Consumer Wins

Over the last few weeks I have spent time endeavouring
 to get my rights from retailers, and today I get to pick up a brand new iPOD and a laptop with repaired laptop. In fairness Noel Leeming have only made one phone call in repairing two laptops, but this appears to have more to do with HP as the laptop manufacturer than any understanding on the part of Noel Leeming. Dick Smith Electronics meanwhile have taken five weeks to establish that there was a manufacturing fault, and provide a replacement unit. This definitely appears to have more to do with Apple than Dick Smith, it certainly appears they have a policy of dig in and hope the consumer gives up.

I know they want you to buy a new one rather than bother with the effort of getting a repair, certainly a Dick Smith employee indicated to me they make it difficult (and that was when I was turning down his offer of an extended warranty). So I'm pleased I got my rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act and yet again have demonstrated that the "it's out of warranty" argument is not relevant if you sold a faulty product in the first place. I'm going to enjoy marching in to both stores this morning with that "I told you so" look on my face. 

Service Plus

Well it has been a long haul getting an Apple iTouch looked at for repair. Two weeks while Dick Smith Electronic wanted $100 look at a faulty device, talked about their legal department and how they didn't have to help me, writing letters to them to request my rights etc.

Finally they agree and send the broken iTouch to Service Plus, who appear to be the firm that handle Apple Repairs for them. I honestly never expected to hear from Service Plus as they were an agent for Dick Smith or Apple or both. But was I in for a surprise, cell phone updates to tell me where what was happening, e mails telling exactly what was happening and even a bit of background how these repairs generally get dealt with. I could hardly believe after the difficulties had getting the device to be looked at, that I am now getting great customer service.

Now I don't know if I am on the difficult customers list or they do this for everyone, but I don't care either way as it makes a change for someone in the electronics repair game to actually show they understand the frustrations a customer has getting a repair. Contrast this with Noel Leeming who have provided no updates at all unless you ring them and ask.

Now it turns out that for these types of repairs such as buttons not working, they make a quick assessment of the cause, but in most cases Apple either repairs the fault for free, or as in this case

Noel Leeming

I always had my doubts about taking anything in for repair to Noel Leeming, I had heard generally bad reports but had purchased to laptops in a Xmas day online deal that seemed to be great value for money. Twenty-one months later the first had a failure, a bit of research showed it was a motherboard fault that was common to the particular HP model, and I was really impressed that Noel Leeming accepted the claim under the Consumer Gurantees Act (it was out of warranty) and ten days later the repaired laptop came back from HP with a new motherboard. I was delighted with the service I got from Noel Leeming and told quite a few people about how they had surprised me with their good service. This was particularly so because they had been selling someone an extended warranty while I was making the claim, a warranty that sold people the rights they already had and was in effect a waste of their money. Three months later the second laptop develops a similar fault. The shop again took the details and I advised it was a common fault with the model, and reminded them how good they had been fixing the first laptop. A day later I got a call to say that HP would not fix a laptop that was two years old. I reminded Noel Leeming that was irrelevant under the Consumer Guarantees Act, there was nothing in the act that time bound a request to fix a manufacturing fault. I also reminded them it didn't matter what HP said, it was the retailer not the manufacturer who has the obligation to fix the fault, if they had to play HP then that cost couldn't be passed back to me, I didn't actually care what HP thought. They did send it to HP and HP agreed it was a manufacturing fault and agreed to repair it. Now overall Noel Leeming did a good job here, but why one backroom guy took it on himself to try and suggest I was wrong and drop the request is beyond me. HP to their credit made the assessment it was a fault that they would repair, so if the retailer hadn't made the call I'd have got the repaired laptop and been totally happy with the experience. I know retailers make money selling extended warranties to uninformed customers, but why buy an argument before you know what the manufacturer is going to say? I would have taken a claim to the small claims tribunal in any case as the position of the retailer to try and pass responsibility to the manufacturer is not how the law works. It's a pity that they tired the "it's two years old and out of warranty approach" but at least in the end I got both laptops repaired at no cost to me.

Dick Smith Update

Dick Smith have a policy to charge customers a hundred bond to look at any fault with a product they sell you, the theory is apparently that if you are found to have damaged the item they want you to pay for the repair. So I was told by a manager that it was a blanket policy, couldn't be changed for anyone and I would have to pay up before they would look at the faulty product they sold me. My argument was it was a common fault with the iTouch and a quick search of the internet would confirm that, that a button was unlikely to be damaged any other way than by normal use. Well fortunately a fortnight later I struck another manager who was prepared to waive the fee, and off went the unit to the local Apple agent to be assessed. Well the experience with these guys couldn't be more contrasting than the battle with Dick Smith. They were updating my cell phone every second day about what was happening, and have finally confirmed what I suspected all along that the unit was faulty and they would replace it. What was interesting is that they revealed that in nearly all cases replaces hardware that is faulty and under two years old. So it looks like unless you clearly damaged the player yourself, Apple don't as a matter of policy question the integrity of the customer and will repair clear manufacturing faults. The Apple agent will also charge you only $50 bond for the assessment if you go straight to them, so why Dick Smith feels the need to double the fee and spend a fortnight trying to not honour their legal obligation is beyond me personally. I see a pattern where shops try and argue their way out of their legal obligations by either deliberately confusing the issue, or as in the case of Dick Smith, claiming they are consulting their lawyers over the matter. I believe Dick Smith were never talking to their lawyers, it is just a cynical attempt that throws most customers off pursuing a repair they are entitled to. I'll probably not buy from Dick Smith again, even though in the end they waived the fee. I think I know though why they are having to close branches.

Thank You for Calling Microsoft

With eight PC's in the house and holding the role of home network administrator, I occasionally end up ringing Microsoft when I stumped and Google doesn't provide a ready answer. It used to be activation issues where someone read a long number over the phone to me, but fortunately they now have a more intelligible computer generated voice to do that. They're always super friendly and urging me to have a nice day, but I can't recall a single time they ever solved problem on the phone.

By way of an example, I was having trouble activating a computer, I didn't realise at the time that the serial number provided with the pre-installed OS with the laptop was an OEM, and a different serial than the one one the sticker provided. I couldn't work out why using the serial number that had was already on the PC didn't work in reactivating it after a reinstall.

So the Microsoft call centre guy was super friendly, took the serial number off me and after a couple of minutes going off investigating, said I'd have to contact Acer to resolve the activation issue. Puzzled I asked why I would be calling Acer to resolve a Windows activation issue, but rather than explain that I had an OEM key that was used as an easy way for a manufacturer to send out, I just got the repeated mantra of "please call Acer".

Asking why by this stage and the Microsoft happy have a nice day approach started to sound a little frustrated, and I suspect didn't want me to have a nice day anymore. I hung up after a fairly long and not particularly helpful call. In reviewing why I would call the manufacturer, I suddenly had the thought that the serial number on the bottom of the laptop might be different, and sure enough it was and activation worked. It might not be an everyday occurrence but Microsoft had enough information to solve the mystery for me, but I don't believe asked enough questions to ascertain why I might be using an OEM serial.

I guess all ended well, but frankly I've had a better experience with one of those guys who rings up and says there is a problem with my Windows Operating System. Those scammer guys always seem to be great customer service manner and infinite patience, well until about half an hour in when you decline to let them take control of your PC. Have a nice day I always say.