Andrew Ferguson dot NET

Computer Down: V - Horrible “Customer Relations”

Micro Computer Systems was open today and I was able to drop off my computer, but not before I made phone calls to Toshiba were I had one of the worst experiences ever.

My issue was this: While I have backups of all my important stuff, there are a variety of things that I would like to try and recover. However, MCS is required (my Toshiba) to return the defective hard drive. I called Toshiba and after being on hold for about 10 minutes, was finally able to talk with someone. With an accent so prevalent in today’s call centers, she informed me that should could not doing anything and offered to “escalate” my call to the next level. The level 2 tech, Marua (or something foreign like that) was very adamant that nothing could be done. When I asked to have my case elevated to the next level, she said I would have to write a letter (um, yea right). So I asked to speak with her supervisor. Apparently she was the CEO of Toshiba because she said that was no one else I could talk with. Her voice began elevate and I immediately asked for her name and some number that I could reference. She did not have an employee number, but did give me the case number, being very careful to give it to me quickly and not repeat it without having me to ask. I began to relate how the customer service representative I talked with earlier had escalated my call to the next level and I was simply asking to have it escalated again. First thing out of her mouth is “customer relations.”

I’m sitting here in the car with my mouth on the floor thinking to myself, did you just fucking correct me?!? You have got to be shitting me!

I then ask her if I am speaking with a customer service rep or a technical service rep. Again she corrects me.

You have got to be fucking kidding me! Let me explain something to you woman, I am the customer, you are the service person. You provide service to the customer and are therefore a customer service rep, no matter what your PR director tells you. Furthermore, under no circumstances, should you EVER correct a customer for calling you something that means the SAME FUCKING THING! (Side note: while at Nordstrom, they mentioned to us, the interns, that while the store is called Nordstrom, some people call it Nordstrom’s and we were instructed to never correct them)

I start over again, asking her if I am speaking with a customer service relations rep or a technical service rep and she hangs up.

Son of a Bitch.

I paused in disbelief. Rule number one: Never, under any circumstances, hang up on a customer. Rule number two: Never, under any circumstances, hang up on a customer. Rule number three: If you hang up on Andrew Ferguson, you will have hell to pay.

I called Nick Lew, the technician at SAAS, to see if he had any ideas. While he had no ideas, he provided me with some valuable information about the process as he worked at MCS prior to SAAS.

So, I called Toshiba back and promptly explained that the last person had just hung up on me and that I would like to speak with an American. The closest they could get was someone from Toronto, that was fine. I explained my situation as before, although this time I added that I had classified information on the hard drive that needed to be removed before I could release the drive. Someone was finally able to explain that I was going about it the wrong way.

“No” is a fine answer as long as you can explain why you are saying no, this person did.

Less then a minute after I hung up with Toshiba, Ed from American Data Recovery called. I explained my situation to him and said that it probably was not worth trying to recover the data.

I had no choice but to concede. Ed was right and after an hour and a half on the phone I was sure there was nothing I had overlooked.

I turned off the car and walked back into MCS turned my Tablet over.

It might be ready as soon as tomorrow, hopefully.

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Tags: for Robert Scoble