Whats the biggest thing you've ever demanded from customer service?
12Often, companies aren't as awesome as Meh. Occasionally I get royally pissed off at said companies, and become a bit of an ass. This does not happen when an item is a day late or something is slightly broken. But, when I have to waste hours on phone support essentially performing voodoo on electronics (Microsoft), encounter a ridiculously stupid corporate failing/policy (Sleepys), or have a customer service rep tell me something that is blatantly false (Verizon, 3 times), I go a bit off the rails. I don't go crazy yelling & cursing, but I do end up demanding shit get made right.
Yesterday I ordered a microwave from Lowe's, listed as 'available for in store pickup today'. Today I called the store, and found out that the item is actually not available in stores and requires special order (with 24 hour minimum just to confirm availability), and my microwave won't be available for at least 2 weeks. When I asked how a special order item could possibly be listed as available in store, I got a speech about how it was an estimate, that they are not legally liable (one person actually said that there is an asterisk next to it because theres fine print. There isn't) if there are mistakes, etc. When I pointed out that this estimate was guaranteed to be off by weeks, and they responded by repeating that it was just an estimate..... I went a bit off the rails.
Its now a few hours later. I have filed a formal complaint with a senior Lowes customer rep, as well as the better business bureau. I demanded that they expedited ship the item so that it gets here in the next few days. And I don't feel wrong in doing all this. However, as I sit here eating my microwave mac n cheese recipe that I adapted for sous vide (verdict: pretty tasty!), I realized that I just demanded they spend a ton of money to make me happy. This is not the most ridiculous thing I have gotten (I once got verizon to compensate me 4 hours at my hourly rate for time I wasted thanks to them), but it might end up being the highest priced one.
So now I'm wondering, what ridiculous things have mehtizens, demanded from customer service reps? And most importantly, did you actually get it in the end?
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Years ago (whilst between wives) I had an issue with some pricing on multiple Arriflex 235's (amazing film camera, BTW) and jokingly told the Arri rep to blow me.
She did.
She got her commission.
@Pavlov you just made me spit...
water on my keyboard.
@Pavlov I am unable to top that. Bravo.
@AnnaB I'm willing to let you try . . .
@Pavlov You crack me up.
@AnnaB Happy to help.
@Pavlov
On the off chance anyone may be interested, this gem of a camera is still very widely used today - see: https://shotonwhat.com/cameras/arriflex-235-camera
@Pavlov WOW it was used to film a lot of big movies! Why were you buying this? Just wondering...
@will1261 We shot a lot of commercial work on film in 2003-2004 when this camera was released - and continued to do so through 2008, now - not so much. Especially though for European clients - they really prefer film in the can and transfer to digital in post. Although it has pretty much come to a halt, we did shoot film for a recent project for i-D Magazine and HARRYS (London). We sold our 235's some time ago. IIRC these were like £30,000 new (body only), but no one pays list.
@Pavlov This seems... vaguely illegal?
Two significant items demanded: (separate events)
(1) a 26 cu ft fridge from GE as a result of the prior lemon that in addition to requiring 5 service calls during the extended warranty and completely gave up the goat just out of warranty.
Result: Got half a fridge. (Subsidized new fridge directly from them so we can start the game all over!)
(2) a new bike frame (expensive bike) after the shop twisted the seat tube in their bike stand doing maintenance. The shop owner promised to replace the frame. But after two years of attempts - and life, I gave up. Still hate the bike shop located in Traverse City, MI whose name has the big round things that go around and around in it.
We buy our countertop microwave ovens from Costco and SAMs depending on who has a model with a control panel designed by engineers who actually cared about ease of cleaning. We like Panasonic - that currently means Costco since our SAMs is on a Sanyo (owned by Panasonic) kick.
@RedOak How often do you buy microwaves?
@er1c we used to buy them every single year. Big family, heavy use and abuse, including by kids. Tried different brands, price ranges. Then tried plugging it into a surge protector. Problem solved.
@RedOak Are you kidding me? Just buy a GE one. Mine has lasted easily 10 years already.
@RedOak Have you considered eating a salad?
@andrewpatrick yep. GE was included. You might have missed the point. There apparently was something dirty on that circuit that was frying the microwave ovens and that the surge protector addressed.
@er1c yep. Do so all the time. And most of our family is on a mostly vegetarian diet. How about you?
Kmart/Sears once ended up giving me a new range/oven for free because the first one they sent out had issues. They ended up refunding it and replacing it. I don't think that was their intention, though. shrugs
For a while in the mid-2000s the rural area I lived in only had access to dial-up and satellite internet. I had Hughes Net and continuously had issues with it. After dealing with calls to support for months and my bills always being higher than originally quoted, I did some searching online and ended up with a direct line to a CEO. Miraculously, my problems were taken care of, contract ended and overcharges were refunded later that day. While I didn't get anything 'extra' out of the deal, I was proud of myself for finally getting it handled.
I pre-ordered a great collector's edition of The Hobbit for my husband for Christmas. I placed this order about 3 months ahead of time. Well, the ship date kept getting pushed back... and back... and back... until... February? In February, they finally canceled it on me. Unfortunately, the book was now selling for $50 more... from the same source.
Since Amazon jerked us around for 5 months, I asked them to cover the cost difference so I could still order the book. It still seems a bit insane, but at that point - they'd kind of held my order hostage and left me hanging without the product and never bothered trying to contact or help in any way.
To my absolutely and utter shock - they ponied up the $50 in credit.
@Thumperchick Amazon is often amazing about such things. They are definitely one company that believes if they screw up they have an obligation to make the customer happy.
@MrGlass They do and did, for sure. I will say it took going to their phone call reps - the chat people were kind of stuck with tied hands on that one. The phone rep talked to me for 10 minutes, looked at my account history and made the no-brainer call to make me happy and keep me spending too much money there. Way too much money...
@Thumperchick Yeah I'm an Amazon whore myself. I ditched cable/satellite a few years ago and stream everything. Right now Amazon is my only service and I'm doing fine with that. My point is I asked about streaming the TV show Dinosaurs and they told me they have no intention of streaming that show anytime soon. But gave me a $15 credit to buy a season for myself.
@jml326 Interesting. I'm on my brothers prime account (you can add a couple accounts & they get the shipping perks), so I don't get streaming video. Just cut the cable & getting tired of netflix though, so I'm considering it.
It is fun being prime without paying though. These days, the standard "my delivery is late" response from amazon is to give you a free month of prime. I always get a double take when i point out that I don't pay for prime.
@MrGlass Really there is no difference between Prime Video and Netflix. Well I guess there is with the Original Content and different shows streaming, but really they are the same idea. Netflix advantage still is paying per month and not per year.
I'm with Amazon because I get the shipping, free books, free music, free video, baby discounts, and other things for one yearly price.
@MrGlass I thought shared prime got streaming too
@MrGlass ok here we go.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201806360
But it was changed earlier this year to that
techcrunch.com/2015/08/03/amazon-cuts-down-on-prime-members-sharing-their-benefits/#.bsh4ko5:gl39
@Thumperchick
I got that refund also on the same item.
Bought a second home and a home warranty to go with it. Since the house came with a pool, I paid extra to have the warranty cover the pool.
About 9 months later, the sand filter broke and sand started getting into the pool. Called the warranty company and they sent someone out who refused to fix it saying that it's a non covered item. The fine print said that consumables like sand is not covered and pool cleaning items is also not covered. I interpreted that last one to refer to one of those items that crawl the bottom of the pool with a hose to vacuum up dirt and not a major component of the pool.
I never intended for them to pay for the replacement sand and had already bought 300 pounds of it in preparation for the repair.
No matter who I talked to in the company, nobody would help me. I eventually sued them and went to arbitration. They refused then too. Finally after a couple months, we went in front of a judge who agreed it should be covered and made the company pay for the entire repair plus all my court costs.
The amount of money they had to pay that lawyer to drive from Tampa to Jacksonville and appear twice probably exceeded the amount of the repair.
@cengland0 are home warranties always a scam? Mine also gave me trouble when I needed a repair. Congrats on your win!
@gilar1ja I guess it depends on the warranty company and the contractors they call out to do the estimates/repairs. When we bought our house, the seller paid for a one year warranty because there were some things that obviously were not going to work, like the rusty old Montgomery Wards branded central AC unit that couldn't be tested in the dead of winter.
Luckily for us, when spring came around and our warranty was beyond the "probation period" for major repairs, one call got a brand new (albeit brand selected by warranty company [i.e. cheapest possible]) unit with no hassle at all.
@Turken I have never heard of anyone getting a product replacement under a home warranty. You pay a deductible of around $50 and they will fix it with duct tape and if it goes bad again the following week, you pay your deductible again and they will patch fix it again.
I know someone that contract works for a warranty company and he tells me that they must do the job for the amount of the deductible. If it's a compressor that went bad, they will lose money on the deal. If it's just a starter capacitor, they will make money. Nobody will replace an entire unit if they have to eat that cost.
@cengland0 In 2004 I bought my current home, which the seller sold with a 1-year home warranty. In that year I managed to get a brand new A.O. Smith, 50-gal water heater installed, a $400 check to replace my stove because the digital timer/clock module broke and was no longer being made, and the crappy drain flange on the crappy fiberglass shower replaced (with a better, but still crappy flange that didn't require cutting into the ceiling again when it leaks again... which it has, twice.)
They didn't ask me to renew.
The most mad I've gotten was with Sprint. Their "unlimited" data plans make you pay extra for smartphones which use "a lot" of data. I got them to waive it on one phone so I lost... But I loved fighting with them and trying to explain that unlimited was bigger than a lot.
I went to pick up some appliances when we bought our new house using a rented moving truck to avoid delivery costs. I asked to check the actual appliances myself for phjysical damage like dings or dents. I was told they already checked and everything looked good. I had them sign that they inspected them :-) The dishwasher had a major ding right in the front. They tried to say I had to return it, but the rented truck had been returned so they told me it was my problem. So I went to the store and learned they didn't have anymore and that's why I got the dented one. I made them bring and install a new one the next day. They made a guy drive about 100 miles both ways, overnight, to find one and have it at house that morning.
@RedHot Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but why would them signing an inspection notice make you feel at all confident? They could be total wrecks and by having them sign it you're basically saying you approve of the job they did inspecting it. I'm impressed they replaced it.
@HELLOALICE By having them admit in writing that they did not allow him to inspect it, they retain responsibility. At least, that's my take on it.
@Thumperchick Ah, that makes sense.
@Thumperchick Yes, good job :-)
@HELLOALICE theres a line that says "visual inspection completed" on the receipt. I wanted the signature so that I could get back to that person if there was a problem. I knew he didn't look at it because the box was still stapled together.
I bought one of those fancy front-load washers and the delivery day came and went with no show and no call. Out here, they only deliver one day a week and sweetie was pissed about waiting another week, so she called the store manager.
Ends up he was already having problems with the delivery company. He made them come back the next day and refunded $100.00 to my card.
Uh... I try to not make her mad at me.
I just remembered another one.
I still get paper T-Mobile bills. I received a letter from them stating they were going to be charging $2 extra each month to customers that receive paper bills and a way to avoid that was to sign up for their electronic billing.
This was when they had contracts and I still had about 18 months left in my contract. I called them and said that they cannot change the terms of the contract unless they also let me out of my end of the contract. I do not agree to those change of terms. They refused to let me out of the contract and refused to drop the $2 charge.
I filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and with the FCC. T-Mobile's response to the Better Business Bureau was that they will not change their stance; however, T-Mobile's final response to the FCC was to not charge anyone the $2 probably realizing that they do not have any legal ability to do so.
Now that they have no contracts, they can change their pricing at any time which is okay because I can also go to another carrier too.
@cengland0 Reminds me of when I spent 2 hours fighting a high school teacher about a question on the midterm, and eventually won back points for it (wasn't covered in the reading) for any student who got it wrong.
Of course, I was one of only 3 kids who got it wrong - she has said it several times in class but I paid 0 attention. Oh, and this was all because I hated said teacher - I had the highest grade with or without those points.
@MrGlass I get it. The $2 isn't very much but it's more about the principle of it. They cannot just change the terms of a contract and not let me change the terms too. Contracts are not one sided and I wanted to prove it to them. I won and they lost millions because of my complaints.
@MrGlass I had a gym teacher who thought it would be fun to give a written test on soccer after the week or so of playing soccer in class. Question #3: "How many players are on the field in a regulation game?" The correct answer, of course, is 22. I was marked wrong because she expected 11 as the answer (that's true if there's only 1 team on the field...). I got my points for the question, but was rebuffed when I argued like only a teenager can that if I'm to be compared to my peers when I run slower, miss more baskets, and am generally less athletic, then their scores should be reduced for answering incorrectly. I hope in the many years since, I've learned better not to press too hard when I'm ahead.
I discovered my first husband was cheating on me, so I complained to a lawyer and got a house.
The biggest things I expect from customer service:
Knowledge of the company's products
Headphone sets that actually work so agent can hear me.
Background noise in leased call center (probably in India or Philippines) to be eliminated. This is the 21st century I believe. AND command of the English language.
Actually listening to my issue.
NEVER EVER tell me you can't do anything to help.
NEVER EVER tell me there is not one single supervisor available to escalate the issue.
NEVER EVER insinuate that I did something to the item to cause the problem.
The Legend Returns!! (@poppiart - did you know you are notorious here in the forum?)
@poppiart I was the manager in many companies and all my employees were trained to handle every customer inquiry. Need a refund, you don't need to ask for the manager -- all my employees can take care of it. But I would always get customers asking for me when I have more important things to do.
There are times that I will NOT do something for a customer. You got a late fee because you were in Japan on vacation and didn't pay your bill? Fine, I'll remove it for you this time but please understand that you are still responsible for paying your bills when you are on vacation. You got another late fee because you went on another vacation? My notes here said that I educated you about that the first time and refunded that late fee once before. You will not get any more help from me. Sorry. That is a valid charge and it is staying on your account.
Regarding insinuating that you did something to cause the problem, I had many customers return items they thought was defective but the customer installed the batteries backwards or didn't take the plastic wrap off them before inserting them. I would say that 60% or more of defects were caused by the customer doing something wrong.
@cengland0 I'm thinking that @poppiart is refuring to companies like Comcast. I shudder when thinking about when my cable went out every time it rained or snowed. 4 months of calling them 2-3 times a month. the missed appoints on their part. ugh nightmare. I have a feeling any company that you were a part of was on the short list of ones with a decent call center. I like not having to talk to three different people just to get someone to understand my issue and give enough of a damn to try to help me and not just "have you tried turning it off and back on"
@poppiart I am in total agreement with all you points
I bought a phone and was told in the tmobile store that if I put it on the unlimited plan (this was in 2012) that it was eligible for a $100 rebate. I sent in the paperwork, correctly and on time, and had it rejected. There was some fine print, I forget what, and this particular situation was just outside the terms of the rebate. I raised a stink because the store salesman has either lied or was stupid and I got my rebate. It turned out to be good, as I have stayed on unlimited in one form or another since and never regretted it.
Just my uverse modem. Gosh darn dadgum att gave me a used referb modem that lasted 15min till the radio died. Then I had to go round for 2 hours with banglore till they accepted that the radio might be bad and sent out a tech the next day. But generally I am uh frugal and buy scratch and dent appliances and used cars. I'm not an early adopter at all so pretty much the bugs are out of everything before I get it.
In July, I purchased a new range from Sears. They clearly offer a price guarantee on all items sold. I paid about $1400 for the range on a Monday, and picked it up on Wednesday of the following week. Then, they put the range on sale for $250 less 2 days later. I called and was told by a service rep that they couldn't honor the price guarantee because it was beyond 7 days. I tried to argue that I had only had the range for 2 days, but they absolutely refused.
I called the store and demanded a manager, who told me they couldn't do anything about it since it was an online order. I asked if I could return the range to the store for a full refund and he said yes. I asked if they had more of that model range in stock and he said yes. I hung up and drove to the store with the range loaded up in our mini van and returned it. When they asked me why I was returning it, I told them that I wasn't satisfied with it for the price.
THEN, I asked what would happen to the stove I returned and they said it would be sent back to Kenmore to be refurbished. I asked if they'd sell it to me for 15% off the current price and they agreed. So, instead of a $200 retro-active credit, I ended up getting the "used" stove (used by me) for the $1200 sales price, minus an additional $180 off. This also saved me the tax on $380, which came out to another $35 or so. So, for unplugging my range and taking it to the store, unloading it, reloading it and driving back home with it, I saved $415.
@capguncowboy
@capguncowboy Sears is great for this. I did something similar with nearly $3000 of fancy outdoor furniture. I bought it on clearance at the end of the season. Delivery was screwed up... entire pieces were missing because deliver list missed the X of Y numbering on the boxes. Some pieces were literally half missing. I had to go to the store to pick them up. Got a credit for the delivery fee + a small amount for my time and inconvenience. Knowing how these things typically go, I set it up on the lawn in September rather than store it unassembled in the shed. The second piece had a bent frame. I brought it back, got more refunded for my inconvenience/time. Then I saw the furniture was marked down even more... got the price match for that. Went home and assembled the rest the next weekend, more broken pieces, and price was lower again. Rinse and repeat. In the end, I bought $3000 worth of furniture for about $1800.
The biggest thing I've demanded of customer service is decency....still waiting for that sadly. Oh and someone that speaks English, that's getting harder to find as well.
After a 7 year fight I got MD Anderson to write off a bunch of thousands of dollars in bills because 7 mo into treatment for my first cancer they retroactively unaccepted my health insurance as in network. I told them I'd like to return my treatment and surgery like you can return a couch. Please put the tumor back in I'd like to go elsewhere to have it dealt with. I reminded them repeatedly that you make treatment decisions based on who accepts your insurance or not. They finally relented. They have had 2 other equally spectacular fails - one of which I won, the other is in process.
I also won against Sallie Mae with student loans. I consolidated all of my new loans for grad school but not my loans that were almost paid off. They then chose to re-write the almost paid off loans with new terms (higher interest rate) and back to 10 years left to pay. When I made the old payments instead of the new "lower" ones, they were doing weird shit that caused my balance not to go down like it should. Took me around 2.5 years, 3 of their alleged advocates, and a threat (bluff) of a lawsuit (told them the local law school was going to have the students take it on as a project in a class; it was illegal to renegotiate the terms of a loan without my signature, etc.), anyway they finally credited my account close to $1000 and put the loan back to how it should be. The rest of my school loans are with a far better company who, so far, has not screwed up (yet).
Won several battles against AT&T over internet issues and basically paid their introductory rate for 3 or 4 years as "settlement". I did not manage, on my own, to win another set of battles against a health insurance company but the state insurance commission managed to win them on my behalf. Unfortunately it came too late for me to get the $5000 I had been given by the leukemia and lymphoma society to pay treatment bills since they were settled too late for me to submit. Too bad as I really, really need that money.
Being a former customer service rep, the next biggest thing I ever got from another rep was a paycheck. From customers I've gotten swore at, had my body physically threatened, had my life threatened, my husband, my son and my dogs life threatened. Had someone threatened my job, my workplace and even had someone threaten to remove all the toilet seats from the women's bathroom. All this because the copy of something illegal they shouldn't have been copying didn't turn out right. Just remember...smile before you answer that phone. Oh yeah, the biggest thing I have gotten from a customer service rep...the words "You Win"..worth over $1,000,000.00.
@momcobb Wait, what? You won a million bucks?
@JerseyFrank I wondered how long this would sit in the thread before someone commented on it . . .
Not technically customer service, but it still applies. I'm currently in the process of having a house built. The builders have jerked me around during several different aspects of the process. The house was supposed to be done by September, however they didn't start until September. They also (including the CEO) told me that at max it would take 90 days. At the time they started digging, they told me it would be 120.
Some of the things that were on the plans we signed off on were apparently "upgrades" that were copied off of somebody else's plans, but not accounted for. I paid for a few small upgrades, but made them eat most of the cost. Fast forward to late last month. I had them prewire a bunch of CAT6 to almost every room. When I got the updated purchase agreement and pricing addendum, there was a $4300 charge on it that neither I, nor my realtor knew what it was for. When they told us, we laughed at them. After digging, they did soil testing and found that the lot had expansive soil, so they had to reinforce the foundation. They did this without telling us, and waited over a month before discussing it with us. I put up a fight, and they agreed to pay for half of it. Still pissed off, I went off on them. Testing the soil should have been done long before they started digging.
After going back and forth about who was responsible for paying the costs, and us refusing several times, they tried to get me to sign paperwork releasing both parties from the contract. They also wanted to keep my deposit.
I sent them a long list of stuff that I planned on suing them for, including loan application fee, wasted time, lawyer fees, my realtor commission, the difference in the interest rate at the time I signed the purchase agreement to now, on the value of the house etc. The list goes on and on. I most likely would have sued for "special performance" (making them have to sell me the house as agreed on earlier.
They finally ended up caving in and eating the cost, but now I fear they will be bitter about it. I just hope they don't try to recoup their costs elsewhere and cut corners.
Current progress pic:
@lichme document everything and sue their ass if they do
@lichme Well this makes me fell a lot better about my builder. Having to wait a few months to get in replacement lights and a few other things doesn't seem so bad now. Also big reason I didn't go with a tract house builder.
I ordered a used engine (a Toyota 22R for an old truck - it was just shy of $500) from an online auto parts vendor, back in the olden days of the internet. The one I ordered looked worse than the one I was replacing, the head was completely different, and was missing the exhaust manifold, meaning I couldn't reuse any of my existing parts. What's worse was I had been assured in writing that I was receiving was an early 22R, not one of the later ones.
Their T&C said I had 30 days to return it, so with the clock ticking at 14 days, I started the process of returning it.
They told me I should have refused it if I didn't like it (I couldn't tell what condition it was in in the back of the trailer).
They told me I was outside the 30 days and I couldn't return it (they were counting from the time I placed an order, not from the time it was delivered - their T&C clearly stated 30 days from delivery)
After quoting their T&C to them on the phone, they agreed to take it back, all I had to do was send it freight collect. So I did. They refused it at their dock. They said the shipping was excessive.
So, now the engine is in a freight terminal, and they have my money. They told me I should have used someone cheaper.
I call Yellow Freight to pay the freight charges so the stupid thing will be back in their hands. It was like $100 or something.
Now that it's there, they start trying to offer me "credit" towards a different engine. This goes around for about a week, until I finally talk to the owner, quote the T&C to him, and tell him I'm expecting a refund, not a credit. We go round a few times, but finally he relents and refunds me for everything except the freight that I paid. Which sucks.
But that was in 2003, and I caused them to change their T&C to a 14-day return window for credit only. So there's that. I hope the business failed in the wake of the 2008 financial disasters. Maybe they're all in prison. One can dream, right?
@lumpthar That sucks.
BTW - I too had a 22R Toyota back in the day. That little 4 banger was awesome off-roading, but SUCKED if you were in any kind of hurry.
@Thumperchick Mine was a little 1983 2wd truck. I had it for 9 years and put about 90k on it before the head gasket blew.
After the engine swap debacle, I decided to rebuild it, but I could never get it running right again. It wouldn't pass emissions once I moved to TN, so I had to let it go. I am still sad about it.
@lumpthar mine was an '87 ext cab 4x4 - a precurser to what would become the Tacoma line. I caught a mid year oddity in production - just before fuel injection was implemented in them. I got that truck at 120k, sold it at 190k still running. Replaced the exhaust manifold gasket a few times, but the HG held strong for me.
That truck never left me stranded. I may have had to carry a few parts and replace a starter in a parking lot once - but was never just stuck. I miss it still.
@Thumperchick The 2wd trucks were relatively zippy by 1983 standards, but that's probably because they were carrying only one axle and no transfer case.
I just sold my 1987 Toyota Van. Talk about a slug. It has the 4YE forklift motor in it. They are built a lot like airplanes in the sense that every system depends on every other system, and nothing is easily accessible. To replace the spark plugs, you must first remove the passenger seat...
In many of the things I have demanded from Customer Service I have usually been successful at getting. I always keep my cool as it isn't the person on the other end of the phone who caused the issue & they probably really do want to help you if they can.
My biggest win was with Apple Computer Inc. This was back in the day when the focus was on computers unlike today with the focus on the toys.
I had bought a PowerBook from an AppleStore worker. The thing had a year of AppleCare on it. Things started going bad on it. It was sent in for repair. Not fixed. I forget now if it was sent in again or not but soon decided that it was a lemon.
PowerBook is retired the first MacBook Pro comes out. The keyboard has lots of issues.
One of the great things about Apple is the forums. The MBP keyboard issue soon generated over 10,000 responses. Apple would close one thread down and another would open up. One person suggested emailing Steve Jobs and I did. I pointed out the facts that there was a thread with over 10,000 post etc and I was having blah blah issues.
A day later I got this email response asking me to call this number. I couldn't believe it! It was from an Apple Upper Lever Customer Representative who actually met with Jobs weekly. This began a two year relationship with Apple in trying to fix the keyboard issue and whatever other issues that popped up with the MBP.
I was constantly getting upgrades to the version as new MBPs came out and my AppleCare was renewed when everyone was satisfied that everything was perfect.
I learned so much about those 2006 - 2008 MBPs it was a fantastic experience. A couple of times I asked for a couple of small gifts like the wireless keyboard (I had purchased a Mac mini) and not so small gifts - I was given a very big discount on an Apple Cinema Display.
A couple months after the dust cleared I actually had the balls to contact the regular CS and say that I had been thru two years of help for Apple and was wondering if I could get an iPod touch for my troubles. The rep put me on hold to look over my files and came back to check on my current shipping address.
The current Apple & Tim Cook just care about the bottom dollar, imho. I have been in a 2+ year long battle with them over the newest MBP and the difference in how everything has been handled in more than stunning! I have won the battle but the details have not been worked out. The little free toys are very precious now.
@fjp999 I forgot about my win against apple in 2013. Had apple care. Had many fails with failed fixes along with not giving me back my hard drive so I could try to salvage it, instead giving me someone else's and then no one could find mine (ended up losing 18 mo of stuff as it was trashing my backup too as the computer's hard drive was failing). Finally they agreed to replace the computer (which is how I have my 2013 mac air) with a new, not refurbished mac.
Back in the late 1990's early 2000's my mother purchased a HP computer. After a few months it had all sorts of issues. At the time I wasn't into computers too much so I have no idea what the actual issue was. Back then you called California long distance on your land line. She got good service (now all overseas but toll free) they determined it was garbage and had her send hers in for a new one. She sent it in and weeks went by, nothing. After some more long distance calls they told her it was back ordered and she would need to wait a few more weeks for a replacement. After a talk to a manager they elected to send her the next model up. She got that from them quick then a month later the replacement showed up as well. There was a debate on what to do with the extra one and eventually we kept it since shipping it back was a lot and the long distance calls to send it back went no where.
Not a big win, but my favorite "unsatisfied customer demands" story belongs to my mother. She baked me a cake for my birthday. Chocolate cake, strawberry pie filling & sliced bananas between layers, and frosted with whipped cream. Candles were lit, wishes were made, and the cake was served.
It was awful.
Apparently the whipping cream was sour despite being used well before the sell-by date, implying that it had been mishandled by the store (otherwise numerous reports of unintentionally sour cream would've surfaced throughout the supply chain). She was incensed.
She brought the cake to the store as evidence. She walked out with 3 eggs, a 1/2 cup of oil, a box of cake mix, 4 bananas, a can of strawberry pie filling, confectioner's sugar, and a new pint of whipping cream. She left the cake.
@JerseyFrank Thats awesome.
@JerseyFrank Yet another December Baby. I wonder how many we have here?
@Foxborn +1 over here
@Foxborn 7-9%
@JerseyFrank That's a total mom move, I love it.