From: David Goldman (David_at_dgoldman.com)
Date: Thu Apr 13 2000 - 13:20:34 EDT
At 10:07 AM 4/13/2000 , Michael Geary wrote:
> > Isn't it sad when a major corporation like IBM angers customers and
> > tarnishes their reputation over a little thing like sending a fulfillment
> > item costing $5-$50 to somebody who has spend $2000-$6000 dollars?
> >
> > Then again, it would seem that this is a common slip-up for IBM to make.
> > Hmmm... Wonder what a class action lawsuit would do for future sales?
> > Isn't this called "breach of contract"???
>
>I'll bet somebody at IBM said, "Hey, we can make an extra five bucks off
>each ThinkPad owner. All we have to do is *not give them what we promised*."
>
>Yeah, they really encourage that. It's a great way to increase future sales
>and shareholder value.
>
>If that was their scheme, maybe a lawsuit would be the right way to approach
>it.
>
>But somehow it sounds to me more likely to be a case of "We're a big
>company. Sometimes things get a little confused around here. Is this my
>department?"
The "We're big. Sometimes things get confused around here." excuse seems to
be more of a mantra than anything else. I can't tell you the number of calls
I had to make to IBM over the course of 3-4 months to try and purchase an
extended (three year) warranty for my TP380z. They didn't return calls. They
didn't meet commitments. They didn't know which department/person could sell
me the extended warranty. They took almost a month to even give me the correct
part numbers for the 2 and 3 year extended warranties once I got in contact
with the correct person/department. Sheesh! It was like pulling teeth to try
and get the right information just so I could spend more money with them. In
the end, I was so frustrated that I chose to NOT purchase the extended warranty
and instead I'll hope for the best and either pay the repair cost out of my
own pocket or purchase a new laptop if/when a repair becomes necessary. So
far, I've had mine for almost 18 months without a single problem.
>I don't think I'd want to sue somebody over that without first trying some
>friendly persuasion. It's a lot more fun and cost-effective. Find the person
>who gets paid to grow the ThinkPad market and let them know that a lot of
>people have run into this customer service problem and how it will hurt
>their reputation and future sales. Or contact the president of IBM. But keep
>it person-to-person within the company. Why submit to a court system when
>you don't have to?
I wasn't serious about suggesting that we look at hiring a lawyer this week
but it does seem to be something that has fallen through the cracks more
than once.
>And is the problem as widespread and persistent as it might sound? After
>all, how many people post to newsgroups and mailing lists just to say, "My
>nameplate arrived today."
I doubt many post to say it did arrive, but even with this small mailing
list of dedicated TP owners, we've gotten a few to (when prompted) did say
"I DIDN'T get my name plate!"
-- David Goldman
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