Growing Pains for Consumers Reaching Computer Age
We live in a new world of computers and Internet service providers, and it seems a lot of folks are frustrated with it.
But are the frustrations justified, or do they betray a degree of insecurity, or lack of expertise, exhibited by many of us in trying to cope with an unfamiliar technology?
That question was posed when I looked into three recent complaints from computer users. In all three, it turned out the consumers had struggled, but the companies tried--often effectively, if belatedly--to help.
One complainant finally acknowledged part of her difficulty probably came from providing Gateway, the computer maker, with incorrect information. Another conceded that Dell--which, like Gateway, builds its machines to order and sells them directly to consumers--had adequately fixed his computer by giving telephone advice, rather than sending a technician to his business. The latter person, though, said the advice came too slowly. And, in the third case, Internet access provider EarthLink resolved a problem by rearranging a woman’s access and promising to issue her at least a partial credit.
EarthLink spokesman Arley Baker observed that his is a volatile business with many customers switching providers.
“People are switching Internet services at a higher rate than new users are getting on the Internet,” he said.
“Case in point: Roughly 70% of our users are ‘switchers’ from other Internet or online services. . . . These days, EarthLink has one of the lowest customer ‘churn’ rates in the industry--roughly 3% to 4% a month, versus the 6% to 8% industry average.”
To take these complaints, in order received:
* Rochelle Linick of Woodland Hills initially told me she was outraged at Gateway’s refusal to honor an extended warranty on a computer she purchased in 1997.
In a letter to Gateway customer representatives on May 19, she described herself as “an extremely angry customer,” because “I was informed that the warranty on my CD-ROM drive is voided because a malfunction occurred while I was using a CD that is not from Gateway . . .
“How could you possibly believe that anyone in his right mind would wish to purchase additional warranty coverage if it is known that the coverage does not extend beyond Gateway products?”
Weeks of silence ensued, until Linick wrote Ted Waitt, Gateway’s CEO, on June 21.
“No one has tried to contact me in any manner,” she told him. “At this point, I don’t know if I am angrier over the actual event or the apparent indifference to my anger.”
This time, Linick got a quick response, from a Waitt assistant.
“They are prepared to honor the warranty and the entire problem was caused by a miscommunication,” she told me. “The technical representative thought I said the CD-ROM drive was the non-Gateway product, not the CD.
“I believe they have a recording of the entire [conversation], and I am willing to admit that perhaps I misnamed it. It might be my fault.”
Gateway spokesman Greg Lund commented, “The misunderstanding was key. . . . We regret it took so long to take care of this customer. We’re sorry she had to write to the CEO.” (I’ll bet!)
* Michael Ward of Upland had a beef with Dell.
“I received your letter inviting me to sign up to extend Dell’s Premier At-Home Service,” Ward wrote in on June 20. “Your letter sells a service with a pitch that is, at best, misleading, and, in my eyes, fraudulent. You imply that this service will put a technician at my door the next day if I run into ‘technical difficulties’ with my computer. That simply isn’t true.
“Stuck with a computer that works poorly if at all, I have logged many hours on the phone with your tech support staff, but never has anyone been willing to come to my home to fix the computer.”
But when Ward sent me the Dell sales letter, it said only that “if necessary, [my italics] a technician will be at your doorstep the next business day to get your Dell up and running.”
And Dell maintains it was not necessary in this case.
“Poor Mr. Ward ended up experiencing a series of non-hardware problems . . . software drive and/or software issues that caused his computer not to operate,” said a Dell vice president, Rick Chase. “The situation could be solved without sending anybody out.”
Chase added, “If a customer calls us multiple times within a three-day period, we launch an outbound call to make sure we get to the root cause of the problem. If that doesn’t work, then we’ll send somebody out.”
Ward isn’t satisfied. “Yes, the machine is now working,” he remarked. “They’ve solved the problem. But they made me spend five days on the phone with them to get it solved.”
Chase said Dell, which runs its customer help lines every minute of the year, expects more than 7 million calls this year.
* Janette Khozam of Temecula complained she was given a supposedly toll-free local access number by EarthLink, but sometimes when she dialed it she got a Riverside number that was a toll call.
The charges mounted, and Khozam said attempts to rectify the situation found EarthLink and her telephone company, GTE, each suggesting she go to the other.
It finally fell, however, to EarthLink to resolve matters, and on Tuesday, an EarthLink representative agreed that the company will pay some of Khozam’s toll calls.
EarthLink spokesman Baker said Khozam misunderstood what was occurring, if she believed any EarthLink toll-free access number would ever kick her calls over to a toll line in another city. Instead, he said, Khozam may have used a second access number on her own without understanding it would be a toll call.
Khozam insisted she had not used a second access number.
In all of these matters, with some goodwill, the future ought to go more smoothly. Some of the problems, just as with early automobiles, are bound to fade in time.
*
Ken Reich can be contacted with your accounts of true consumer adventures at (213) 237-7060 or by e-mail at: ken.reich@latimes.com
