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ME, via Borders' Customer Care online contact form:
I have been highly anticipating the addition of the newest Sony eReader (the 700) to the Sony display in my local Borders so I could "play" with it. I am 98% certain that I want this device but needed the hands-on demonstration to make my final decision.
Unfortunately, while the older model (the 505) was working, the Sony 700 was NOT working. When I asked for help, I was told that the Sony devices were not connected to a charger and the 700 had a dead battery. The employee explained that someone "comes in every now and then and switches them out for newly charged devices." When I asked when that would next be done, the employee informed me that the person "had just been in a couple of days ago and wouldn't be back for quite a while."So, in conclusion... a very high priced lost sale for Borders AND for Sony. Why aren't those devices connected to chargers?
By the way, it's rather difficult to type in this comment box with the "select store" drop down boxes lying on top of the typed t[ext]
Borders' Customer Care, via email:
Thank you for contacting Borders Customer Care and making us aware of your concern.
I would like to apologize for your experience at your local store. I will be glad to forward your comments to the General Manager for the store and the District Manager for the area. It is our practice to pass on any feedback regarding customer experiences in our stores, such as the feedback you provided, to the GM and the DM. It is our belief that they are best equipped to address feedback from customers regarding experiences in their store. I am sure they will be grateful to receive your feedback so that they can rectify the situation. Please reply to this message with the city and state or address of the store location and we will take care of this for you.
Again, thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention. If there is anything else we can do for you, please let us know.
Sincerely,
Kaleena
Borders Customer Care
http://www.bordersstores.com
Me, via email reply:
Thank you for your response Kaleena.
The incident occurred at the Borders store at [my nearby Borders]
It seems my email should also be forwarded to your Borders.com web design team since I DID select the state and store when I filled out the contact form. If you look at the last sentence of my email (which I now see was partially truncated), those were the drop down boxes I referred to that were overlayed/floating on TOP of the comment box on the form. As I typed in the text, it disappeared underneath the state and store drop down selection boxes (although I could scroll to read between the boxes). Your web design team will want to know that I am using Windows XP Pro and IE7.
Borders' Customer Care, via email:
Thank you for contacting Borders Customer Care back with your information.
We want to thank you for taking the time to give us detailed feedback regarding our website. We value and rely on feedback so that we can evaluate our programs and services and make changes to best meet our customers' needs.
Please note that I am forwarding your comments to the General Manager for the store and the District Manager for the area regarding the issue with the Sony eReader. As well, I will forward your feedback to the our e-commerce and marketing team members regarding the issues you encountered on our website.
Again, thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention. If there is anything else we can do for you, please let us know.
Sincerely,
Susan
Borders Customer Care
http://www.bordersstores.com
Borders, via phone... that's right, I said BY PHONE!!!
The local head honcho, Billy (see artist's rendition of Billy at left ;-p), called and said my emails had been forwarded to him. He apologized for the incident and told me that the battery wasn't dead on the Sony 700, but the unit had been broken and, based on my email date, a new one was in place within a couple of hours of my first email to Borders. He then invited me to come back and test the Sony out and when I did, he told me to ask for him because he wanted to buy me a beverage at the cafe.Now I see why Borders has renamed Customer Service to Customer Care.
Borders' Customer Care... UR doin' it RIGHT, akshully.
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Still to come: Winter Sports: the Price-Matching Finals; and then a jaw-dropping tale that combines stupidity, arrogance, and amateur grade weasellyness. (IS a word!)
4 comments:
hehe. You are a feisty thing! You must let me know how you find the ereader, I am thinking of getting an iphone for the job next year sometime when I can afford it. Am a little over reading books on my macbook, which despite being reasonably portable is still not as small as an actual book. :)
Heh, does Billy know that's what he looks like? LOL You crack me up.
See, I used to be so shy and would never speak up for myself or about things like this, but since my mid 30's something happened to me and I've turned into the mouth that screams bloody murder to get what is due me or point out if I've been wronged.
I would have spoken up about to the store itself and maybe called around to some other Borders near me to see if theirs was working, but that's it. You went the extra mile and emailed costumer service. Cause of people like you, we get better service.
Good for Borders though. I've been pissed at them since they stopped dishing out % off coupons when you buy something in exchange for % off coupons on some non Borders items like a restaurant or other such crap.
Kudos to you Bev.
Now as for the Sony ereader, I have the 505 version. I read an article somewhere about the 700 version because I was interested in that one. It said it picked up lots of glare, which is not good.
What did you think of it?
Sarah, I DID go look at an iPhone not too long ago. Now granted the guy at the ATT Store showed me a text file on his personal iPhone, so maybe the brightness was too high, but I'm telling you that it actually HURT to look at the iPhone's screen. Keep in mind that the reason I need a reader with eink is because my tired old eyes just can't take reading from my PDA or computer screens anymore so I read almost NO ebooks anymore.
MB, I haven't been buying as much with Borders either because of their lack of coupons and the fact that they've gotten so stingy with the member rebates. Used to be I'd pay $15 bucks a year and receive several times over that amount back in points. I'd buy all my books at once and knew that I was getting something back. I only used Amazon for books I couldn't get at Waldens/Borders (like erotica). Hell, they actually said "Hi Bev!" when I walked into Waldens because I was there so much! Now I can't remember the last time I was in there because it's not worth slogging through the mall to get to it.
Plus, now they time their coupons to expire before release days which pisses me off since it's the books I want RIGHTNOW that send me to Borders instead of Amazon.
Ames, this all happened within the last few days and I haven't gotten back there to look at the 700 yet. I want to evaluate it on it's own merits because I know that it pales in comparison to the 505's display. But I really don't want a reader that won't let me do text notes. As a fan of MSReader, I've gotten quite used to them and can't imagine reading without them.
So for me, the question isn't "Do I like the 700 better than the 505?", it's just plain and simply "Do I like the 700?". Although, there's so many companies that have announced what sound like really cool ereaders that are SUPPOSEDLY due out early in 2009, I'm beginning to think maybe I should wait a couple more months. I don't really want to wait, but I also don't want to kick myself because someone finally releases the PERFECT ereader and I have to miss out on it because I just bought the Sony.
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