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- Path: ix.netcom.com!news
- From: robm617@ix.netcom.com
- Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
- Subject: Quality of Packard Bell's tech support/customer service
- Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 03:53:08 GMT
- Organization: Netcom
- Message-ID: <4j55be$dgj@dfw-ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: bos-ma11-08.ix.netcom.com
- X-NETCOM-Date: Sun Mar 24 9:53:18 PM CST 1996
- X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82
-
- Date: March 24, 1996
-
-
- To: Circuit City Customer Support
-
- From: Robert McIntosh
-
-
- Dear Circuit City Customer Service,
-
- I am writing to inform you about a design flaw in a Packard Bell
- Pentium computer I bought at one of your stores. I will explain an
- aspect of the Legend 300CD which makes it technically inferior to most
- other models on the market and why, in my experience, Packard Bell's
- service/technical support is deplorable. As such, Circuit City should
- not sell this low quality product backed by substandard customer
- service.
-
- I recently bought a well known, commonly used 28.8kbps internal modem
- manufactured by Creative Labs. This modem was designed to be
- installed using any one of four comm ports usually found in most
- computers. However, this Packard Bell model only has two comm ports
- which are occupied by the modem/soundcard (comm 1) that came with the
- computer and the serial connector (comm 2). Even one of your
- technical support representatives told me that its unusual to have
- only two comm ports. The result is that I have expansion slots that
- cannot be used for their common purpose.
-
- Since I am not using the serial plug, the Creative Labs technician
- gave me a reference number to use when contacting Packard Bell's tech
- support. He said they would be able to help me disable one of the
- comm ports to work around this design flaw.
-
- On this particular day, like most days, it was impossible to get
- through to Packard Bell's Tech Support line. After one hour of trying
- to get past the busy signal, I finally got through to a recording and
- was put on hold for an hour before I finally hung up. This morning I
- was able to get through to Tech Support but they refused to help me
- disable the comm port unless I paid a $30 fee and they were unwilling
- to accept the reference number Creative Labs gave me.
-
- Now I have a modem I cannot use due to limitations in the design of a
- Packard Bell product and their people are not even willing to help me
- work around one their own product's limitations unless I pay a service
- fee.
-
- After a history of consistently substandard service from Packard Bell,
- I feel compelled to write this letter to tell you that I find their
- service to be deplorably irresponsible and unacceptable. My
- experience with Circuit City has been a good balance of high quality
- products and in-house support. But not even your support line could
- help me with this particular problem. Therefore, I feel Circuit City
- should reconsider associating itself with this substandard product
- without demanding immediate changes in their way of doing business.
-
- Sincerely,
-
-
- Robert McIntosh
-
-
-
-
- CC: Packard Bell Technical Support, Creative Labs Technical
- Support,
- various Internet Newsgroups.
-
-
-