I judge both people and companies by how they treat people in both personal and professional capacities. For example, I would never go on a second date with a guy who was rude to the waitress, or keep going drinking with a girlfriend who trash talked our mutual friends behind their backs.
I also have switched cell phone providers before from Rogers to Virgin Mobile to get superior customer service and I just want to say Virgin Mobile gets an A from me for customer service satisfaction. No hold times longer than a minute, no transferring the call 4 times and you having to start all over again , just in and out in 5 minutes.
In the spring of 2012, I was in the market for my first tablet and so I went to my social media friends on Google Plus for advice .I was not interested in Apple ( Android fangirl) so they all said they loved Samsung Galaxy . I went to the Source (formerly Radio Shack) and they had a 7 inch for 349.00 and it was 16gb. I was going to Los Angeles for the first time in a couple weeks and wanted something portable to check gmail on so I bought it , although would have liked the price to be only 300.
When I tried to connect to wi-fi at Starbucks in California , it wouldnt pick up the signal but my friends phone did just fine! It would only work in hotel ! I thought signal must be weak as it was shared wi-fi but was less than enamored of whole tablet experience.
Cut to 1 month later and at home when watching a netflix show I noticed there was an app update that needed to be done and stopped show and was about to start that when tablet shut down on its own. I turned it on again and it started overheating so much that it shut down again within 30 seconds
I decided to leave it turned off and charging all night and check it tomorrow. The same thing happened and I was frustrated as it was only 3 months old but it had a year long warranty so at least sending it away would be covered !
The CSR (if you can call him that ) was really unprofessional and condescending right from the get go. I think he thought no women really understood technology. He asked for the module number 5 times !! then said have you tried turning it on and off again ? He said its not possible for a tablet of 3 months to overheat and shut down you must have damaged it yourself and he wouldnt send me the free shipping labels by email as he said he couldnt find proof of purchase! I said Could I speak to your manager please ? well I guess but he will just tell you the same thing I told you!
Well I lost it at that point! I hung up on him !
He called back and I was shaking I was so mad at this point . I will not talk to you anymore its like banging my head against a brick wall! He got the manager and the manager said Sorry and he sent me the shipping labels. So you would think that would be the end of my problems but no it just keeps getting better.
It went to Quebec by Fed Ex and was back in 4 days. I had a bad feeling as how could they fix it that fast ? it wasn't fixed at all ! It overheated within 3 minutes again !
So I called again and said I wanted a replacement this time but although the person was polite they wouldnt replace it until it was sent back 3 times . Long story short it happened again the second time and I decided to cut my losses and put it away in a drawer without even testing it when it came back the third time. I would feel bad about selling it on Ebay as it was a lemon! I bought a Nexus 7 tablet directly from Google and have had no issues since last October!
I thought I was the only one who had dismal experience with Samsung and maybe it was just the Canadian offices. But I saw a post from my friend Joe Vinson saying that he had an unpleasnt experience with a CSR on online chat for Samsung Repair services and the phones deductible of 150 would make it very costly to repair it would be cheaper to buy a new phone. He wrote some honest frustrated feedback on their website and was blocked! He did finally talk on the phone to a professional CSR but their hands were tied and couldnt give him a deal so he decided to just change companies . Hopefully Joe will post his google plus thread as a link in the comments so you can see that Tammy Ireland has had the same issues I had but with a phone. She has sent it back 3 times but hasn't got an adequate replacement yet and says she will never buy a Samsung product again
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2012/06/gadget-patrol-why-android-tabl.html
I don't understand why companies care so much about the bottom line and profits that they sacrifice customer service satisfaction as they risk alienating customers for life, especially when there is so much competition out there. If you have a similar story please share as well.
