“Customer service is the experience we deliver to our customer. It’s the promise we keep to the customer. It’s how we follow through for the customer. It’s how we make them feel when they do business with us.” – Shep Hyken
Recently I found myself in need of an external CD/DVD writer. My Macbook doesn’t come with one and I still burn files for my parents (they’re still learning the computer-y ways). So I didn’t want anything fancy or expensive, just one that would do the job when I would needed it the few times I would use it. After a very quick visit to Future Shop, I had an Asus product in my hand.
The Set Up
I plugged in my new writer/burner only for it to not provide me with an option to drag and drop files, as it said it would in the instructions. The box stated it worked for Mac but most of the documentation (and the CD that came with it) were PC-friendly. All good. I figure I got this. I went to Youtube to watch how others set it up. Seemed pretty straight forward but that final little bit to write files on to the DVD wasn’t happening as shown. I went to the Asus website. A little bit in the way of FAQs and downloads, but mostly with a PC-focus. Though they did suggest I contact them. GREAT! I’ll use their Live Chat. I’m led to the website below and click on the “Optical Storage” photo (that’s a picture of what I bought) and get started. 
The Service
I’ll admit, repeatedly failing to get the product before I was forced to contact customer support didn’t put me in the best mood. Yeah, I should start with that before I get into mentioning my Live Chat experience. My service agent Giselle M. was friendly enough. I explained my problem and said I really hoped they could help me. There was a pause in Giselle’s response. “This is the wrong chat, we service complete products, not components” (I thought I had bought a complete product…it is an EXTERNAL DVD writer). She (I’m going out on a limb and assuming that “Giselle” is a lady name) then gave me a link to where I should go. I clicked on it. Guess where it sent me. Back to the “click a product to start a live chat” page. WTH? Here’s a bit of the chatter below:
After a long pause, and my growing frustration, I clicked on the little thumbs down icon beside Giselle’s name to clarify that I wasn’t pleased with the service I had been provided. Let’s be fair, she hadn’t provided any fix to my problem or assisted me in getting to someone who could. So this happened. 
Let’s just say the Live Chat ended there. Oh, but I didn’t want to give up. I actually called the number she had recommended, hoping that a real voice would lead me to the promised land of customer service. Yeah, no. I was on hold for 20minutes before I gave up. And the “being on hold” part wasn’t even the most frustrating. It was the fact that four times the phone wrang like I had connected, only to be dropped…AND, there was no idea where I was in the queue or if I was even in a queue. Good times. Good times.
The Feedback
Hmmmm, let’s see. Oh, I’ve got a one: be helpful. Here are three ways they could have been:
- Wrong/Right Live Chat – If I was in the wrong queue, help me get to the right one. She thought she was helping by providing a link but really just had me going in circles. Instead, I got a very “you’re wrong, your fault, but here’s a number” and then shared all the ways that she couldn’t help me, rather than how she could.
- Website Info – not only couldn’t I find information about my issue on the website, but when I went back to use the Live Chat again to try to get another agent, I got a message saying, “All agents are currently unavailable” and that’s all it said. Nothing else. Um, OK, should I try back again? Could you give me a number to try? Nope, just a “we’re not here. We could be busy or we could be in the other room or we could be watching Captain America 2, it really is quite good.”
- Communicate While You Have Me – I’ve been on hold on the phone longer than 20 minutes before (sucks, but true). Sometimes companies don’t have the resources to handle their call load (though that’s another customer service issue) but if you’re going to waste my time, please communicate while we’re on hold. Am I closer to an agent the longer I wait? Why do you keep teasing me with a ringing noise only to put me back on hold….four times? Talk to me.
Unfortunately, from this one incident, I don’t really want to ever have to deal with them again. Did I do something dumb when trying to get the writer to work? Maybe. But I would have liked to have talked to someone so they could have told that. Their product might be fine, I just needed some customer service to get me on my merry way. Sadly, I left not so merry. I travelled back to Future Shop to return my product the same day I bought it. And bought the only non-Asus DVD writer I could find.
