Back once again with some block rocking beats... AND A NEW RANT!

jonnyGURU

Moderator <BR> Power Supplies
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Oct 30, 1999
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CLEARLY on the bottom of our invoices it states that CPUs with bent pins will not be accepted on RMAs.

AMD won't take them back. Why should we?

This gentleman today sent back three CPUs because they would lock up. I believe him since he bought 12 CPUs and was only returning three, but the way he returned them were less than professional.

He put the three CPUs in a tray, but did not do anything to keep the CPUs IN THE TRAY. The tray was just shoved into a static bag so when we get it, it's a bag with three CPUs and a CPU tray in it.

Sure enough, every other pin on every CPU was bent.

The one tech said that his warranty should be void and that he now owns the processors.

I was in a good mood and said that we should send them back to him, have him straighten the pins and then reship them to us APPROPRIATELY PACKAGED.

The other tech asked a manager for a final decision.

The manager came back to us and told us that WE should straighten the pins and only if the pins break should we void the guy's warranty.

Wait a minute! That takes a long time! We didn't bend the pins! We didn't tell him that UPS WOULDN'T turn his box upside down, during transit, thus causing the CPUs to fall out of the tray.

Now WE'RE stuck straightening pins on three known bad CPUs just so we can send them back to AMD! What a crock!

Basically I think the &quot;fear&quot; in not accepting this RMA is in the fact that we accepted the package. It was a UPS package and it was signed for. If we ship it back to him at this juncture, he could simply refuse the package. If we charge him for the CPUs he can contest the charges becuase he never received the package (after all WE signed for the RMA). It's not like we DIDN'T TELL him to how NOT to ship the CPUs. We just thought that common sense would prevail.

It's crazy.

It sort of reminds me of a guy last week that shipped a motherboard and CPU in an envelope. THAT package we did refuse. He called and asked why we refused it. We told him it was because he shipped it in an envelope leaving it succeptable to physical damage.

He said that the reason WHY he shipped it in the envelope is because we didn't tell him not to! Does common sense not apply here? I now have to tell people SPECIFICALLY NOT to ship fragile computer components in envelopes because it is NOT common sense enough NOT TO?

Next thing you know a customer of ours is going to jump off of a bridge commiting suicide. If I'm the last person that person has talked to, the family is probably going to want to sue me because I DID NOT TELL HIM to not jump off a bridge when I last talked to him.

It's a f**ked up world, aint it?
 

chipbgt

Banned
Nov 30, 1999
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those were my cpus.....straighten the pins yourself, they were fine when I shipped them.
 

Stark

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2000
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JG, you're proof that customer service and tech support are two mutually exclusive terms. :D
 

jonnyGURU

Moderator <BR> Power Supplies
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Oct 30, 1999
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I dunno Stark. It seems that the more I give (willing to warranty the CPUs despite the customer not taking precautions to ensure the pins not get bent) the more people demand.

It stinks.

It's like the rants I've done in the past:

A guy burns four CPUs with too much voltage. I give him his money back.

A guy claims that two CPUs crash even though they test fine for me. I replace them anyway!

A guy gets an 8X DVD when he returns a supposedly defective DVD that he received BY ACCIDENT (he was mistakenly shipped a 10X). I'm willing to upgrade the DVD from an 8X to a 10X for the gu if he sends me the replacement 8X back.

It's not like I get some sort of thrill out of shutting people down. People do stupid things. I'm always willing to come to a resolve. You give a little. I give a little. You f'd up, now let's see what we can do to make it right. But time and time again, the customer demands more and there is never been a good reason why I should bend SO FAR backwards.

I thought the other tech was being harsh when he said no warranty. I mean; sure it says &quot;CPUs MUST NOT HAVE BENT PINS&quot; on his invoice. Sure you would think that you should use rubber bands or something to keep the CPUs in the tray in case the tray gets flipped upside down (of course it's going to get flipped upside down), but I'm willing to give him a second chance, BUT I DON'T think I should be straigtening out people's bent pins for them. :(

 

jonnyGURU

Moderator <BR> Power Supplies
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Oct 30, 1999
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He knows we have them. Like I said, we signed for the package.

Besides, the other tech just spent the last hour straightening all of the pins so it looks like meathead is getting his exchange.

Hopefully he notes HOW WE SHIP his replacements.

You know; three CPUs SECURELY FASTENED to a CPU tray.

Sigh.
 

Stark

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2000
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jg,

I hear you. We recently got a pretty green imac in from another local non-authorized shop. They got it from a customer but couldn't do warranty work on it, so they sent it to us.

They sent it to us in a 17&quot; viewsonic box full of popcorn. Needless to say, the computer was thrashed: cracked case, dead as a doornob. I think they paid more to repair it than to replace it (we made a nice profit off that one).

The next computer they sent us was a g4 with a &quot;defective&quot; hard drive. I eventually figured out that someone had taken the jumper off the hd causing it not to boot. The original customer that took it to them eventually drove down to pick it up. He said they'd had it three weeks and hadn't been at all helpful. Easy $65 repair on that one.

I once had a guy bring in his &quot;custom system&quot; in which he had screwed his mobo directly to the case with no standoffs. I charged that guy $130 to reseat the board just for being so stupid.

So I see where customer is not always right and think there's nothing wrong from profiting from their stupidity. ;) Your customer's first mistake was buying oem instead of retail (meaning he's cheap too). I'd much rather be able to deal with amd directly. He also would have better packing than the plastic &quot;business card holder&quot; cases that most oem k6's come in.

The trick to customer service is keeping a customer happy (and thus, a repeat customer) while not losing your shirt in the process.
 

jonnyGURU

Moderator <BR> Power Supplies
Moderator
Oct 30, 1999
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True. There's NOTHING wrong with profiting from one's &quot;stupidity&quot;.

I used to work in a retail store and would do many of the same things you offer as examples.

Unfortunately, now I'm at a retail warehouse that does not build or service machines. We sell parts and parts only. I don't work on machines and correct peoples mistakes. I often wish I DID have the machine in front of me so I could point out the customer's mistakes. 90% of the time what I get back is ACTUALLY GOOD. Customers call for advice and if product is returned, it's our job to test and replace accordingly. It's all I can do.

Sort of puts a whole new perspective on it, doesn't it? ;)

 

Stark

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2000
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That's the result of home depot, best buy and circuit city... retail return hell. Great if you're the customer, hell because customers expect it from everyone. The big boys don't care because they just rtv everything. Try it for 30 days no questions asked!

Here's a rant I have: my prick boss likes to get the latest pIII processors, load them into the salespeople's computers for a couple months, then sell them off as new when the next latest batch comes out. So we, the tech crew, are constantly rebuilding the sales computers with different mobos and cpus and put all this used stuff in &quot;new&quot; computers. I really need to get a new job. Those are just one example of the morals at my place of employment. It just sucks. :|
 

Passions

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2000
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stark: complaining about having the fastest and latest computers at work.

WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO!!!!!!!! :p:p:p:p:p
 

Mday

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
18,646
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it's not much of a rant. the others were better. this one was just torture :p referring to the pins of course...
 

Imaginer

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 1999
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Your rants are good but I feel like I am losing more LMAO here. ;)

Did those CPUs work? Or did you break the pins... :Q

Bunch of idiots! It takes a smart person to do the smart thing.
 

jonnyGURU

Moderator <BR> Power Supplies
Moderator
Oct 30, 1999
11,815
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The pins didn't break and the guy gets his replacements.

Yes, the rant had very little LMAO value. I was just pissed.

I rant to release. Sometimes it's just not funny no matter how you put it. :(

Of course, after an 11 hour shift w/ no lunch yesterday, can you blame me?

 

Stark

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2000
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br,

the thought of selling used stuff as new just chaps my hide. i try to find reputable, honest companies to buy my personal hardware from, and my place of employment isn't even on that list.
 

Stark

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2000
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btw, we're still running pI's in the service dept and they run faster and more reliably than the salespeople's 600+ PIII's. Maybe if they didn't download pron and every free download on the internet they wouldn't be complaining to us all the time about their systems. And maybe if all the tech's in the back had piii's on our benches, i wouldn't gripe as much. ;)
 

Carrot44

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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I think the Porn causes small programs to run in the background that flashes at a 120 hz rate buy me buy me buy me very CPU Intensive :p