Customer Service

Hey Guys

I want your opinions on an issue. I offer a one year parts and labor warranty on all the new machines we sell. I exclude gaming issues due to the sheer magnitude of problems that games can cause, but I do try to help if its a simple issue or something thats commonly known.

Here is my problem. I sold a machine to a customer around three years ago. It was an 800 slot athlon on an Asus K7V motherboard. Voodoo 3500 video, 128mg ram, Windows Me. Shortly after the customer purchased the machine he had a monitor problem, so I simply replaced the monitor with a brand new one and sent in the defective part(at my cost) for RMA. No muss-no fuss. I didn't hear anything from that customer up until about 6 monthes ago. (No news is good news.) But now he is having repeated problems with the system registry. The primary user is his 16 year old son and he runs MSN, Yahoo, ICQ etc. plus several games that require massive resources. The first time he complained I installed 128mg of additional ram hoping to eliminate his problems, but within a 30 day period he has blown the registry TWICE! The first time his father called me FURIOUS on the phone demanding satifaction, so to eliminate a potential problem, I had them bring it in and I reloaded Windows and installed a couple of games and ran the machine in the shop for a week. NOT A HICCUP!! Not one!! They pickup the machine and I charge them nothing!! The father tells me that I have gone beyond the call of duty and thanks me. That was 3 weeks ago. Today I play my answering machine and he FURIOUS again because the machine is bluescreening at startup and is useless. Obviously the same registry problem.

I don't know what to do! I truly believe that this is a user created registry problem but the father is not knowledgeable about computers and does not understand. He thinks that it should be able to withstand anything the kid does to it.

I don't want to tell this guy to take a hike, but I think he is being unreasonable and he is difficult to talk to. What would you do???

Thanks in advance! :cool:

IT almost sounds to me that the machine has a bad memory module. I would try downloading Goldmemory and run it on the computer.

www.goldmemory.cz

goldmemory is not a fix but it is a quick way to see if the memory is bad.

When you git it into the shop the first time - did you see and document any crapware on there?

I would just explain that some software isn't good to have installed on the computer and apparently it is being installed.

Your warranty covers hardware failure - this is malicious software being purposly loaded onto a system and hosing it.

Explain to him that you could fix it 100 times, but if his kid keeps loading crapware onto it - it's going to bluescreen 100 times!

NO ONE covers third party software. Not Dell, Gateaway, HP, IBM, no one. One of the pluses of buying a machine from a shop like yours is that you have tried to help him. He would get no help elsewhere. He should be grateful you did what you did. Explain to him that he needs to contact the makers of Messenger, ICQ, etc for help. See what happens then. I would reload once more, test the memory, run HotCpu and then install a keystroke logger and send it back to him.

Thanks for the quick replies guys.

I don't think its a ram issue. The machine will run 8 consecutive runs of a burn in stress test with ZERO errors. Its unbelieveable stable. I even had him bring in all their connected devices the last time to ensure we were getting no feedback into the system. I will try the little memory test program though..............thanks:D


I have attempted to explain about spyware and how games, especially newer games use resources. I even installed ad-aware on their machine so they could see for themselves.

I want to help them but they are two years out of warranty and I simply don't know what else to do!

Thanks


:D

Thanks for the input Techs...............all good suggestions!!!

There are always customers that are going to end up being problems no matter what..If you have or can document just exactly what is causing the problem, then you can expressly give a written notice that you will not deal with that problem, assuming it is software related and user installed. One other thought..have you checked the hard drive thoroughly? A new install would fix problems with lost clusters, etc..but they could show up again later if the drive is going bad

Thanks for the input GeosComp!

I have really scrutinized this machine. That's what is really driving me crazy. I had the entire system ( monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, printer) setup on a test bench and I pounded on it and punished it for a week! Not one single glitch. I have this exact same machine at home that my son uses.............not a single problem in three years.........thats why I haven't upgraded to a newer system.

I am willing to concede that it could be an actual problem with the machine, but I can't get it to do anything but work flawlessly in my presence after I repair the registry or do a reload. Its really frustrating:(

Quote:

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Originally posted by WildTech

I want to help them but they are two years out of warranty and I simply don't know what else to do!

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there is your answer right there. THEY ARE TWO YEARS OUT OF WARRANTY!!!

I'm all for being a nice guy, and I know the feeling, but come on. they knew it was a one year warranty when they bought it right? to do any more work for them for free is foolish. put it on your bench and charge your hourly rate. (I usually charge $40 / hr)

when they have to pay for your advice, they will listen. when it's free they won't If you charge them $100 to fix the machine and tell them not to install X Y or Z or give them certain procedures to follow chances are they will because that repair costs stings. If you do it for free, you'll have the machine back in a month or two with the same problem and they'll expect another free fix.

Thanks kato2274

Your input is appreciated and very well put.

:D

Uninstall kazaa - run spybot - take a snapshot of the registry before you give it back and another after for the installs he has done.

Boy, i'd probably make a ghost image of a fresh system install on a bootable CD and hand it to them and say "if you have any problems, back up your data and insert this CD."

Quote:

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Originally posted by Rellik
Boy, i'd probably make a ghost image of a fresh system install on a bootable CD and hand it to them and say "if you have any problems, back up your data and insert this CD."

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I would do the same, but I would charge him for the labor, his own license of Ghost, and even the CDR disk. You can't let this guy run you around, this is your business.

If the system is out of warrantee and you took it in and fixed it anyway, you now have a certain obligation to warrantee you current work. That said, you should have never taken the PC in without first going over your labor rates, and provide an upfront quote for service.

Seems to me like you are in a bit of a pickle. You are now damned if you do, and damned if you don't. I suggest that you back peddle and start emphasizing the fact that recent labor was done at a cost to you, and now the burden is on him to pay for any continued service. The guy may be hard to talk to, but everyone is reasonable, you just have to relay things to him on his terms…You have proven that the hardware is not responsible (this is moot since you have no obligation to warrantee it), and that your software load is sound.

An easy analogy is to compare computer repair to auto collision repair. You can’t go out, wreck your car, get it fixed, then wreck it again and have it covered under warrantee for the original repair. The same goes for crashing your PC.

Thanks Ya know

Your input is appreciated and you are correct. I was simply trying to be a nice guy and you know what they say about nice guys..........:D

Seems to me I need to attempt another meeting with him

Thanks everyone!

I think that all the really good advice has been given so.....

Windows ME? :confused:

:D ;)