RE: Moving on

"Laurie Solomon" <laurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> · Thu, 28 Mar 2002 21:25:27 -0600

Alas Hersch not everything is open to such a method.  For example, I sent a
Vivitar flash in to be fixed which correct the problem of a hot shoe and a
PC cord termination that no longer was tight enough to maintain contacts; I
both explained the problem over the phone and via a letter enclosed with the
flash.  The flash came back with the same problem; it seems they interpreted
my complaint as saying that there was a short in the electrical connections
which upon tested turned out not to be the case so they charged me for the
exam and sent it back as repaired despite the fact that this was not my
stated complaint.  On another ocassion, I was seeking a rear gel filter
holder mount template for cutting gels to fit the rear gel holder on a Sigma
lens, which Sigma supplies with the lenses that use rear gel holders and
which they sell as spare replacement parts.  The employee on the other end
could not understand that I was not looking for the rear Gel holder mount
itself but just the gel cutting template.  She wanted to send me the rear
portion of the lens mount itself that holds the cut gel filter.  On an even
different occassion, I orderd some parts for a named model tripod head,
explaining that I had one of the older versions of the model in question;
the employee did not understand what I meant by earlier version and sent me
the parts for a later version of that model which did not fit.  I had to
return it whereup a different employee with a better command of th language
understood what I was saying and sent me the right part.

What you suggest may be appropriate andf useful for scanners and cameras but
not some other things.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-scan@leben.com [mailto:owner-scan@leben.com]On Behalf Of
Hersch Nitikman
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2002 3:25 PM
To: scan@leben.com
Subject: RE: Moving on

I have had occasion to return an LS-30 to Nikon several times (which they
eventually replaced with a new one) and one effective way of minimizing
communications difficulties was by showing before-and-after-misbehavior pix
of the scans. Anyone not blind in both eyes could see that I was having a
problem, and they made honest attempts to correct the problems. I think, in
hindsight, that the source of the troubling intermittent failures was
probably the electric company's fluctuating power. But they replaced major
subsystems that were likely causes, one after the other, until the unit was
almost all-new.

At 11:40 AM 03/28/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>Art,
>I tend to agree with about 90% of what you have said below.  One of the
>things that I have found very troublesome of recent when it comes to
dealing
>with mail order, distributor, and manufactures about items, parts, and
>service has been a high rate of miscommunications due to the high number of
>English as a second language employees who appear top have some difficulty
>understanding what is being requested and whom I have been unable to
>understand as well.  The result has been a great waste of time and money
>returning items that were not what I wanted and thought I had ordered,
>telephoning or writting to correct errors in orders due to
>miscommunications, and telephoning or writing to follow up on orders of
>items that were suppose to be in stock but in reality were not in stock or
>even backordered (they were just unavailable but the service rep failed to
>communicate this but proceeded to take the order as if such items were
>available) or on repair services that failed to correct the problem because
>the repair personnel did not understand the description of the problem and
>looked at something else which was not a problem, returniong the item as
>having been repaired or as not having a problem (in the former case
charging
>for the alledged repair).
>
>Now some of these things appear to be inherent in the process of non
>face-to-face interactions (no matter if the speaker is a native speaker or
a
>non-native speaker); but some are the result of miscommunications due to
>misunderstandings produced by the pareties not being able top clearly
>communicate with each other.  I have some trouble understanding why
>companies put people that have a less than satisfactory command of the
>language but who may be otherwise very competent and nice in positions
where
>they have to communicate accurrately with others in a language that they do
>not have full and complete command of - especially if it involves non
>face-to-face communications where it is difficult to hammer out a common
>understanding between the parties.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-scan@leben.com [mailto:owner-scan@leben.com]On Behalf Of
>Arthur Entlich
>Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2002 3:00 AM
>To: scan@leben.com
>Subject: Re: Moving on
>
>
>
>
>byard pidgeon wrote:
>
> > It's best that Mr. Hemingway is "moving on", as is Polaroid with it's
out
>of
> > touch with reality concept of customer service.
> > Time to get in touch with the new paradigm...you bought it, it's all
>yours.
> >
>
>
>Yes, a sad statement on the "new reality" of cutting every corner to
>keep the price point over anything else.  I just want to know when
>filmscanners are going to be sold at Walmart. (Satisfaction guaranteed ;-))
>
>The truth is its is our own doing.  We will buy at the store that saves
>us the extra $5, even if for that $5 you get a local retailer who
>
>provided tech help. service, and liaison with the distributor.
>
>I do not buy goods on the internet (other than ebay on occasion, where I
>expect to be ripped off, and 80% of the time I am, so I never pay what
>something is supposed to be "worth" because the odds are I won't get
>what was advertised anyway).  Not only is there shipping, and often
>customs and exchange to here in Canada, but I have no control over if I
>get a factory sealed box or a return that's been repacked, I don't want
>to pay double shipping, I don't want to spend hours on a toll free (if
>you're lucky) lines waiting to speak to some surly character who tells
>me I have to pay a 15% restocking charge after they sent me the wrong
>item or it was damaged in shipping, or it was defective.
>
>Hey, but that's just crazy me.  I'm sure I could save, heck, $100 a year
>on my thousands of dollars of purchases if I went that route.  Instead,
>I buy from a local brick and mortar dealer who I can look in the eye,
>scream at if necessary, and even bring to court on the rare occasion
>that was necessary.  But, honestly , by picking a good retailer, and a
>good manufacturer, and paying a bit more, I've found most of my
>headaches have been "lessened".
>
>Scanner example:  My HP S-10 (defective) became 2 more, (found to have
>an inherent defect) became an HP-20, also found to be problematic, and
>finally nearly two years later my local dealer took back the HP-20 and
>did a straight exchange for the Minolta Dual II, which unfortunately
>also has problems and I'm on number two, soon to be three.  My dealer
>OFFERED this to me.  I did not even have to ask.  He knew of my problems
>with the HP models and he asked what was happening.  I told him I had
>reached a dead end with HP, and he said, well, what if we take it back
>and send it back to HP for you, and use the money toward another brand.
>He special ordered the Minolta Dual II, since at the time the store
>didn't carry it, and gave me a straight across on it.
>
>He even offered to help me with the Minolta exchanges, but I decided
>that he had not made any money, in fact probably lost money on the whole
>transaction, so I've been dealing directly with Minolta since.  What
>internet company would ever do something like that?
>
>Its when things "go wrong" that a local dealer really is a great
>investment, but since you never know when something will go wrong, why
>risk it?
>
>Now, as I said local repair service is quite another matter completely,
>and I avoid them like the plague.
>
>The same, I suppose, holds true for manufacturers.  If you find a
>company that has pretty consistent quality control and good customer
>service, they are worth paying more for.  How much more, I suppose,
>depends upon your level of tolerance for dealing with angst. ;-)
>
>Art
>
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