Persistence Pays Off

When I started my new job back in April, Joel bought a speaker dock for me to have at my desk.  This way I could listen to music and charge my iPod at the same time.  It was a cute little thing.  Just the right size.  Here's a picture.

Unfortunately, after only a few months, the device stopped working one day.  Suddenly.  As in, right in the middle of a song.  One minute I was listening, the next all was quiet.  Of course it had been longer than the allowed time for returning the item to the store where it was purchased, so I had to contact the company.

On my first attempt,  I was assisted by a "non-English speaking" person.  I don't mean that ugly.  I'm sure the gentleman was quite fluent in his native tongue, but I have found in my own personal experience with second language learning that talking on the telephone is difficult.  Needless to say, after the third or fourth time of the man saying, "Ok thank you.  I hear what you are saying, see.  Can you tell me if the device is...[insert the next troubleshooting solution from the manual here]?" I was frustrated and so was he.  We had come to the end of our ability to understand each other, so I told him thanks and hung up.  Within an hour, I received an email from the company saying, "Thank you for calling...if we do not hear from you in 24 hours, we will assume your problem is solved...would you like to fill out a customer satisfaction survey?"

But my problem was not solved, so they did hear from me again.  The second time I called, I spoke with "Matthew".  I remember his name, because I was relieved that I could pronounce it.  Matthew was very friendly and was finally able to discern that I did have the device plugged in, and was operating it correctly; it had simply stopped working.  Matthew said that if I would email or fax him the receipt, he'd replace my speakers within a week.  Yay!  So I emailed the receipt and I waited....and waited...and waited.  I even faxed it for good measure.  I thought it odd that I did not receive a confirmation that the receipt had been received, so I called again.

My "non-English speaking" friend answered the call.  I just hung up.

I waited a few days and called again.  I reached "Scott".   I told him the story and he pulled up my "case".  It appears that they had not received the attachment with my email nor the fax.  (At this point, I'm upset with Matthew because why didn't he let me know he never got my receipt?  I had received another "Thanks for calling...we assume we fixed your problem...customer survey" message and Matthew never mentioned that he hadn't received my attachement.)  Scott said not to worry, he would handle everything.  It turned out that by this time, the original speaker was on backorder.  It figures.  Again, Scott said not to worry.  They would send a device of greater value.  Seven business days, he said...

After fifteen business days, I still had not received the replacement.  Of course I'm totally exasperated by this time.  Normally, I'm not a "return" kind of girl, I just cut my losses and carry on; but this was not a cheap device and it had malfunctioned after only two months.  I'm standing on principle at this point.

So this past Monday,  I called the company again.  I pretty much have the number memorized now. "Colin" answered my call.  When he pulled up my "case" he said, "Oh my, this has been going on far too long..."  Thank you, Colin!  He apologized and promised to send out the replacement via UPS 2 day shipping.  Yeah, yeah.  I'll believe it when I see it, buddy.

Well, sure enough, Colin is a man of his word.  This evening around six o'clock, the man in brown rang my doorbell and left me a box.  A huge box.  Hmmmm...... Remember the original device?  So cute and compact?  Here's the new one.

It's amazing.  It has great sound and even came with a remote control.  But it is HUGE!  I have no idea where I'm going to put it on my desk...think anyone would notice if I did away with the office phone to make room?

But I am so excited to be able to listen to music from my iPod again that I hate to complain.  Colin is my hero.  And now I can finally fill out that customer satisfaction survey...