The wife mopped into the living room recently; Kindle in hand, downtrodden look on her face, the Kindle screen showing all the telltale signs of an LCD screen that has recently come second in a fight with a foot.
Yes – the worst had happened. the Kindle had been stood on and now is was deaded.
Despite purchasing the Kindle at Currys Digital, I decided to see if Amazon did any sort of easy repair or replacement scheme. once logged into amazon.co.uk, and after a few minutes hunting around for the relevant help page, I scheduled a call (yes, for them to call me – no waiting around in queues) which came through almost immediately.
I spoke with a guy called Pat for all of 5 minutes. During that time, we established that my Kindle was indeed broken and that such foot-related breakary wasn’t covered under their normal warranty (which is fair enough!).
Then he broke the good news – much like Apple do with their iPhone, no quibble replacement scheme, Amazon offer a replacement for 30% of the purchase price, assuming you send in your broken Kindle within 30 days.
About 3 minutes into the 5 minute call, we’d confirmed that I was happy to do that, my card was charged and a delivery was arranged for Tuesday coming. We spent the final 2 minutes going through the returns procedure for the old Kindle and generally being nice to each other.
Basically, a flawless customer service experience and a no quibble replacement at a reasonable cost, all within minutes of my initiating contact. I can’t imagine receiving such service anywhere else (although I’ve always rated Apple’s CS for their similar, no quibble approach to such things).
In this instance, I’m talking about a Kindle that was broken – by accident – but broken all the same. I do know of many people who have had random problems with their Kindles…screen freezes, software problems etc. Most of the people I and other people know who are Kindle owners have had some kind of issue before now. So why isn’t it constantly in the news? The Kindle is one of the most popular devices in the world (where available, at least)…so why aren’t people screaming about it?
Simply because of Amazon’s customer service approach. They speak to you very quickly and offer replacement after replacement. If it’s your fault, they replace at a very reasonable cost. If it’s their fault, they don’t argue…they just replace. And they send you a new one immediately and then give you 30 days to return the busted on at their cost.
it may sound like a very expensive way to keep people happy, but in doing so they are creating an army of dedicated followers who love their Kindles and know that the company who provides them will keep supporting them. They’re also mitigating any negative publicity about software and hardware problems and, in a world where customer service is always in the news, scoring major brownie points.
And this is why people love their Kindles and love Amazon, and why it really doesn’t matter that the product they’re selling is actually a bit crap.
Why no one cares that the Kindle is unreliable
Posted: 9th October 2011 by boboshady in Digital Commentary, General Content, I Like MoaningThe wife mopped into the living room recently; Kindle in hand, downtrodden look on her face, the Kindle screen showing all the telltale signs of an LCD screen that has recently come second in a fight with a foot.
Yes – the worst had happened. the Kindle had been stood on and now is was deaded.
Despite purchasing the Kindle at Currys Digital, I decided to see if Amazon did any sort of easy repair or replacement scheme. once logged into amazon.co.uk, and after a few minutes hunting around for the relevant help page, I scheduled a call (yes, for them to call me – no waiting around in queues) which came through almost immediately.
I spoke with a guy called Pat for all of 5 minutes. During that time, we established that my Kindle was indeed broken and that such foot-related breakary wasn’t covered under their normal warranty (which is fair enough!).
Then he broke the good news – much like Apple do with their iPhone, no quibble replacement scheme, Amazon offer a replacement for 30% of the purchase price, assuming you send in your broken Kindle within 30 days.
About 3 minutes into the 5 minute call, we’d confirmed that I was happy to do that, my card was charged and a delivery was arranged for Tuesday coming. We spent the final 2 minutes going through the returns procedure for the old Kindle and generally being nice to each other.
Basically, a flawless customer service experience and a no quibble replacement at a reasonable cost, all within minutes of my initiating contact. I can’t imagine receiving such service anywhere else (although I’ve always rated Apple’s CS for their similar, no quibble approach to such things).
In this instance, I’m talking about a Kindle that was broken – by accident – but broken all the same. I do know of many people who have had random problems with their Kindles…screen freezes, software problems etc. Most of the people I and other people know who are Kindle owners have had some kind of issue before now. So why isn’t it constantly in the news? The Kindle is one of the most popular devices in the world (where available, at least)…so why aren’t people screaming about it?
Simply because of Amazon’s customer service approach. They speak to you very quickly and offer replacement after replacement. If it’s your fault, they replace at a very reasonable cost. If it’s their fault, they don’t argue…they just replace. And they send you a new one immediately and then give you 30 days to return the busted on at their cost.
it may sound like a very expensive way to keep people happy, but in doing so they are creating an army of dedicated followers who love their Kindles and know that the company who provides them will keep supporting them. They’re also mitigating any negative publicity about software and hardware problems and, in a world where customer service is always in the news, scoring major brownie points.
And this is why people love their Kindles and love Amazon, and why it really doesn’t matter that the product they’re selling is actually a bit crap.