GOOD Stuff and BAD Stuff

May 2009 I probably won't get much time to do this page, but I think that when we get good service we should tell everyone about it in the same way we should tell each other about bad service. You would imagine that large companies would be intelligent enough to realise that if they treat their customers well, they will keep coming back. Unfortunately this isn't always the case. Here are two examples - one of good customer relations and one bad. GOOD - My Sony PS3 went wrong just after the 12 month warranty ran out. I rang them up to find out how much it would cost to get it repaired and was told that they would fix it for free. They even emailed me a form to take to the Post Office that covered the cost of the packaging and postage. A couple of weeks later I got it back good as new. Unfortunately it went wrong again with a different fault and quite a long time later. Once again Sony were brilliant, but this time, instead of repairing it, they gave me a brand new machine. That is GREAT service. BAD BUT GETTING BETTER- Last week I subscribed to Austar. I was given an installation date and waited around all day for the people to arrive. They didn't, but they did phone at the end of the day to tell me I had been re-scheduled for a week later. 'But why aren't you coming tomorrow morning?' I asked. 'Because we're fully booked for tomorrow and a week's time is the earliest we can fit you in,' they said. 'But the people who are getting their work done tomorrow are after me on the list, so why I am I being put to the bottom of the list?' Everyone I spoke to at Austar responded in exactly the same way. They agreed with everything I said and then did nothing. So I said 'How about giving me a couple of months subscription for all the hassle you've put me to?' 'No, that's not company policy,' they said. So I cancelled my order. THE NEXT DAY - Having cancelled the Austar installation last night, I got a call early this morning from someone who wasn't as offhand as the earlier people had been. After a couple of calls we reached a compromise. They are installing the service, hopefully, next Wednesday and I'm getting various discounts and deals that I think are reasonable. What do we learn from this? Don't take any crap from big companies. There's a recession on and they want your business so stand your ground until you get decent treatment like I have with Austar. If a company won't look after you, they're probably a company you'd be advised to keep away from. If you have any good stories, let's put them on here. There are way too many stories of bad service so I think we'll give them a miss. PS - One company who have consistently given me good service whenever I have had problems with anything have been Harvey Norman.