Bad customer service from Club Mac
From now on, when I get particularly good or particularly bad customer service from a company, I'm going to post the information to a web page so that others can consider it when considering buying from the company. My recent experience with Club Mac was particularly bad.
First problem: Club Mac gives me misinformation about their product and then insists that I pay to fix the problem.
I ordered a 3.2 gig hard drive from Club Mac; it was my first time doing business with them. I was concerned that I would have SCSI compatibility problems since there is more than one version of SCSI. I described my setup to the salesperson, and after listening, he assured me that I would have no problems.
When I received the hard drive, I found that it had two 50-pin SCSI connections, while my three other external SCSI devices all use 25-pin SCSI connections. The hard drive came with just one 25-to-50 pin SCSI cable, which wasn't adequate (I couldn't put the new hard drive at the end of the SCSI chain, because I have a scanner; scanners are supposed to go at the end of the chain because of the line noise they generate).
I called back Club Mac and explained the problem to their Tech Support department. They agreed that I needed a second 25-to-50 pin cable, but they insisted that I pay for it. I explained that I had specifically asked in detail about SCSI compatibility before placing the order, and since I had made my purchase decision based on the salesperson's misinformation, I did not feel that it was my responsibility to pay for the cable; it amounted to an increase in the price of the hard drive as it had been represented by the Club Mac salesperson. With the added cost of the SCSI cable, Club Mac's product was now more expensive than its competitors' products.
Tech Support answered that the salesperson could not be expected to know everything about all of Club Mac's products. I said that the salesperson should have referred me to Tech Support this if it were so, rather than give me misinformation. Tech Support also rather rudely said that "50-pin SCSI is the standard", and brushed it off when I said that I had three other 25-pin external devices sold by major vendors.
After calling back several times and arguing, Tech Support finally reluctantly agreed to send me a cable for the cost of shipping and handling, $6. I didn't think that this $6 was my responsibility, either, and I said so; but I went ahead and paid it to be done with the matter.
Second problem: the fan goes bad, and Club Mac puts me thru hell getting it fixed.
A couple of months later, the hard drive starting making a horrible, loud noise. With the advice of Tech Support, I took the cover off the hard drive and determined that the problem was the motor in the fan. When I called Tech Support back to report this, I got a different technician, and he told me that I would need to call the hard drive manufacturer, Quantum, to get a new fan. I found the number for Quantum and called them; after a few calls over several days, I got thru to someone who told me that Quantum only manufactured the drives themselves, not the chassis or circuit board or fan. It was Club Mac's fan.
I called Club Mac back and explained this. They agreed to send me a new fan for me to install myself since the drive was still under warranty. They also said that I could get a replacement fan at Radio Shack to save time, but I declined (it was Club Mac's responsibility to pay for it, and it would be an error-prone hassle for me to buy a fan of the right dimensions and electrical specifications). Tech Support told me that the fans were currently out of stock, but they said that the new supply should be in by the next week.
More than a month went by. I called Club Mac back to ask the reason for the delay. The technician said that the fans were still on order, but during our conversation he let it slip that Club Mac usually waited until they had orders for several replacement fans before they ordered them themselves. I was outraged at this; I had been tolerating a distractingly noisy hard drive in my workplace for over a month while Club Mac was doing nothing. I expressed this anger to the technician, who did not seem particularly concerned.
After a few more weeks, the fan finally arrived. Unfortunately, this new fan was twice as thick as the old one, and Club Mac had not sent me the longer screws I needed to mount the thicker fan. I had to make a special trip to the hardware store to buy longer screws; this was a considerable annoyance since the hardware store is a half hour drive from the location where the hard drive is in use.
What Club Mac should have done differently:
- The salesperson should have given me the right information, but given that his managers hadn't provided him with it, he should have referred me to Tech Support rather than giving me misinformation.
- Club Mac should have taken responsibility for its own mistake by providing me with the second SCSI cable at no charge.
- When the fan went bad, the technician should not have given me the run-around by referring me to the drive manufacturer, who had nothing to do with the fan.
- Club Mac should have sent me out a replacement fan promptly. If they couldn't do this, they should have offered me a loaner drive until they were able to do so.
- When they finally did send the fan, Club Mac should have sent me the right sized screws.
- Both problems should have been resolved in one phone call each. I had to make a great many phone calls and spend a lot of time on hold.
- Some apology from Club Mac would have been in order.
If Club Mac would like to make a response, I will post it here.