared to take this case to the extent of legal proceedings if I have to, as I have some considerable experience of court procedures, being a professional expert witness on many occasions, and the court environment is one in which I am entirely comfortable. Are you? So no, I won't telephone. Where you get the idea that the situation "may have been resolved by other means" is beyond my comprehension - Instead I received yet another non-reply from your Mr xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx which I, and my friends to whom I have shown it, find completely derisory. It answers absolutely nothing, merely attempting once again to bypass the issues. I sent a response to him almost immediately and I attach a copy of that also for your information. Please get your act together and reply properly to this because your efforts so far amount to nothing. Before resorting to the legal system, I intend to visit your shops, deliberately when they are busy, and put my complaint to the manager, on the shop floor. He will HAVE to listen, won't he? Unfortunately, due to a rare hereditary vocal condition, I am unable to speak quietly, so other customers might overhear. That would be tough eh? I could go on but I am laughing too hard - "Customer Services" - that's a cracker, it's the way you tell them. I hope the manager in the shop gets the joke... And then I thought I would be helpful to them, poor souls trying to diagnose a faulty e-mail system... And them the country's leading PC retailer... makes you think eh? Oh and then, while I was trying to diagnose something else, I found out another interesting fact... I started to suspect that the motherboard they had fitted was the wrong part anyway... I wasn't sure though so I sent them this: |
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| The 7th E-mail
25 June 1. You received and read my last e-mail on Saturday at 9:36am. Your e-mail system seems to be working fine. Just thought you would like to know - these things can sometimes be so difficult to diagnose internally, even for competent installers. 2. I visited your local superstore today, the one that gave me the duff advice when I bought the computer, and spoke to a customer services advisor. I told him all that has been exchanged with your department, and I have to say that I thought that you lot were bad enough - he could not have been less helpful had he been comatose. The shop was nowhere near busy enough, and my family were waiting in the car anyway, so I left - but I did mention that I might be back when I had more time. 3. I have e-mailed Compaq and AMD for advice about another matter related to the so-called "repair" - merely to clarify something that arose during recent tests, since I do not profess to be an expert in these matters (maybe I should - the trades description act and trading standards people seem to be ever so slack these days eh?) I shall, of course, let you know if this turns up anything else that might be of complete disinterest to you. In the meantime I look forward to receiving your reply (albeit not with baited breath, even a glacially frozen and defrosted woolly mammoth couldn't hold its breath that long). Still no reply. Not a sausage. I e-mailed Compaq and AMD (who made the CPU chip in the computer) and they confirmed that my suspicions were right. The part they had fitted was the WRONG motherboard, and wasn't designed to work with my CPU. Oh dear... back to the repairers... |
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| The 8th E-mail
15 July Dear Mr xxxxx Well well well - you remember I said last week (point 3) that I had written to Compaq? Well Compaq and I have had quite an exchange of correspondence since then, they are EVER so efficient at answering customers' questions, takes them no time at all... According to them, my computer should have motherboard part number 3xxxxx-001, whereas the part you fitted was number 3yyyyy-001. This part was fitted in models up to the 2278 series - after that the newer board was used. So I asked Compaq if the motherboard that you lot installed (wrongly) last October was the correct part for my PC, because the 3D still isn't working properly. I asked them if these two parts were interchangeable and if this could make a difference. Their response was unequivocal - they said that "The problems you are experiencing are because you have a Cyrix board in your system and your processor isn't meant for that board." - exact quote, pretty clear eh? Lucky guess on my part eh? They asked me who had foisted this so-called repair upon me, so I have written to Compaq again today and told them the whole sequence of events (or non-events as far as you are concerned). I await their further response with great interest. I decided to break the habit, and tried to telephone you this morning, but you weren't on duty this weekend. I have left my home telephone number with the lady I spoke to. I am very rarely lost for words Mr xxxxx, but at the moment I can find none that adequately express how I feel about the xxxxx Group either at the point of sale, in subsequent repair or, worst of all, in the offhand and completely cavalier manner in which your group deals with legitimate customer concerns. I have now owned this PC for 17 months, and it hasn't worked the way it should have for one single day since the date of purchase. I have been writing to "Customer Services" for over 6 months and you refuse to accept any responsibility for that. Your department's attitude is ludicrous... you take ages to reply and when you do, you act as if you are writing to a retarded amoeba, with the lamest of excuses and no real reasoning at all. Your company has had adequate opportunities to rectify or make recompense for this comedy of blunders, and you haven't even tried. You haven't even shown the slightest interest. What a bunch of amateurish cowboys xxxxxx are.. and it is time that the public realised this before they make the mistake i made and hand over their hard-earned cash. Over to you... soon please. I did write back to Compaq. They agreed that I had been "put through the wringer" (well they are American!)and that they couldn't ship the right part outside the US. They did send me some advice on settings that might (and did!) help me to get partly over the problem. And in the meantime, what did this lot's "Customer Services" department do? That's easy. They did absolutely nothing. No reply, no acknowledgement, nothing. So I phoned again. They said they would get my new pen-pal, this "Mr xxxxx" to call me back. Go on, guess! Did he phone back? If you said "yes of course he did" I'll give you another free go. Nothing. Time for more direct action... I did warn them... 
 to continue to read the next bit of the story.... to go back to the "Favourite Letters" page |
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So, having duffed the PC up good style, and then evaded responsibility for that, this lot are still answering questions I haven't even asked.