Hanne's blog

Chapter one, Monday

So I came in one innocent looking Monday morning and found that my boss had left his laptop at my desk with a note on it: "Could you please send this to repair while I am away on holiday. The extra battery/dvd drive wont come out". Well thank you, I love you too. Not.

I knew this was a "case" as soon as I saw it. I was going to have a hell on the phone and sending parcels back and forth and I had no box to send it in and I was going to spend enormous amounts of time on this.

But I didn't know how much hell it was gonna be.

I'd known about this error for a while because it had appeared one of the first times he tried to use the feature, but off course he couldn't spare it so I could send it to repair earlier. It would probably have been easier to convince them that it was born with the problem just after we bought it, but we were still well within the first year.

First I spent some time digging out the sales conditions from EU computers where we bought it. It said that the laptop should be handed in at an address in central Copenhagen but first I should send them an email to get a queue number. Good, that would mean I could hand it in personally and save the risk of it being damaged during transport. So I sent an email to the address in question where I mentioned that I assumed this was covered by the warranty. But no I got an email back saying: You need to contact Fujitsu Siemens support on this number: xyz. Great.

Chapter two, Tuesday

So I called the number described the error to the man on the phone. He wrote down the error description and the serial number and gave me an address to send it to Service Partner A/S in Hørsholm. Bye bye chance of saving the transport. I asked him when it would be finished. He couldn't answer that but he gave me another phone number directly to the service department.

So I called the Servicepartner A/S number. 5-8 workdays, they said. If they had the part in stock. Fine with me. "While I am away", oh, well, you can't have everything. This was late Tuesday afternoon. So I spent the next hour locating a anti-static bag of sufficient size, a cardboard box way to thin to make me feel comfortable about putting a laptop in it, and some flamingo from a printer we bought some time ago which I could cut up in suitable pieces, making a huge mess all over the office floor.

After which I taped a whole roll of tape around the box to make sure it didn't fall apart.

By then it was past five so there was no point in sending it that day.

Chapter three, Wednesday

Next morning I went down to the secretary downstairs and got the only positive experience in this entire case: Yes she could send it for me, I just had to fill out a requisition form saying which account to take it from. So there's me running after the economy guy, boss is away, where do I take the money from? New account numbers all over due to institute fusion, but I got the form filled out and the parcel sent.

Chapter four, Thursday

So on Thursday I got a phone call from the technician: "Hi this is "John Doe" from Servicepartner A/S, the problem with the laptop is not covered by the warranty since it is physically broken. What is your email address so I can send you a repair offer?"

So I gave him my email address. This is probably the time I should have bastard operator from hell'ed him with all I had and not let go of his throat until he gave me what I wanted, but I was not prepared and I didn't think fast enough. I mean, off course he was right that is was physically broken. That was the problem, like. But I also knew that we ought to have sent it in right away a few month earlier.

So he sent me an offer that it would cost 1791 dkkr to fix the ****** thing. The reason they used in the written offer was different, namely that the damage had not occoured through "normal use", which indeed it had. It was crappy plasticware in the first place. So I sent boss on holiday SMS asking if he would pay 1791 dkkr to get it repaired. No he wouldn't so I asked them to send it back.

Read on, the worst is still to come.

Chapter five, next Monday

So no laptop had arrived and I wrote "John Doe" again. He said that it had been sent and gave me a postal tracking number on it.

Chapter six, next Tuesday

So after I left Monday, a note from the post office had arrived. A parcel was waiting for us there, to be paid for on arrival, 700 and something dkkr!

Chapter seven, next Wednesday

So the deal is to pick up the laptop and pay, or to not pick it up. Boss back from holiday and decides to pick it up. Paying personally. What else to do?

Now I was pissed. So I wrote a rather nice email to "John Doe" the technician who had dealt with us, asking him where to complain. No answer as of today, one month later.

So we payed I don't know how much for sending it there and getting it back for absolutely nothing. And I carefully described to the person at the support department what the error was. He didn't mention it was not covered by the warranty or that we would get billed for it if it was not covered. And the guy sending me the offer never mentioned that they would bill us half anyway, even if we wanted no repair.

I feel stepped on.

One thing is that they wont repair the thing though the fault was there when we got it. OK we took too long time to complain though they still should fix it IMO. But on top of that

A) They send parcels to be picked up at the post office to the University. Like we have people for doing that.

They send parcels to be payed for on arrival to the University. Like we have time to go the the post office during work hours. Like we have cash lying around to pay with. It looks like they are only used to dealing with private persons?

C) They bill us 700 kr. without warning for something we never saw an offer on, without repairing the ****** thing!

It looks to me like they're trying to tell us something. Like, "bugger off, creep".

In principle I don't like the vendors treating us better just because we are a big customer. But treating us like we are mosquitoes at their company picnic even when we are a big customer doesn't help either.

I was pissed. I am still pissed. I am pissed with myself because I let them step on me and because I didn't fight them 'til death or challenged them to met me at dawn with their weapon of choice. I am pissed because I lost without even putting up a fight, but I am even more pissed that I had to fight this one at all when it's their crappy casing that breaks if you try to use it and they ought to apologize to us and fix it. And I am never ever going to buy Fujitsu Siemens again.

Lesson learned:

• Fujitsu Siemens' service department is evil.
• Mondays are never innocent.
• Fujitsu Siemens' service department is evil.