Okay, I'm convinced by the argument that we should blog about the consumer experience. Maybe not every time, but often enough. And anyway, when I talked about blogging the experience today, the man behind the counter looked worried. It's the adult version of "I'm going to tell on you," and maybe it'll have an effect.
Although that isn't to say anything's necessarily bad. Ten months ago, I bought a Kindle. Couple of weeks ago, it froze. Went online, tried the 'restart' suggestion, it froze again. Tried the 'restore to factory settings' idea. It froze again. And again. And finally ground to a halt in the middle of that process whereby you see a little tree with a boy under it, and a progress bar across the ground underneath.
Went to Amazon customer service, sent an email, they emailed back saying - try a restart. If that fails, call us. So I called.
And it was a really pleasant conversation. The replacement arrived two days later, the old one was collected a day after that. So far, the new one is fine. [And all my books are safe in the archive.] The two things I'm not going to do are: reattach the cover (an idea from a forum); keep all my books on the thing. It can supposedly take whole libaries, but from now on, my library's staying at the Amazon archive.
But I'm a happy customer, frankly.
And then - these things are sent to try us - couple of days ago my new (two months) Hewlett-Packard laptop failed to start. Did the diagnostics (press f something while it's waking up) and the hard drive was revealed to be faulty. Took it back to Comet in Camborne, and watched the man behind the counter ring the HP helpdesk and go through the same diagnostic process. Apparently people pour coffee into their laptops and then bring them back.
The thing's gone off to HP and they're going to get it back to Comet in seven days. And Comet are going to ring me. Watch this space. My statutory rights don't extend to getting it replaced on the spot or my money back, they tell me (I've confirmed this; they have the right to fix it instead). One odd thing: If I had bought the insurance, which I remember being offered as "replace with no questions asked", they would still have gone through the same process. Happy not to have bought that, I think.
Seven days from now, I'll know what I think of Hewlett-Packard. And, I suppose, Comet.
I already know what I think of Amazon.
"Six Days Or Forever?" That was it. Title of a book that's somewhere on the shelf behind me. Do I Google it, or spend some time finding it? About creatio
Although that isn't to say anything's necessarily bad. Ten months ago, I bought a Kindle. Couple of weeks ago, it froze. Went online, tried the 'restart' suggestion, it froze again. Tried the 'restore to factory settings' idea. It froze again. And again. And finally ground to a halt in the middle of that process whereby you see a little tree with a boy under it, and a progress bar across the ground underneath.
Went to Amazon customer service, sent an email, they emailed back saying - try a restart. If that fails, call us. So I called.
And it was a really pleasant conversation. The replacement arrived two days later, the old one was collected a day after that. So far, the new one is fine. [And all my books are safe in the archive.] The two things I'm not going to do are: reattach the cover (an idea from a forum); keep all my books on the thing. It can supposedly take whole libaries, but from now on, my library's staying at the Amazon archive.
But I'm a happy customer, frankly.
And then - these things are sent to try us - couple of days ago my new (two months) Hewlett-Packard laptop failed to start. Did the diagnostics (press f something while it's waking up) and the hard drive was revealed to be faulty. Took it back to Comet in Camborne, and watched the man behind the counter ring the HP helpdesk and go through the same diagnostic process. Apparently people pour coffee into their laptops and then bring them back.
The thing's gone off to HP and they're going to get it back to Comet in seven days. And Comet are going to ring me. Watch this space. My statutory rights don't extend to getting it replaced on the spot or my money back, they tell me (I've confirmed this; they have the right to fix it instead). One odd thing: If I had bought the insurance, which I remember being offered as "replace with no questions asked", they would still have gone through the same process. Happy not to have bought that, I think.
Seven days from now, I'll know what I think of Hewlett-Packard. And, I suppose, Comet.
I already know what I think of Amazon.
"Six Days Or Forever?" That was it. Title of a book that's somewhere on the shelf behind me. Do I Google it, or spend some time finding it? About creatio