The Sweet Service Award goes to Jess Spiro of Apple in the V&A Waterfront, for his patient assistance in setting up my e-mail addresses on my iPad, after I had to survive without my laptop for three days while it was being fixed by Samsung!
The Sour Service Award goes to Samsung in Century City, where I took my laptop to solve a problem with its e-mail section. I was told by Tania, the lady checking in my laptop, that no one in their Samsung Smartcentre (the most contradictory name I have encountered, there being nothing smart there at all), was able to fix laptops, and that it had to stay overnight, for evaluation by Janek, who had the day off on the day that I went there. She asked for my e-mail address, and I joked with her, saying that she surely would not send an email if they had my laptop! I asked her to mark the docket as urgent. I waited for half a day before calling Janek, and could not believe the pathetic call answering service, or lack of, one having to listen to a terribly-spoken message about how busy they are, and unable to answer immediately. I spoke to Janek when I eventually got him on the line. He had not yet looked at my laptop. I called a second time, despite his promise to call me, and he expressed surprise that I had not yet received his emailed quotation, despite the laptop being in his workshop!!! He identified the problem as one of a hard drive requiring replacement, and he would find out if they could source it from another region, and then he would tell me the total of the quote. I gave him my fax number, asking him to fax the quote. Janek never called back nor did he fax the quote. I asked Marion the receptionist to find the head of the Centre, and Chris called back, seeming very surprised about some of what I had been told by Tania and Janek. It took two full days for the hard-drive to be replaced. When I met Janek, he appeared to be offended about my question of his country of origin, being Cameroon. He had to help me set up my e-mail addresses, and base programs, but refused to do it at the help desk with me, wanting to take the laptop to the workshop, where customers are not allowed. Chris offered us his office, but this was also not good enough for Janek. Luckily Ashley came to the rescue, and set up everything. Chris called at 20h00 that evening, two hours after their closing time, to check that all was in order. I only noticed the next day that three of my rubber disks under the laptop had been removed, and that the one-month old battery seemed to have been switched! I notified Chris of the rubber disks, and he sent a driver the following week, to bring my old hard-drive and thre replacement rubber disks. Chris agreed that their call answering service is unacceptably poor. Overall, I will never buy a Samsung product again, after this experience!
The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog. Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at whalecot@iafrica.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Tel (021) 433-2100, Twitter:@WhaleCottage Facebook: click here
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