A lesson in Online Reputation Management
Posted by: Marker | Uncategorized | 21.12.2006
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Ok so about 4 months ago I managed to smash the screen on my trusty Sony Ericsson 3G mobile. This phone had served me well, and I was actually pretty gutted that I wasn’t offered an equivalent Sony as a replacement. If I had been, I probably would have avoided a bunch of trouble.
What I ended up with was a Motorola v3x – Motorola’s best and newest 3G toy, apparently the best money could buy. At this point I feel I should repeat the abovementioned rant warning. This is a rant about a crappy product and even worse customer service. There is a valuable point here though, so bear with me.
The Players:
Moi – a humble Rodeo Clown-wannabe from Titahi Bay
Vodafone – half of New Zealand’s mobile phone duopoly, and retailers of sub-standard mobile devices
Motorola – you’ve heard of them. My guess is they need to call Dan Trietsch for an explanation of the term ‘quality’
MobileFoneRepair … dotcom! (don’t forget the .com!) – Motorola’s NZ agent and employer of the least helpful customer support people I’ve ever encountered (beating Motorola by a nose).
ACT I: Within hours of purchasing said phone, it was obvious that I had been had. Poor audio quality, dropped calls, powering off for no reason. Back it goes to the store for immediate replacement.
ACT II: Replacement arrives. Two weeks later, back it goes for the same reason. This time they tell me the ‘out of the box failure’ period had expired, so the phone would have to go to MobileFoneRepair… dotcom! Phone returns a week later with a clean bill of health. Gee – I must have been making all those issues up to get attention. My parents didn’t love me enough?
ACT III: Two weeks later, back it goes again. Politely explain that the phone is unreliable at best. Off again to MobileFoneRepair… dotcom! Back it comes with a clean bill of health. Upon querying this with Vodafone, they advise that the most likely explanation is that the phone is fine, but their network is defective. How comforting.
ACT IV (this is where it gets really interesting): So last week I decided I’d had it. I called Motorola, explained the troubles I was having and what a piece of crap phone I had. The helpful customer support guy told me that they would replace the phone right away.
GREAT! My frustrations are over, right?
Wrong.
A week later and no sign of the promised replacement. I call Motorola again only to be told that I have to call Motorola New Zealand. That’s right sports fans, it turns out that all this time I’d actually been dealing with a crew in Australia. They give me a phone number for Motorola NZ and essentially wash their hands of me.
Which brings me to this morning. I call ‘Motorola NZ’ and who answers the phone? MobileFoneRepair… dotcom! Upon explaining the situation and asking the procedure for collecting my replacement, the operator (‘Ramana’) tells me I have to send the phone in for repairs. ‘But Motorola’s already authorised a replacement, right?’ ‘You guys have already tried to fix it and couldn’t, right?’ ‘Why send it in again, then?’ Yelling in my ear and then a hang-up. Nice. I call back and ask to speak to her supervisor. ‘I am the supervisor’ she says. I ask can I speak to the person who signs her paycheck? ‘No’, and she hangs up on me again.
At this point I’m getting really pissed, so I call Vodafone again. (I must have called them a dozen times thus far, with no joy). The upshot? I personally have to request a letter from Motorola Australia, take it (not post it) and the phone in to MobileFoneRepair… dotcom!, then wait 48 hours for a replacement. Gee that’s reasonable. Seeing as how I chose to buy a Motorola and spend close to a grand a month with Vodafone I suppose it is my mess to clear up. Silly me!
Why am I telling you this? Do I want a cookie? Do I expect you to care? Nope, but I do want to tell you a few things:
1. Motorola’s production quality is terrible. Since I got into this mess I’ve asked around, and haven’t met a single person who’s had a Motorola phone and didn’t find it defective in one way or another. Stay away from them.
2. Poor quality wouldn’t be such a big deal if their customer service was better – or even ‘adequate ‘ – but it isn’t. Motorola is happy to flog their defective wares in New Zealand, but doesn’t want to know about what happens afterwards. This they delegate to MobileFoneRepair… dotcom!, they too sadly lacking in quality control and customer service.
3. If you see a phone you like on TradeMe or at a parallel importer store, buy it. Buying from an authorised reseller gives you no higher degree of quality, protection or after-sales service. Trust me on this.
4. Don’t ever put up with this kind of crap. Vodafone has now offered to give me a new phone, from a different manufacturer, if I extend my contract with them. You think this means Motorola is off the hook? Hell no – I’m going to get that replacement out of them if it kills me. Then I’m going to throw it in the trash where it belongs.
5. When you encounter this kind of malarky, TELL PEOPLE. A single pissed-off consumer boycotting a company’s products will accomplish very little. A few million people voting with their wallets is a different story. Your power as a consumer comes from sharing your views and experiences with others.
6. Companies should take note that, like it or not, they have online reputations. The things people say about them online – particularly in blogs – are becoming more and more powerful in their ability not only to influence peoples’ purchasing decisions but also as a way for organisations to understand what people really think about their brands, products and services. This kind of ‘chatter’ is inherently honest and useful, particularly in comparison to traditional market research methods which are drastically swayed (IMHO) by the ‘interviewer effect’.
So here’s my contribution to the abovementioned companies’ online reputations:
Vodafone: Your customer service team is impotent. Your after-sales support for hardware purchased from your retailers is non-existant.
Motorola: Your quality control is pathetic. Your New Zealand agent is a terrible ambassador for your brand.
MobileFoneRepair… dotcom!: Your call centre needs a shake-up. Anyone who disconnects a customer – once, let alone twice! – isn’t fit to clean your toilets, let alone lead your Customer Services team. Your testing procedures are also way out of whack. Empirical Research 101: Failure to find a fault does not prove there is no fault – it merely proves you were unable to find a fault. Believe me, this is a VERY important distinction.
For anyone else concerned about their online reputation, Online Reputation Management is a fascinating field, and one in which we (Marker) have a great deal of expertise. If you want to know more about what people are saying about you online (even if it’s bad, it’s better to know!) and/or change things for the better, we’d love to hear from you.
</rant>
Thanks for listening. Go forth and be empowered.
Stuart, I thought your article was very entertaining. Sorry for the mess you had to go through!
I agree with you; managing your online reputation is fast becoming the next prime way to “market” your company or product. It’s so important to know what people are saying about your business, good or bad!
If anyone out there is looking for some quick tips on how to successfully manage your online reputation check out my colleague?’s white paper on Online Reputation Management….it’s very informative and could ultimately save your company?’s face!
http://www.blizzardinternet.com/whitepapers/online_reputation_mgt.htm
Came across this blog whilst researching my mototrolla issues – here’s my ensuing Public Health Warning as sent to Noel Leeming and Mototrolla…
Customer Service Director
Noel Leeming New Zealand
Re Noel Leeming?’s After-Sales Service Policies and a Modern Comedy of Errors
Having had the misfortune of experiencing your company?’s warranty after sales service, I thought it might be interesting for you to understand them from a customer?’s point of view.
In short, they are crap.
I bought a Motorola V360 cell phone from your Papakura store in November 2006 as a Christmas present for my daughter. The phone failed in early January. Not your fault at all, and this time the matter was dealt with really well ? your staff gave us a new replacement on the spot with little bother.
Around July, the phone again faulted. In fact, the same fault it exhibited the first time ? apparently a software problem. We brought the phone in and the fun started.
I can accept that the phone had to go away to be serviced, but I was annoyed (that?’s the nice way of saying pissed off ? I wasn?’t so nice to your staff) to find that you would not honour the warranty unless I lodged a $50.00 deposit.
And why? Well, because the phone may be water damaged. And then we get to what constitutes water damage and we find that it includes the sort of thing that can occur on a warm summer?’s day in Auckland ? condensation.
So, not to put too fine a point on it, you want me to pay for a warranty repair that arises from the manufacturer not realizing that condensation can form in warm damp climates.
As it turns out, that wasn?’t the case ? the phone was suffering from a different manufacturing fault. Two actually. Both corrected.
So what?’s my beef? Firstly that I was not made aware when I bought the phone that Noel Leeming was intending to try and wriggle out of any liability for faulty products where the fault was that the item could not handle Auckland ?’s climate (surely a pretty foreseeable sort of thing for a manufacturer like Mototrolla).
Since one of the questions asked when we returned the phone for repair was whether it had been exposed to water, the euphemistically described ?"repair deposit?" carried the clear implication that I was lying to your staff anyway. Thanks for the vote of confidence ? next time (yeah, like there is going to be one?) I?’ll just take the Fifth and let you figure it out.
Finally, there was no way I could access my legal right to the warranty that you sold me implicitly when I bought the phone without me forking over another $50.00 to you, a company whose competence I was beginning to question.
Like I said earlier ? in some less pleasant settings this sort of behaviour is referred to as blackmail.
So anyway, in early September the phone decided to stop charging properly. Fortunately my employer has supplied me with the same type of phone, so I tried the charger for that ? and the phone worked. ?"Must be the charger then?" I figured, so back again to your store.
Saturdays must be slow at your place. I could tell this because there were three staff at the counter but apparently none of them where capable of addressing a deeply technical problem like my phone charger. For five minutes I stood there, effectively invisible, as other people came and went.
I watched, fascinated, as a big screen TV was almost sold, another phone buyer tried to explain that they just wanted to look at the ACTUAL phone they were buying and not the dummy phone that was at the counter, another customer was quizzed at length regarding the technical needs of their phone in regard to memory cards (even though it was clear she had no idea ? your staff member bravely tried it several times using the time honoured ?"talk loud and slow to dumb people?" technique).
Eventually it became clear that, in the short term at least, I was wasting my time and that help definitely was not at hand, if in the building at all. I advised your staff that, once they had their defecation in one geographic location, I?’d return. I went to Countdown for twenty minutes to see if customer service was a problem Papakura wide.
It?’s not by the way. Just your place?
On my return, one of the staff who previously seemed unable became oddly animated and started to feign assistance. He looked long and hard at the charger as if willing it to repair itself. Noting that there did not appear to be any physical change in the charger, he then muttered under his breath and went to a stand of after-market chargers.
While perusing the huge selection available he wondered aloud how the shop was going to be reimbursed if he just gave this item to me. I advised him that I couldn?’t care less, and that, in the interests of his own self belief and dignity, neither should he.
He apparently missed the point. Faulty charger in one hand and new replacement tantalizingly dangling from the other, he then told me that he needed to ring the supplier of the aftermarket item to get authorization. My eyes glazed over and time slowed to near-glacial speeds as he described in intricate detail the mind-numbingly tedious chain of events he had to follow to get permission to hand over this $12.50 cost price item to me.
I took it as read that this call could not happen before Monday ? given the huge cost of the transaction and the risk it exposed your company to, it was going to have to happen at the highest level and those types don?’t hang around on Saturdays or Su ndays. Odd really, since I?’ll bet they are the highest foot traffic days for stores like yours.
In words short and terse (and unfortunately, loud), relying heavily on my full knowledge of ancient anglo-saxon vulgar slang , I let him know that I was not impressed. And sadly, not surprised either with this anti-customer service approach that seems to permeate your company.
So now I had to come back on Monday to pick up a new charger because, even though everyone acknowledges its faulty, its under warranty, and that a direct replacement was available in store RIGHT THEN, some nameless office gnome in the deep bowels of the Noel Leeming Customer Disservice Department has decreed that your staff and all customers must be treated like light-fingered morons with no integrity and a failure in the discretion lobe of their brains.
Thanks for this second vote of confidence.
Whoever that gnome is, tell them I think they are a prick. I?’m sure they probably have had it said before, many times, but it bears repeating.
Now, you would think that that would be the end of it but ohhhhhh no. Mototrolla products are such complete shite, that not four weeks later, I?’m back gracing your store with my dignified presence again on a fine Saturday morning.
I have no idea why I expected any service at all, since I still hadn?’t heard about the outcome with the charger for which I still hold all packaging, and my part of the ludicrous loan agreement that your Customer Disservice Gnomes require me to sign. More on this later.
You see, the erstwhile and now sadly inoperative piece of sino American-crap that reveled in the glorious moniker of Motorola V360 had again developed a fault ? this time refusing to accept incoming calls, to ring, or to play MP3s. In essence it was as inert as your Customer Disservice Gnomes when there is no porn on the in-house video.
Preet and his team at Papakura (see, we are on first name terms?) received me with all the glee of a Remuera socialite required to clean toilets in Turangi. I cunningly changed tack from previous visits and treated them as long lost friends even though I now see them more regularly than my own family.
I must, in their defense, state that they have always been unswervingly polite, if moribund due to being bound by your restrictive (some would say Byzantine) warranty policies and procedures.
We agreed pretty much immediately that, this Mototrolla V360 was indeed a dog terd, steaming warmly on the top of a pile of Useless Consumer Electronics. Apropos the Consumer Guarantees Act (cute document ? you may like to get a copy) it was mutually agreed that replacement was the best option for all concerned.
Here, Mototrolla entered the scene. You see, this vast company with world wide resources and a proud history in electronics spanning more than 50 years wanted to view the phone before approving replacement.
They don?’t trust you.
Frankly, I don?’t blame them ? neither do I.
But neither was I inclined to hand over $50.00 again for you to hold for no particular reason other than your own ignorance of the law. So I said so.
Preet (nice guy ? clearly has a reasonable amount of integrity so you will probably loose him soon) agreed. Couldn?’t see the point of having a clearly defective product tested, agreed to phone Mototrolla direct and get the wheels in motion. I took him at his word. He handed me a loan phone and I left him to his devices.
I returned, five minutes later. The replacement loan phone didn?’t work. Su rprise surprise.
A somewhat flustered Preet found another loan phone. It worked and again I left him etc etc.
The following Friday, full of the joys of Spring and a little suspicious as I had heard nothing, I rang Preet asking for an update.
You see ? I?’m a bit fussy. Not a lot mind you ? I often leave the dishes for days at a time ? but when sold the instantaneous efficiency of cellular communications and all the go-fast rapid-response implications of that stuff, when told of the world-beating service that Noel Leeming is driven to provide, I tend to think that several days or a week should be enough time to sort a simple warranty claim. Given you and Mototrolla are world leaders and all that. And your focus on the customer (how IS Erin B lately ? I?’ve sent her a copy of this letter, so she knows how I am?)
Hmmmmn. I should instead have stuck with the maxim that those who think small are seldom disappointed.
You see, Preet had contacted Mototrolla on Monday. They had advised they would get back to him. End of communication.
?"Well?" says I, and being the pro-active sort (you probably refer to us as ?"those pains in the arse?" but really, we are only quibbling about nomenclature), ?"how about I give them a call and see whether my well-developed negotiating skills can shift those stubborn, slow, ignorant, obstructive arseholes along a little.?"
So I did.
Sebastian answered with fine Aussie twang and a lilt in his voice. It didn?’t take long to became apparent that he has not yet completed his Mototrolla Customer Disservice training ? he was helpfulness itself, in short trousers. After a brief chat with his Su pervisor, he told me that on receipt of the various warranty claim forms that this crap waste of electrons was responsible for, he could authorize a Brand New, You Beaut, All Singing All Dancing, Shiny Brand New Replacement in the form of a V3 series or L7 series Mototrolla handset.
Wow. I was, almost, won over.
I rang Preet and gleefully told him the news. I could here him tap-dancing on the countertop with delight and he told me in no uncertain terms that he would fax the required documents to Aussie immediately, if not sooner.
The observant and cynical amongst you may see where this is headed ? its almost pantomime-like in its predictability isn?’t it? But sit still children ? let me finish the story?
Today is Thursday 18 October 2007. Its now 13 days since this spaceage piece of wizardry was returned for the forth time to Noel Leeming Papakura.
Today, I rang Mototrolla. I asked how it was all going – Sebastian had the good sense to give me all the relevant claim numbers and other stuff earlier to make tracking the claim easy. And fortunately, Telecom doesn?’t have a stitch of Mototrolla product in its network, so the call got through.
?"Wot fax??" they querulously responded to my inquiry.
I got details of the fax number required and rang Preet. Over the sound of a sharpening razor, I repeated the number to him for our mutual education. ?"Oh,?" says Preet ?"the fax number I sent it to has a different final digit??"
Within seconds he had resent the fax to the correct number and nano-seconds later, I rang the Mototrolla Customer Distress and Disillusionment Centre. Again.
Eliza ran around like a mad thing. She is luverly! Spoke with her Su pervisor, calmly advised me the faxes had arrived, told me of EVERYTHING I needed to know (almost), forced me to choose a particular model of replacement right then to speed the process and, on being told it is actually my daughter?’s phone and it is (was?) her 14th birthday tomorrow (the 19th of October) she promised to move mountains and get an approval number for a replacement phone to MobilefoneRepair.com, the Mototrolla repair agents in Auckland so I could pick up a new phone tomorrow (the 19th, remember?).
So, so cool. She rang me back a little later to confirm the approval had been given for a replacement, and that an e-mail authorizing replacement had been sent that instant to MobilefoneRepair.com.
Here?’s a quick word of warning that will serve you well in your future. NEVER, EVER deal with a company who claim to repair phones, but can?’t even spell the word correctly in their own name.
I ring this company ? a location that claims to repair stuff but in all reality should just be bombed off the face of the planet. It took three goes ? try it yourself. Three times my call timed out because no-one could be bothered to answer the phone. Or ?"fone?" for the illiterate amongst you.
Some slovernly, unfriendly pox-faced 19 -year old proceeded with great show of ennui to let me know that I was completely wasting her precious zit-popping time. OK, I will allow that I?’m using a bit of imagination here. But not a lot.
Apparently, she needs to see the phone that is being replaced ? or at least some other acne-encrusted no-life does, to confirm that it isn?’t physically damaged or suffering from water damage. Eliza never told me this would still be required.
Again then Noel Leeming, let me advise that your suppliers STILL don?’t trust you.
A short and frank exchange of views ensued, culminating in a conference call with Mototrolla in Aussie. During this call, I calmly explained that I?’m happy for them to view the phone but, really, Mototrolla Aussie has approved a replacement as the V360 is most assuredly the most wretched dog of a device they have ever produced, and Noel Leeming staff have confirmed that the original phone is shagged of its own doing, so surely the examination can be a cursory one while I wait and then skip away with new V3xx under my arm.
After all, on current form of the Mototrolla product, I?’d be back fairly soon anyway.
No. It takes the gifted and skilled staff of MobilefoneRepair.com a full 24 to 72 hours to assess the physical and aquatically-challenged condition of a phone. Only then will they release the replacement.
So now, in all likelihood, it will be two and a half to three weeks from original complaint to receiving a replacement. That means a total of almost 5 weeks out of the 40 approximate weeks that my daughter has owned it, this phone has been unusable.
Upshot ? I will never as long as my arse points at the ground darken the doorstep of a Noel Leeming, Bond and Bond or any other associated outlet. Not because your staff aren?’t keen to assist, but because your corporate policies and those of your suppliers are designed to hinder them doing so.
Further, I will actively campaign at my workplace (where I am a senior manager and where we currently have approximately 25 cell phones in service) to ensure that Mototrolla product is avoided at all costs.
And I will point Tame Iti to MobilefoneRepair.com any time he asks for directions.
I see no reason to support such inept management, and I intend to ensure that everyone else I know thinks so too. There are plenty of other places selling what you do ? I?’m off to see if they are any better.
They could barely be any worse.
By the way ? remember the battery charger? Well, it was returned by MobilefoneRepair.com to your store about a week after I had brought it in for repair ? some time mid-September. Somewhere it sits on a shelf, gathering dust, waiting for someone (anyone) even remotely interested to ring me and let me know its there. So after all that fuss about recovering the cost of the loan unit?