During the last week of August, my hard drive died and I bought a new one. After installing Windows, I had some problems with the installation of my Gigabyte motherboard. Although I had all the original disks that came with it (and worked fine the first time I used them a year ago), the audio refused to work.
After extensive Google search and trials & errors, the problem persisted so I decided to send Gigabyte an e-mail. They have a pretty nifty online form where you are required to provide a detailed information of your hardware. I did, and I wrote a long e-mail explaining the problem. I noticed they even gave you the opportunity to check the status of your e-mail (unread, read or replied), and I thought "Wow, they must be very confident about their response time". That was in August 30.
However, days passed and the status of my e-mail never changed from "unread". I eventually managed to solve the problem myself and forgot all about that e-mail.
Imagine my surprise when I read their reply today:
QuoteThank you for your kindly support and contacting GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY.
Due to the public holidays from 2007/09/22-2007/09/25, your mail will be replied after 2007/09/25. We appreciate your understanding and wish you with happy holidays.
Once the laughter subsided, I decided to write back. Here is my e-mail:
QuoteDear Sir or Madam,
Knowing how much you value constructive feedback, I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that you have the customer service level of a local grocery shop during a civil war.
I am a man with a sense of humor, therefore I can appreciate a good joke. How else would I interpret me sending you an e-mail in August 30, and you replying in September 17 that you cannot reply to me because your holidays begin in 5 days?
Please don't waste any more of your valuable time replying to me, I'm sure you are busy packing your suitcases, scheduling manicures and pedicures or whatever you hard working professionals do before going to Fiji. I saved you the trouble by carefully unplugging your precious motherboard from my PC with the assistance of a sledge hammer and a chainsaw. It has now found a new purpose in life as an elegant (if slightly eccentric) decorative item on my dart board. I'm sure you will be glad to hear it is perfectly functional and compatible.
Sincerely yours,
Your faithful customer
Two words.
British. Telecom.
Quote from: Zooty on Mon 17/09/2007 15:37:28
Two words.
British. Telecom.
It was fine, once I got past the queue...
Customer service is a dying art for sure!
I hope you never have the "pleasure" of dealing with Travelocity's customer service.
Your email, while making you feel much better, probably won't even register with them. They'll just delete it and move on to ignoring more customers. Or, even worse, you'll get a reply from them in 2 weeks saying, "have you tried reinstalling the software?"
Gotta love companies that outsource their tech support.
Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Mon 17/09/2007 15:42:58
It was fine, once I got past the queue...
I was stuck in a queue for 2 hours before the phone hung up on me. It wasnt even freephone.
So im switching to Cable, with Virgin, bye bye BT.
The purpose of the customer service is not to help, its there just to be there. Their goal is not to help you after you bought it. Their goal is actually only to sell. When you buy it, everything dissapears. I have also very bad experiences with customer services. Some of them didnt even reply! So I sent one mail a day....After a month, they replied that they cant help me.....
So - customer services are at very bad quality grade today....
hmmm...
I've actually had rather pleasent experience with homecall and Bulldog! The first was so BS me, that I ended up with 3 months free broadband! Not bad ;) Bulldog was nothing really special, just some calls off, and 5 days off charge, since they cut off the line without warning...
Not all companies have such bad CS, at least not all the time. I used to work for Sony Ericsson as a technical advisor in their call center. It was the most stressful thing I've done in my life, constantly worrying about our numbers, it was like I was working for a politician. The employees there were amazing, listening and answering to the most unbelievable phone calls you can imagine for minimum wage. I could write a book with what I used to hear in a week; the stuff you sometimes read on the internet is nothing compared to how mean and stupid a customer can get. We were constantly among the top 3 of the 40something call centers SE had worldwide. There was practically no call waiting and all e-mails were answered within 24 hours, and we were serving all the Balcans and Cyprus.
Then they started downsizing and it all went to hell. Fortunately I jumped off the boat before it sank.
But that response from Gigabyte was priceless... 18 days later just to say that they can't respond to me because their holidays begin in 5 days? They clearly got too big for their support to be good. The employees are usually the last to blame in such cases, I know they're working their butts off and that for every clear and detailed e-mail they get a hundred obscure ones.
I remember a couple of years ago, I was having motherboard problems again as I formatted my wife's hard drive and she had lost all original CDs. An MSI employee replied to me in two days and communication was daily from that point until the problem was solved. I wonder if they're still that good.
Well...
Actually customer service from most music related software is nothing short of excellent... I mean, literally, if you pick up the phone and dial Garritan, chances are that he might answer himself! Same with EW (where you can exchange e-mails with Doug and Nick, the creators), or Kirk Hunter, where he asnweres personally all e-mails etc... Of course the companies are much smaller than BT, for example, but still it is very nice to know that you will get an answer in at most 12 hours (when they wake up practically). I cannot stop commending all these people, and Frank from Bela D. Media (I believe Greg had a slighly problematic situation with Bela D. Media, which, if not mistaken, ended up with a free product. That's more than something nice! This is taking care of your customers 100%!)
Another beacon of light in the customer service realm is Hostfolio (the company I use for all my hosting needs).
I have emailed them with a question at 2am on a Sunday night and they still replied to me in less than 1/2 an hour. They have fanatical customer support over there.
It's so damn refreshing, and outside the norm, that I often just submit tickets to them for no other reason than to experience it and get a smile on my face.
Heh, a service that is close to Turk Telekom when the bad service is mentioned. What you have lived is something ordinary here.
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Mon 17/09/2007 20:35:14
Another beacon of light in the customer service realm is Hostfolio (the company I use for all my hosting needs).
You recomended them to me, and I can't say that I can complain. They do not offer the best hosting (in terms of traffic, space, etc), but it's more than enough for now, plus it's NEVER down, and the customer service is indeed remarkable! both times I sent a ticket, it was back in less than 12 hours! Remarkable!
Whatever!!!!!!!!!!!!! You people on AGS I dont know hat to say. Gigabyte: Worst customer service on the planet? Whatever!!!!!!!!!!! I have a Gigabyte Mother board. It went up like a year later from when i got it. I sent it back they fixed it for free now it works fine.
More Like ASG the WORST FORUM on the planet! Sorry to say I dont want to say.
alright, calm down. No one is attacking you personally, people are talking about their experience with a company. It's ok. Let's keep the thread on track? Please?
I know im not taking this personally. I just said that cuz of the topic name
Quote from: Rubacant on Wed 19/09/2007 04:26:53
More Like ASG the WORST FORUM on the planet! Sorry to say I dont want to say.
Yeah, ASG really sucks.
I hate Australian Snake Gropers, and their whole stupid political regime.
Yeah, my cobra broke down, and I tried to call them, but no-one answered. Then I sent an e-mail, but they just added me on a viagra-spam list. Then I sent the snake with a letter to the in a box, and it never came back. I miss it :'(
Shouldve given some of that viagra to the snake... and taken photos.