Excellent Customer Service

August 25th, 2010

While charging our Kodak Zi8 video camera a couple of nights ago, I managed to cook it so much that it lost all willingness to switch on, let alone shoot any video. Using the wrong power adapter probably didn’t help! We’d owned it for about 2 and a half months, I assumed as it was beyond it’s 30 day return window and because it wasn’t exactly faulty – I didn’t think I’d be able to get it sorted without a possible insurance claim citing my clumsiness.

I took the chance and went back to the local Currys – we’d kept the box and all the extra wires and instructions that came with it, most importantly – I had the receipt. I was hoping they’d replace it (but wasn’t optimistic) or at least give me some directions to Kodak to get it repaired or replaced under its 12 month warranty.

I explained that I’d only used the camera over the last couple of weeks (despite having it for over 2 months) and after giving the camera its first charge it has seemed overly warm and had not switched back on since. OK, so a bit of a white lie or two, but they were very much in need. The member of staff serving me tried the camera and confirmed that it was indeed dead, at this point I wasn’t sure which way it was going to go; especially when he started off saying “obviously I can’t give you a refund”, that’s fine I said – almost interrupting his flow, he continued and said that there was no problem in replacing it for me. Off he went and grabbed a new one off the shelf.

I was Jack’s complete lack abundance of surprise.

He did follow up with trying to sell me an extended warranty for £31.99 – about 25% of the value of the camera, which I turned down. Despite my little accident I still believe extended warranties aren’t worth the money, we’ve got accidental cover on our home contents insurance which would cover any future break downs or accidents.

After a couple of minutes taking some details and signing a new receipt, I was off with my new video camera. I was really impressed with the lack of fuss, the efficiency and the speed of how the staff reacted and solved my problem. And that’s all I could of hoped for in Currys’ customer service team, but I suppose the real lesson here is to lie just enough to put the customer service department in a position where they are compelled to help you.

Tags: accidental breakages, charging, customer service, insurance, overheating, power adapter, returns policy, video camera, warranty