Wow, I've had nothing but trouble with Logitech support. I had an MX Revolution die, I called them and had their phone service hang up on me a minute or two into the holding pattern (twice, a week apart). Then I emailed support, took them a month and a half to respond, by which time I had already replaced the mouse.
They've always been stellar with me, too - shipped replacement batteries for remotes, replaced entire speaker sets because the stand on one of them broke, replaced mice, the whole nine yards. They're A++ good in my book.
Lenovo's another. Shortly after I bought my X200 a while back, the screen got an unexpected crack from a stress point in the housing somewhere, and I learned that the warranty I got didn't cover incidental damage or more than normal wear and tear. I explained that there were no signs of external damage, and no logical way I could have caused the issue. They sent me a box and said they'd check it out, and I got it back in a week with a brand new screen.
I've dealt a lot with HP's pro division support and I will say they are fantastic to work with and go above the call of duty all the time. Another company I've only dealt with once but had terrific support was Antec.
One company to avoid at all costs is Blue Microphones, they couldn't care less about their customers.
I'm suprised Dell isn't on this list! I have found their service and support second to none! You get a unique 7 character code for your machine, and with this code you can check the warranty, order parts, request immediate service. It's a wonderful experience being able to quote one code and to have the person on the other end know everything about that machine.
I recently had a grand experience with Samsung customer service. They honored a warranty repair quickly, and at absolutely no cost to me (they provided a pre-paid shipping label), and also thanked me on Twitter.
0
AnnesTripped Up by Libidos and HubrisAlexandria, VAIcrontian
edited March 2010
Netflix, Zappos, and Newegg would be excellent additions to this list. I've never received anything other than bang-up customer service from all.
Rayle, I completely disagree with you on the Dell front. Have you ever dealt with them for something bigger than needing a warranty replacement? It's awful. Condescending, disinterested, mistrusting and not knowledgeable.
Netflix, Zappos, and Newegg would be excellent additions to this list. I've never received anything other than bang-up customer service from all.
Rayle, I completely disagree with you on the Dell front. Have you ever dealt with them for something bigger than needing a warranty replacement? It's awful. Condescending, disinterested, mistrusting and not knowledgeable.
My shitlist: Dell, Asus, Twitter
I'm going to 2nd the newegg love. Consistently they are brilliant to deal with.
I'm going to add to the Dell hate. Everything about my Dell experience has nothing short of sucked. Emachines has a superior customer service organization (I'm not joking)
Best customer support I've ever had: OCZ, Newegg, *GASP* Microsoft.
OCZ: I've been buying OCZ products for almost as long as there has been an OCZ and on numerous occasions, support staff have gone out of their way to assist me. A+
Newegg: no need for explanation, other than their lack of eligibility for Florida residents in most of their promo contests/free shit give aways. A+
Microsoft: I know this one may get some RAGE going, but I've had nothing but outstanding software and hardware support from M$. From keyboards and mice replaced free of charge to help recovering an Xbox Live account that hadn't been active since 6 months after the original Live launched and for which I had almost no information.
Most recently with Microsoft, I was having issues installing Win7 Pro 64-bit on my new system. I eventually got extremely frustrated and called M$ support and once I was able to get a Real Live Person they calmly asked me to take some steps to check the disk I was using to install from and the original downloaded ISO (I bought online with the HUGE student discount and downloaded the ISO). After nearly an hour, the support guy (I think his name was Mike) told me to re-download the ISO from a link he emailed me -turned out to be a secure M$ server- AND M$ sent me a free Win7 Pro 64-bit retail DVD so I wouldn't have this problem again in the future. I didn't get this disk the first time around because it was an extra $30 and support sent me the disk after I explained that, as I said, free of charge.
Best old school support that is no longer around but anybody who ever dealt with them will agree with me: Abit.
Annes: I agree with you on Asus, it was an absolute nightmare just to talk to someone when I had to RMA a motherboard a couple of years ago. Ended up taking nearly two months before they got the board back to me.
Dell: I remember back when I got my Dell P90 (yes, Pentium 90), Dell was the head of the pack in customer support and even sent a repair guy to the house twice to replace components. These days it seems to be random quality roulette: some calls are answered with knowledge, insight, and a sensed need to help, other support calls result in barely understandable english and/or a sense that you are just wasting their time.
Newegg is definitely tops on my list. Any time I've had a problem, they've handled it immediately and appropriately, many times going beyond what I would have considered perfectly reasonable.
Example: When I was replacing my failed dual-opteron setup, I had ordered several parts for my now-current Intel rig. I paid for the standard 3-day shipping, and everything was moving smoothly. Somehow, one of the sorters at UPS was smoking crack and routed my package from Maumee, OH (typically the last overnight stop before going out for delivery from Ypsi to Ann Arbor) to Louisville, KY, adding 3 full days to my delivery time.
I contacted NewEgg's customer service about the issue, requesting only that the difference between 3-day and 5-day shipping be refunded (about $2), since it would arrive during that window. I got a response and a refund of the entire shipping cost (~$9) within minutes. Much more than I could have expected.
Another one which might come as a surprise: Sprint.
Since Dan Hesse took over, he's been working on getting the company back up to a place above 'carrier of last resort' status. The first thing he did was gut almost the entire Customer Service devision of the company. While they've settled in to a relatively standard cell-company-crappy CS department, they're light-years ahead of what they were.
Additionally, the company set up a hotline to their executive services people for customers that have been unable to get anywhere with regular customer service. I had to use this line once to correct two different promises that were made and subsequently broken by regular customer service and retail sales. 15 minutes on the phone and everything was perfect with my account. The rep also provided me a direct line and an assurance that if anything was incorrect with the next bill to contact him immediately.
If only companies could afford to provide service at that level to everyone.
Just to add that I've recently had a microswitch fail on a Logitech mouse after 2 years, and without any hassle at all they're sending me a whole new mouse... in fact it's an upgraded model that costs twice as much new because this version's out of stock.
It's quite amazing that they have such a good 5 year warranty given that microswitches do have a tendency to fail, and Logitech's customer service has been brilliant.
I recently had a grand experience with Samsung customer service. They honored a warranty repair quickly, and at absolutely no cost to me (they provided a pre-paid shipping label), and also thanked me on Twitter.
Samsung had good support for me as well. My monitor had gone on the fritz and I called up Samsung to see about the warranty on it. After some short troubleshooting they shipped a replacement to me which arrived later that week and all I had to do was send my broken one back at no expense to myself.
Although I haven't dealt with customer service, ASUS's website is pretty bad. It runs so slow, it's hard to find what you are looking for, and did I mention it's slow?
0
AnnesTripped Up by Libidos and HubrisAlexandria, VAIcrontian
Another one which might come as a surprise: Sprint.
Since Dan Hesse took over, he's been working on getting the company back up to a place above 'carrier of last resort' status. The first thing he did was gut almost the entire Customer Service devision of the company. While they've settled in to a relatively standard cell-company-crappy CS department, they're light-years ahead of what they were.
Additionally, the company set up a hotline to their executive services people for customers that have been unable to get anywhere with regular customer service. I had to use this line once to correct two different promises that were made and subsequently broken by regular customer service and retail sales. 15 minutes on the phone and everything was perfect with my account. The rep also provided me a direct line and an assurance that if anything was incorrect with the next bill to contact him immediately.
If only companies could afford to provide service at that level to everyone.
This is really encouraging to read. I've been seriously thinking about switching to Sprint when my AT&T contract is up.
Let me add Chik-fil-A - Not only is the product delicious, there is a real consistency of polite counter service there, unlike any other fast food chain, at least the ones I patron.
This is really encouraging to read. I've been seriously thinking about switching to Sprint when my AT&T contract is up.
I wouldn't. Sprint is betting the farm on WiMax, and they'll be the only carrier in the United States to do so. In fact, they're one of the only carriers in the <b>world</b> betting on WiMax for 4G. Do you really think they can keep it together? Do you really think the US' smallest mobile carrier can simultaneously develop and deploy a technology nobody else is working with for phones?
I just got Clear down here in Dallas. its pretty cool and works well. got the 3 meg home service for $30/mo. ive had no issues with WiMax yet other than slightly high ping times of like ~120ms.
Let me add Chik-fil-A - Not only is the product delicious, there is a real consistency of polite counter service there, unlike any other fast food chain, at least the ones I patron.
Absolutely, they're actually a pretty special company in that respect. The thing that amazes me is the consistency of their delicious food no matter where you are. I've had their food in the corporate headquarters and it tastes exactly the same as it does everywhere else. Plus, they've got one of the batmobile from the previous Batman films in the lobby. I do wish their polite vocabulary was a little larger though, I hate hearing "my pleasure" every damn time I say thanks.
I'm torn on the Dell issue. Having only dealt with them when I was doing sys-ad at my college, I've only dealt with their Higher Eduction/Enterprise support. The experience was normally quite pleasant, aside from long hold times. One of their techs actually walked me through taking one of their super compact laptops apart to replace a fan as the service manual was a "company secret" thus they couldn't send it to us. I've heard their consumer support is atrocious though.
To add a company to the flip side here, MSI. Goddamn they suck. Takes them days to answer an email. You have to twist their arms to get them to pay for shipping even on repeat RMAs. They've sent my laptop back to me without repairing anything before. Overall F--, will never purchase from them again. EVER.
Tigerdirect was a wonder working with. We had messed up the shipping order and within minutes we had resolved the problem, got plenty of instructions, and had very friendly service to talk with.
I wouldn't. Sprint is betting the farm on WiMax, and they'll be the only carrier in the United States to do so. In fact, they're one of the only carriers in the <b>world</b> betting on WiMax for 4G. Do you really think they can keep it together? Do you really think the US' smallest mobile carrier can simultaneously develop and deploy a technology nobody else is working with for phones?
Toshiba bet the farm on HD-DVD, but they're still around. It's not like they couldn't relatively easily make the switch to LTE if they found that WiMax wasn't going where they thought they could push it.
WiMax towers are incompatible with LTE. They'd need to dismantle all their WiMax equipment and switch to LTE, putting them 3-4 years behind their competitors.
HD-DVD was never a farm bet for Toshiba. It was a big investment, but players aren't their only business model like phones and data are for Sprint.
0
KwitkoSheriff of Banning (Retired)By the thing near the stuffIcrontian
This is true, as well. None of the LTE providers have even really started their rollouts, while Sprint's WiMax is starting to get pushed out in more and more markets.
If VZ and AT&T take long enough to get their implementations off the ground, Sprint will already have enough saturation to be self-sustainable.
Even if the other guys started selling it right now, they'd still be several months behind, and risking becoming an also-ran.
My customer service experience with Sprint was misserable years ago. It would be hard to convince me to go back.
It was for everyone, myself included. Then I started hearing word-of-mouth that things had improved drastically. Then they brought out some killer pricing deals, which led me to give them a try.
Standard CS (*2, etc) is still pretty miserable, but they'll still be able to set you straight more often than not. The real triumph for them was recognizing that people sometimes needed a higher level and providing them a number that could get it for them.
I had BOOST (Sprint's prepaid brand) for a little while (for the $50/month unlimited plan) and I found their customer service to be decent, though from what I gather they're on the legacy Nextel network, so reception wasn't great.
//edit:
I just got off the phone with Logitech customer support, literally one minute ago. I have a G7 with a bad battery. They're going to ship me a new battery pack out, with the caution that they don't make the G7 anymore, or any wireless gaming mouse for that matter, so once they run out of G7 batteries, that's it.
If you have a G7 with short battery life or other battery issues, I suggest you call now.
Best: Zappos and Samsung. They trip over themselves to accept a return.
Worst: Asus ('nuff said) and IOGear. IOGear won't even deign to answer support emails and has the balls to say "all email will be answered within 48 hours" on their support page. Bullshit. I will never buy from either again.
By far and without question, Boxx technologies is the best customer support out there. They sell high end computers for CG. I have spent hours on the phone with them just asking questions and they stay on until I'm happy without making it seem like I'm wasting their time.
Just last week they actually emailed me when they thought I wanted to discontinue the email newsletter I get from them. I don't know any other company that would do that. When I have a question that the first person I talk to doesn't know, they don't take 20 minutes wasting your time before they send you to the tech department. They do it immediately.
I don't work for them, I am just awestruck every time I deal with them. They always have the answers and they always handle problems very quickly. You email them and they get back to you in 10 minutes or less. At least that's been my experience.
Comments
Lenovo's another. Shortly after I bought my X200 a while back, the screen got an unexpected crack from a stress point in the housing somewhere, and I learned that the warranty I got didn't cover incidental damage or more than normal wear and tear. I explained that there were no signs of external damage, and no logical way I could have caused the issue. They sent me a box and said they'd check it out, and I got it back in a week with a brand new screen.
One company to avoid at all costs is Blue Microphones, they couldn't care less about their customers.
Rayle, I completely disagree with you on the Dell front. Have you ever dealt with them for something bigger than needing a warranty replacement? It's awful. Condescending, disinterested, mistrusting and not knowledgeable.
My shitlist: Dell, Asus, Twitter
I'm going to 2nd the newegg love. Consistently they are brilliant to deal with.
I'm going to add to the Dell hate. Everything about my Dell experience has nothing short of sucked. Emachines has a superior customer service organization (I'm not joking)
OCZ: I've been buying OCZ products for almost as long as there has been an OCZ and on numerous occasions, support staff have gone out of their way to assist me. A+
Newegg: no need for explanation, other than their lack of eligibility for Florida residents in most of their promo contests/free shit give aways. A+
Microsoft: I know this one may get some RAGE going, but I've had nothing but outstanding software and hardware support from M$. From keyboards and mice replaced free of charge to help recovering an Xbox Live account that hadn't been active since 6 months after the original Live launched and for which I had almost no information.
Most recently with Microsoft, I was having issues installing Win7 Pro 64-bit on my new system. I eventually got extremely frustrated and called M$ support and once I was able to get a Real Live Person they calmly asked me to take some steps to check the disk I was using to install from and the original downloaded ISO (I bought online with the HUGE student discount and downloaded the ISO). After nearly an hour, the support guy (I think his name was Mike) told me to re-download the ISO from a link he emailed me -turned out to be a secure M$ server- AND M$ sent me a free Win7 Pro 64-bit retail DVD so I wouldn't have this problem again in the future. I didn't get this disk the first time around because it was an extra $30 and support sent me the disk after I explained that, as I said, free of charge.
Best old school support that is no longer around but anybody who ever dealt with them will agree with me: Abit.
Annes: I agree with you on Asus, it was an absolute nightmare just to talk to someone when I had to RMA a motherboard a couple of years ago. Ended up taking nearly two months before they got the board back to me.
Dell: I remember back when I got my Dell P90 (yes, Pentium 90), Dell was the head of the pack in customer support and even sent a repair guy to the house twice to replace components. These days it seems to be random quality roulette: some calls are answered with knowledge, insight, and a sensed need to help, other support calls result in barely understandable english and/or a sense that you are just wasting their time.
Just because I think they have fantastic customer support doesn't mean I agree with all their business practices.
Example: When I was replacing my failed dual-opteron setup, I had ordered several parts for my now-current Intel rig. I paid for the standard 3-day shipping, and everything was moving smoothly. Somehow, one of the sorters at UPS was smoking crack and routed my package from Maumee, OH (typically the last overnight stop before going out for delivery from Ypsi to Ann Arbor) to Louisville, KY, adding 3 full days to my delivery time.
I contacted NewEgg's customer service about the issue, requesting only that the difference between 3-day and 5-day shipping be refunded (about $2), since it would arrive during that window. I got a response and a refund of the entire shipping cost (~$9) within minutes. Much more than I could have expected.
Another one which might come as a surprise: Sprint.
Since Dan Hesse took over, he's been working on getting the company back up to a place above 'carrier of last resort' status. The first thing he did was gut almost the entire Customer Service devision of the company. While they've settled in to a relatively standard cell-company-crappy CS department, they're light-years ahead of what they were.
Additionally, the company set up a hotline to their executive services people for customers that have been unable to get anywhere with regular customer service. I had to use this line once to correct two different promises that were made and subsequently broken by regular customer service and retail sales. 15 minutes on the phone and everything was perfect with my account. The rep also provided me a direct line and an assurance that if anything was incorrect with the next bill to contact him immediately.
If only companies could afford to provide service at that level to everyone.
It's quite amazing that they have such a good 5 year warranty given that microswitches do have a tendency to fail, and Logitech's customer service has been brilliant.
Samsung had good support for me as well. My monitor had gone on the fritz and I called up Samsung to see about the warranty on it. After some short troubleshooting they shipped a replacement to me which arrived later that week and all I had to do was send my broken one back at no expense to myself.
Although I haven't dealt with customer service, ASUS's website is pretty bad. It runs so slow, it's hard to find what you are looking for, and did I mention it's slow?
This is really encouraging to read. I've been seriously thinking about switching to Sprint when my AT&T contract is up.
I wouldn't. Sprint is betting the farm on WiMax, and they'll be the only carrier in the United States to do so. In fact, they're one of the only carriers in the <b>world</b> betting on WiMax for 4G. Do you really think they can keep it together? Do you really think the US' smallest mobile carrier can simultaneously develop and deploy a technology nobody else is working with for phones?
Absolutely, they're actually a pretty special company in that respect. The thing that amazes me is the consistency of their delicious food no matter where you are. I've had their food in the corporate headquarters and it tastes exactly the same as it does everywhere else. Plus, they've got one of the batmobile from the previous Batman films in the lobby. I do wish their polite vocabulary was a little larger though, I hate hearing "my pleasure" every damn time I say thanks.
To add a company to the flip side here, MSI. Goddamn they suck. Takes them days to answer an email. You have to twist their arms to get them to pay for shipping even on repeat RMAs. They've sent my laptop back to me without repairing anything before. Overall F--, will never purchase from them again. EVER.
Toshiba bet the farm on HD-DVD, but they're still around. It's not like they couldn't relatively easily make the switch to LTE if they found that WiMax wasn't going where they thought they could push it.
HD-DVD was never a farm bet for Toshiba. It was a big investment, but players aren't their only business model like phones and data are for Sprint.
And 3-4 years ahead of AT&T.
This is true, as well. None of the LTE providers have even really started their rollouts, while Sprint's WiMax is starting to get pushed out in more and more markets.
If VZ and AT&T take long enough to get their implementations off the ground, Sprint will already have enough saturation to be self-sustainable.
Even if the other guys started selling it right now, they'd still be several months behind, and risking becoming an also-ran.
It was for everyone, myself included. Then I started hearing word-of-mouth that things had improved drastically. Then they brought out some killer pricing deals, which led me to give them a try.
Standard CS (*2, etc) is still pretty miserable, but they'll still be able to set you straight more often than not. The real triumph for them was recognizing that people sometimes needed a higher level and providing them a number that could get it for them.
//edit:
I just got off the phone with Logitech customer support, literally one minute ago. I have a G7 with a bad battery. They're going to ship me a new battery pack out, with the caution that they don't make the G7 anymore, or any wireless gaming mouse for that matter, so once they run out of G7 batteries, that's it.
If you have a G7 with short battery life or other battery issues, I suggest you call now.
Worst: Asus ('nuff said) and IOGear. IOGear won't even deign to answer support emails and has the balls to say "all email will be answered within 48 hours" on their support page. Bullshit. I will never buy from either again.
Just last week they actually emailed me when they thought I wanted to discontinue the email newsletter I get from them. I don't know any other company that would do that. When I have a question that the first person I talk to doesn't know, they don't take 20 minutes wasting your time before they send you to the tech department. They do it immediately.
I don't work for them, I am just awestruck every time I deal with them. They always have the answers and they always handle problems very quickly. You email them and they get back to you in 10 minutes or less. At least that's been my experience.