Distended Warranty

Suzi’s Sophie had to return to the shop today. That’s twice in less than five months since purchase new. Even the sales manager doesn’t need to be all that astute to verbalize how equipment as expensive as Sophie ought not need to go into the shop twice so soon after sale. I’ll add that one would think that Sophie’s company would realize that fact well enough to make getting it right a rather high, immediate priority, so as to ensure the references they might expect of a happy customer as knowledgeable in this equipment as Suzi is. Which is not quite the impression given by the estimation that Sophie will be in the shop for 4 weeks, despite payment of an extra $50 for expedited service on the extended warranty already in place on the machine.

This is exactly the sort of “customer service” that turned me from an IBM evangelist into a power user who will never again touch an IBM machine and who has persuaded many users to follow him out the door. That I am unkind or that I wish anyone ill will, that is a lie. Just that, show me so very bluntly that you don’t want my business, and I’ll say fare thee well, as you wish, and don’t come back looking for me later on pretending like you never sent me away.

As for the warranty, in my opinion companies should extend any warranty by the period of time that an item is in the shop for repairs. In IBM’s case, that would have extended the 1-year warranty to more than 20 months solely on the basis of shop time during my machine’s first year; then given how defective the equipment was well known to be, eventually the warranty might not have accumulated 12 full months in my own possession until maybe 3 to 4 years after its sale. Yeah, I know, that’ll never happen. What companies ought understand, though, is that the alternative is that their best customers leave and never look back. Those companies should expect no better.