Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!bc
From: bc@Apple.COM (bill coderre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Mail Order stories
Message-ID: <52907@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 15 May 91 10:07:39 GMT
References: <1991May14.223004.3846@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 87

Richard Sucgang:
|Comments, guys?  Actually, I am rather impressed that he took 
|time to respond, and with such a pragmatic letter, too.

Until you have worked a Tech Support or Customer Service role, you
can't begin to understand just how hard it is to do.

Here are some "horror" stories I've had while working for a hard disk
company. 

The Unlucky Customer

The drive failed out of the box. They sent it back, we replaced it
with a new one, delivered overnight, which also failed. They sent it
back, we lost it. They called, we scoured the place, eventually found
it, but rushed them a new drive beforehand. It failed, too. We
refunded their money, with our sincere apologies.

The Clueless Customer 

The customer honestly had never heard of head crashes, yet had one,
destroying all her precious files. Shipped it in, we tried very hard
to recover, but couldn't. Much precious data lost.

The Obnoxious Customer

Who refused to believe that backups were necessary. Wanted us to ship
him the appropriate number of floppies, gratis, to do his backup.
Yelled at every rep repeatedly, got referred to the manager, who read
the owners manual to him, and offered him a refund if he didn't like
the way we do business. Suggested he try to find anyone else that
would.

The Just Plain Weird

Customer shipped drive to Europe, and plugged it in. Although the
power supply will work with 220V, the surge protectors won't, and they
caught fire. Customer was holding drive at the time, dropped it,
crashing heads.

The Impossible Case

Customer could not print with drive on. Worked fine with drive off and
attached. No inits. No special printer. No special hardware. No
nothing. Hair is torn out, as rep calls "experts," calls woman back,
spends three hours troubleshooting. Finds out that Memory Cache is set
to 512K (out of 2M). Because the disk driver takes up memory too, this
doesn't leave enough memory to do printing.

The Picky Customer

Complained that drive module was 5.25" instead of 3.5", despite
assurances from sales that company would NOT guarantee this.
(Actually, this particular 5.25" platter was faster and more reliable
than the 3.5" brand.) Returned it, upgraded to bigger drive, decided
it was too noisy. Wondered if we would send him several to choose
from. Got mad at the answer. Refunded money in full. 

The Happiest Loser

Customer sends back drive after 5 years of service. Is delighted that
it can be repaired, and doesn't mind price of repair. (now THAT's
strange!)

The Second Happiest Loser

Drive has stiction. Customer is advised to "give drive a wallop" to
get it started. Does so, is delighted to beat up on machinery. Files
intact, backup made, and drive is left on, permanently. Customer
refuses to repair drive.

The Incompatible Customer

Drive causes Claris Cad to crash. No other programs, just that one.
After debugging for a while, called Claris. They knew immediately,
supplied patch to customer. Now THAT's service.

The Happy Customer

Never met one. There were hundreds of thousands, but they never
called.


bill coderre

these stories are "fictionalized" but represent actual cases. They are
not connected with Apple Computer.