Customer service taking the piddle

[J0hn]

It makes me laugh, when I hear some customer services people whinging about the silly enquiries they get, seemingly from people who are too slow-witted to follow simple instructions etc etc.

But don't you think that they are just as bad? How many times have you made an enquiry only to be asked something that you mentioned in your enquiry, or been asked for information you've attached or already given? Or asked to try something you've already said you tried?

I think most of them are just as bad as they claim others to be.

Today, a case in point:

My support request, via website ticket (don't you hate those darn things?) to Just Flight:

Whilst installing the 4 volumes of Real VFR Scenery, I selected to not install the mesh, as I am using FS Global Europe & Africa mesh. I noticed after Real VFR Scenery installation, that there are entries for the mesh in the scenery config and found mesh files in all 4 installation folders. Is this an error, or do some mesh files need to be installed regardless? Thanks

...and their response, the following evening:

Hi John,

May I ask why you didn't install it?

Sincerely,

No, I'm not bothering to respond. I'll just try it with and without the JF mesh activated and see what the difference is. It will probably be much quicker!

A thought: Maybe they are just trying to get rid of me (/us)?

[DaveB]

JF have been ok with me in the past but they're definitely dragging their heels giving me the 'as advertised' layered paintkit for the Hurricane. I waited for yonks having posted on the forum and someone suggested I open a ticket for it which I did. Still nada

ATB
DaveB

[Vancouver]

More to the point, just WHY did you not install it?

[ChrisHunt]

I've recently had some interesting "customer service" experiences; first the very good...

I was sent a gift certificate for $25 for A2A software for Christmas; however when I tried to redeem it the certificate number wasn't recognised and no joy. So I posted on the A2A forum and got a pretty immediate answer from Lewis with the result that it was all sorted and A2A doubled the value to $50 as compensation for the inconvenience - how good is that!

Now the good but sometimes you think "good grief" - ORBX are well known for a somewhat defensive attitude toward users who complain about their products; however they cannot be faulted for ensuring that all bug reports are answered (however that may be ) and properly tracked so you know your problem has been picked up.

Now the missing... good old Lockheed Martin, post a problem - no response, post again - no response, send a PM - no response; would it really be that difficult do you think to let customers know that their problem has been picked up and is being looked at, even if nothing can be done to solve it.

Regards,
Chris

[DaveB]

Hmm.. perhaps a case of 'the bigger they are'??

You could of course post a critical comment on the CaptainSim forum about a product and when you go back to see if it's been answered, you find your post has gone and you've been banned from the forum. Now that's customer service!

I'm sure they'll still take your money should you want to buy something else though

ATB
DaveB

[TSR2]

I'm pretty sure for licensing queries for LM you have to email them. They've always responded quickly to my email requests to activate my license. With respect to bugs, i know they have a thread that lists all of those that they've confirmed and are working on, and if that particular bug will be resolved in the next patch.

[JohnWillimas]

You could of course post a critical comment on the CaptainSim forum about a product and when you go back to see if it's been answered, you find your post has gone and you've been banned from the forum. Now that's customer service!

Yepp, I can confirm that works really well!!! I was suggesting that they celebrate the first birthday of the release of an unfinished product with the release of the patch they had promised. I can see how that might have been seen as provocative.
You can't imagine how grateful I was for being protected from the risk that I might say something more critical.

[ChrisHunt]

Hi Ben, no doubt they do answer licensing queries pretty promptly - usually means a sale after all! The problem I have with LM is that rarely do their people comment on bug posts - it's usually a bunch of enthusiastic none LM people that answer the questions. Trouble with the LM system is you have no idea if what you report as a bug, is a bug and that LM might (or might not) be interested in investigating further. I had a problem recently and despite a couple of posts and one PM saying I would try to get to the bottom of it if given a bit of guidance by LM absolutely no response to any of them. Still that's a bunch of (software) engineers for you!

Regards,
Chris

[J0hn]

Mind you - you could also go and seek help on the VRS support forum.

Unless you bought it at a supermarket - then they insist you pay them for the privilege of support if it doesn't work! Yes, that's right - if you buy your VRS Superbug at a penny less than the RRP, you have to pay some silly amount before they will give any technical support for the product. I think it was around $15 extra - but it could be more.

Not that I need to worry, as I won't touch their products with a barge-pole after I found this out, let my feelings on the subject be known on a flight sim forum, and actually had them lecture me about their 'justifiable' approach to support. I don't think they liked the fact that I brought this up when someone asked what their products were like.

It makes me feel like seeing my breakfast again - I worked on a dev team for a product that gets sold by a UK based FS publisher (no names - but I'm sure you will know who) in boxed and download form. They both cost the same, at about £28, but for every sale of the boxed version, the devoloper gets a paltry 50p. Yup - that's his return on years of research and writing, testing, frustration - most of you know what I'm on about - and a team that spent a couple of years testing it - and provided the product support for years after the release. Every time the publisher got a query about it, they just handed it over to us to sort out - same for the SPs and patches, where more often than not, more functions were also added, at no extra cost to the customer,or return for the team. 50p a go and this lot at VRS are whinging because someone paid $9.99 at a supermarket instead of about $60 from an 'approved' website. So why sell it through a supermarket chain?

Pass me a bucket!

[J0hn]

I just wanted to add a little footnote here - to sort of balance thigs out after my last post.

Today I decided to contact Amazon about my new motherboard. There's nothing really wrong with it, I'm just a bit disappointed in it's performance.

Despite me having used it for 28 days and nothing being physically wrong with it, they let me exchange it for an Asus Z77 V, giving me the full price refund against the cost of the Asus, so I end up paying only £5.45 difference, get cost-free collection of the Gigabyte motherboard by Yodel on Monday, and free first class delivery of the new Asus (expected on Saturday).

That's just the latest example of a customer service second to none, that I have enjoyed over the last 11 or so years. Every time I had an issue with a product from Amazon, they have sorted it to my 100% satisfaction, without delay. There are some pitfalls of using their 'Marketplace' but if you are aware of them and don't take risks (it can get a bit "ebay" in there sometimes) all will be well.

They have twice 'bent' their T&Cs to allow me a full refund on items I wouldn't have got refunded elsewhere - i.e. after the warranty was up. When I got a used PC game controller that stank as though it had been in a pig pen for years, they refunded my cash directly (when I telephoned the nice lady in the US) and sought to get it back from the seller for themselves.

When we bought an expensive kettle and it went 'bang' after 35 days - even though their policy was after 30 days you have to contact the manufacturer, again I called and they sent a replacement out, which got here before we'd sent the broken one. After 2 days short of 2 years, the new one broke and Amazon gave me a refund of the full purchase price! That paid for a new kettle from a local shop.

In addition to all that, if I want to return something now, I just take it to the Spar shop less than 100 yards away from my house instead of having to post it. As soon as they scan the barcode and it goes into the computer system, Amazon refund the money. That's even for products you don't want because you don't like it.

A lot of people have negative opinions of Amazon but at the end of the day, I know of no other vendor who gives this level of service. On the two occasions where I was angry enough to want to close my account ( a while ago now) one telephone call sorted everything and left me smiling. Yes - those were the 2 occasions they 'bent' their T&Cs