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I had to respond to our service centre who had a customer with a camera problem. She claimed that her camera that she had just got back from repair was still having the same fault. Our technician had put fresh batteries in it, and had no problem. She didn't accept that and so I got the call.
I had a look, she showed me the problem - it turned on and promptly turned off again with a message "Change the Batteries". I took her batteries out, put our set in, and it worked perfectly. Fired off a bunch of shots, not a drama in the world. Let her know that I was confident it was a battery problem, and suggested she probably should purchase a set of good quality batteries. No, the camera was still faulty after she'd waited 6 weeks for it, so we should give her a brand new camera. I then looked into what the previous repair was, and this is where it gets very interesting.
Looking at the notes on the job, the camera was about 9 months outside it's warranty period when it was booked in. It was booked in by a junior staff member who was in his first week at work, who mistakenly told her that the repair would be covered by warranty. Easy enough mistake to make, especially when you are new. It was sent to the national repair centre, who supplied a quote for repair. This woman had made a huge fuss when she was given the quote to repair, and was adamant that because she was told it was warranty she shouldn't have to pay for it. One of our managers became spineless and agreed. WTF? Anyway, so the store paid the repair fee, the camera got repaired and so it got returned to her about 2 weeks ago. For the whole period of the repair, she was given a loan camera to use.
OK, so back to now, and she is complaining of a different fault (which as far as we can tell is because of her batteries).
I told her that we could send it back to the repairer for them to assess it. If there was something wrong with the previous repair it would be covered under it's warranty, but if it was a different fault, or no-fault-found she would have to pay the fees that they charge. She could once again have our loan camera while it was away.
This wasn't acceptable to her. She insisted that she couldn't be without the camera again, she shouldn't have to pay anything, and that anything short of a whole new camera (which she shouldn't have to pay anything for), was poor customer service. We to-ed and fro-ed a few times - me restating my position that it was out of warranty, we didn't even have to pay for the previous repair, and most definitely weren't going to pay for another repair nor would we pay for a new camera. She seemed to think that she had been the recipient of terrible customer service, was going to take all her business, and her family's business, and her in-law's business elsewhere if she didn't get her own way and get a new camera now. Eventually she got the hint, and once again threatened to take her business elsewhere, to which I suggested that would probably be for the best.
SC grabbed her camera (which still had our batteries in it), and started to walk out. I asked her to return them, and she said "A set of batteries is the least you can give me for my troubles". To which I immediately countered, "If you walk through those front doors with our batteries, I will have you charged with theft". She stopped removed the batteries, dropped them on the floor at her feet, and walked out. As she got to the front doors she turned and said "You will never see me buying here again". My sharp tongue which sometimes gets me in trouble countered with "Promise?". She just stormed out.
FFS I couldn't believe the nerve of her - demanding a free camera to replace an out-of-warranty camera, that had nothing wrong with it!! I must say though, I felt like punching the idiot manager that agreed to pay for the previous repair. Give an inch and SC's will take a mile every time.
I had a look, she showed me the problem - it turned on and promptly turned off again with a message "Change the Batteries". I took her batteries out, put our set in, and it worked perfectly. Fired off a bunch of shots, not a drama in the world. Let her know that I was confident it was a battery problem, and suggested she probably should purchase a set of good quality batteries. No, the camera was still faulty after she'd waited 6 weeks for it, so we should give her a brand new camera. I then looked into what the previous repair was, and this is where it gets very interesting.
Looking at the notes on the job, the camera was about 9 months outside it's warranty period when it was booked in. It was booked in by a junior staff member who was in his first week at work, who mistakenly told her that the repair would be covered by warranty. Easy enough mistake to make, especially when you are new. It was sent to the national repair centre, who supplied a quote for repair. This woman had made a huge fuss when she was given the quote to repair, and was adamant that because she was told it was warranty she shouldn't have to pay for it. One of our managers became spineless and agreed. WTF? Anyway, so the store paid the repair fee, the camera got repaired and so it got returned to her about 2 weeks ago. For the whole period of the repair, she was given a loan camera to use.
OK, so back to now, and she is complaining of a different fault (which as far as we can tell is because of her batteries).
I told her that we could send it back to the repairer for them to assess it. If there was something wrong with the previous repair it would be covered under it's warranty, but if it was a different fault, or no-fault-found she would have to pay the fees that they charge. She could once again have our loan camera while it was away.
This wasn't acceptable to her. She insisted that she couldn't be without the camera again, she shouldn't have to pay anything, and that anything short of a whole new camera (which she shouldn't have to pay anything for), was poor customer service. We to-ed and fro-ed a few times - me restating my position that it was out of warranty, we didn't even have to pay for the previous repair, and most definitely weren't going to pay for another repair nor would we pay for a new camera. She seemed to think that she had been the recipient of terrible customer service, was going to take all her business, and her family's business, and her in-law's business elsewhere if she didn't get her own way and get a new camera now. Eventually she got the hint, and once again threatened to take her business elsewhere, to which I suggested that would probably be for the best.
SC grabbed her camera (which still had our batteries in it), and started to walk out. I asked her to return them, and she said "A set of batteries is the least you can give me for my troubles". To which I immediately countered, "If you walk through those front doors with our batteries, I will have you charged with theft". She stopped removed the batteries, dropped them on the floor at her feet, and walked out. As she got to the front doors she turned and said "You will never see me buying here again". My sharp tongue which sometimes gets me in trouble countered with "Promise?". She just stormed out.
FFS I couldn't believe the nerve of her - demanding a free camera to replace an out-of-warranty camera, that had nothing wrong with it!! I must say though, I felt like punching the idiot manager that agreed to pay for the previous repair. Give an inch and SC's will take a mile every time.
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