How I lost the bap

This is not the start of the tale. This is the bit where all the frustration and disappointment finally got the better of me. In spite of what it looks like, I have no complaints at all about the customer service workers. On the contrary, all of the people I have communicated have been helpful, patient and pleasant.

As far as I am concerned, they are implementing company policy. It would be too much of a coincidence if all the customer service staff made exactly the same error in interpreting policy. As I understand it, they generally don’t have the authority to do anything other than direct customers according to company policy. So the problem, to me, is one created by senior managers. This is pretty despicable — they put workers on the frontline to face angry customers and then hide.

The interesting part of this is the little bit ‘Contact the retailer — your contract is with the retailer and not the manufacturer’. As I will show another time, I specifically raised this with a customer service person, but was told that I still had to get the manufacturer reference number *before* Argos would start their process.

So here is my rant from last night

“Absolutely livid tonight.
A 6 month old Acer laptop, bought from Argos has died. There are no signs of life on it at all.
Contact Argos who tell me that I need to deal with Acer to get a manufacturers reference number.
So contact Acer who give me a list of things to try. Tried them all and the laptop is still dead.
Contact Acer again. They give me the option of returning the laptop to them. If they decide it is a hardware problem, tey will fix it.
If they decide it’s my fault, they will charge for the repair or they will charge £30+ to return the laptop unrepaired. They gave me no manufacturers reference number and no option to return it to the store from whence it came.
Get back to Argos and explain this.
Can’t do anything without a manufacturers reference number
Acer, I tell them, didn’t give me one. What can I do?
Eventually, the person tells me that I can return it to the store without a reference number and they can send it off for a repair.
‘You’ve just told me that they won’t do that without a manufacturers reference number’
They can’t refund or exchange without the number but they could do a repair (which is all I wanted in the first place)
So, like an idiot, I head off to the store — taking an hour long round trip, to be told that they can’t do *anything* without a manufacturers reference number
I tell her about the online chat thing — unless I know the person’s first and second name, it’s no use. Anyway, the online callcentre people don’t always know the process — i am told! So basically, fuck you. I said to her that I am not leaving the store with a broken laptop, I need it to be fixed, I bought it from them and it is less than 6 months old.
I am very annoyed by the time I have given her all my details (not sure why I am being asked for details if they’ve got a ‘process’ but I give the details anyway).
And then, I left the store leaving the laptop with her because there’s no point me taking a laptop home if it’s dead and unlikely to be fixed.
Fucking livid and disappointed”

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