More Bad Service

I could just create a "Crappy South Africa Companies" blog. I'd have more than enough to post, just based on my experiences alone.

Here are two more examples: Dell, and Standard Bank.

As I blogged previously, I bought a Dell Latitude D510 laptop last June. Within the first 30 days, I'd had the screen replaced due to an uneven vertical brightness gradient. The new screen was better, but the viewing angle is pretty small (the screen has to be at just about eye-level - even on a table it's a bit low). Then last month it stopped charging, so I got a new AC adaptor, which didn't solve the problem so I had the motherboard replaced. It then started gettting pretty hot - enough so that using the touchpad was uncomfortable - so I had the motherboard replaced again. The tech guy had just left, and I discovered that the touchpad wasn't working. I couldn't get hold of him directly, so I emailed Dell again, and they sent him back: he'd forgotten to plug it in. Now I notice that the fan is distinctly noisy when it's running on high speed, and there's a bit of vibration noise when it's running on low speed.

There are 2 issues here: the first is the quality of the laptop & parts, the second is the service. The quality is pretty obviously bad. The service from Dell I've been very happy with - luckily the laptop is still under guarantee. The only complaint I have with Dell's service is that tech support requests submitted via their webpage seem to get lost in the depths of cyberspace (and don't even get me started about their website, which is just horrible). Fortunately I managed to find a tech support email address, which seems to get a response. The service from the company that they outsource their tech support to in Cape Town, however, is not that good. Well - the service itself is fine, but but the quality of the tech support seems somewhat lacking.

And on to Standard Bank. There's a host of things I could complain about here, but mostly they're not specific to Standard Bank so much as the banking industry in SA in general. The latest issue, though, is this: my bank refuses to advise me on how to avoid being defrauded when accepting payments. Yup, they refuse. I'm selling my car soon (anyone want a 1984 Toyota Corolla Automatic? It's even got aircon ...), and since there's been a lot of stuff in the media lately about people being defrauded when selling stuff I thought I'd ask their advice:

I'm not sure what is the safest way for me
to be paid, though - obviously cash is safe,
and personal cheques are somewhat risky.
Bank guaranteed cheques are, I assume,
completely safe? And what about transfers
into my account - can I assume that once
I see the payment in my online account
statement, that it has definitely been paid
and it is safe to give the buyer the car?

They replied (surprisingly promptly, I'll give them that):

We will gladly advise you regarding
your enquiry on accepting payments.

Okay, sounds good so far...

The brest way forward would be to
visit your nearest branch for advise
regarding the pyment options.

Umm... wtf?! Why? What can a branch employee tell me in person that you can't tell me via email? And what happending to you gladly advising me? (And do I spot a Freudian slip, or just bad typing?)

We are not in a position to confirm to you which one would best suit you , as the sale of any goods is between the buyer and the seller.

Again, wtf?! I'm not asking which would suit me best, just how to avoid being defrauded! And again, what happending to you gladly advising me?

Very helpful indeed ... guess I'm on my own on this one.

On the other hand, just to prove that I don't spend all my time complaining, I've been pretty impressed with Microsoft SA. They happily posted the C# Express CD to me so that I didn't have to go through the painful (and likely impossible) task of downloading 400Mb, and are doing the same thing for Web Dev Express for a colleague of mine. Now that's good customer service.