I've heard you should tell at least two people about good service. I'm not sure where I heard that, and for all I know I heard it from inside the depths of my own head, but it seems like reasonable advice and I'll only have to tell one more person after my entire audience reads this post.
Allow me to start at the beginning...
Towards the end of last year, I bought a new XE700T1C - also known as the ATIV Smart PC Pro or the Slate Series 7 with Windows 8, depending upon what part of the world you're in. In a nutshell it's a full x86-64 "convertible" which features both a tablet and a keyboard "dock" designed such that it essentially becomes a laptop when the two are combined. When I first used it, however, I noticed the connection between the tablet and the keyboard was a little less-than-stable, but figured there was some kind of anti-corrosion coating on the terminals which would need to wear in.
Fast forward four months and the situation hadn't improved any. I don't think it had gotten any worse, but breaking the connection between the two parts was as easy as bumping it - something which is pretty easy when you consider it has both a touch screen and a digitizer, and made it near-impossible to use it without a solid surface to sit it on. This essentially rendered the whole thing useless for my purposes, which is not an easy thing to do given I haven't really figured out what I'm doing with it yet aside from having a play.
So I got in contact with Samsung via e-mail. The response was quick but not even close to satisfactory, as all they advised me to do was check the instructions for how to attach the two parts and to install a software update. What was useful, however, is that it included a contact phone number for Samsung's service centre, which I promptly dialled. It was answered quickly and, though the call took around 20 minutes in total, the agent I spoke to agreed that there wasn't much software could do to fix it and arranged to have it serviced.
This is where the part that surprised me started. All I had to do was give a day when I would be home between 11am and 4pm for a courier to arrive and Samsung would take care of the rest. They organised the courier, sent me an e-mail which included all of the necessary paperwork to be printed (including the addressing and Lithium Battery warning) and even offered to send me a box if I didn't have one suitable to send my unit in (which I declined as I still have the original packaging). The next day, a courier arrived as organised and the unit was sent in for repairs.
That was two weeks ago this coming Thursday. Today (Monday), however, the unit has already come back - and it's working flawlessly. According to the paperwork included they replaced a ribbon cable in the keyboard (presumably the one which goes between the dock connector and the main internal PCB), followed by approximately 3 hours of testing to confirm that it was fixed. I gave it a good test myself by actively wobbling the tablet while using the keyboard and touch-pad, and it never missed a beat.
And so, I'm giving props to Samsung's service. That I needed to use it was unfortunate but I've been in technology long enough to know that sometimes things just don't quite go to plan, and it's probably better that I get the dodgy one than someone who doesn't understand such things. But the ease with which having it repaired was organised, the turn-around time and the results were absolutely fantastic; at least in my opinion.
My hat goes off to you, Samsung. Well done.
No comments:
Post a Comment