This customer experience has been absolutely embarrassing and a failure top to bottom. So not only did I get no response on my initial email for nearly a week, but I have had the wonderful opportunity to experience a support and escalation workflow that went from unhelpful to actually insulting.
To recap:
1. My Charge 5 breaks out of warranty not once but twice, both these devices suddenly broke just a handful of months out of warranty despite using them for fairly basic uses (running, walking, basketball, etc). The first time I used the offer code provided to buy a replacement.
2. My replacement charge 5 also suddenly fails outside the warranty period.
3. I call support on 9/1 and speak with a frontline agent to get some help with my device. He immediately went to put me on hold without asking any follow-up questions or what troubleshooting I've tried. He says he's going to put me on hold while he looks up support and out of warranty options.
Here is where we start getting to the communication failures.
4. He says that the technical support team will follow up with me via email. Shortly after the "support" I receive what is clearly just a boilerplate macro with no attempt to acknowledge my or provide further support or even appear human. It's just a transparently lazy application of a pre-written macro. It is just a discount code, so their answer is to spend additional money to replace their product that has broken on me twice.
5. I send an email response to the offer code on 9/3 but don't get a response so I call on Friday 9/6.
6. I speak with a supervisor who first tries to stand firm on the offer code but offers a """generous""" exception of providing me with a replacement charge 5.
7. I ask to confirm if it is a refurb, as the charge 5 is no longer for sale on their website. She says it is and then I ask if it is covered by a warranty. She states "it would be tied to the warranty for the existing device." I start to get frustrated and say that of course that means no because if I had a warranty worth anything they wouldn't be offering me discount codes and asking for more money.
Now, this is a wholly unsatisfactory resolution because I am being offered the same device that has failed multiple times, but this time it is a refurb and has no additional warranty protection. If it fails again like it has before I'm right back to square one. So I ask for a charge 6, the product they are selling and clearly the one they have the most confidence in.
8. I am upset with this offer and she tells me she "won't make any promise but will explore other alternatives and get back to me very soon" and send me a follow-up email to confirm my case has been escalated.
9. Fast-forward to 9/10 and there is no resolution or even update via email. I send an email in the morning asking for an update.
10. I received no response so I called support again on 9/11 hoping to speak to a manager. I am only able to speak to a frontline agent who comes back from hold and confidently tells me "I have flagged this as urgent and you will hear back within an hour or two but at least by end of day". End of day arrives and no response.
11. I called again today on 9/12 and tried to speak to a manager, which is like pulling teeth. The frontline agent tries to appease me by saying there is no resolution but management need more time and they will once again "get back to me in an hour or two"
12. I do not want to take their word again and wait for another supervisor. I finally get one and she comes back and say the only resolution they could offer is the refurb charge 5. I try to explain how this is unsatisfactory given both the poor hardware quality and support experience to this point. Surely there must be some bend or exception baked into the make good process. She refuses to budge and I admittedly swear in anger and the call is disconnected.
There are so many problems in this support experience, it's hard to know where to start. But I will focus on today, why was I told alternatives were being looked into if there was nothing more they were willing to offer? If that's the case why did it take a week to respond? If that's the case, why was I told by the frontline agent that management needed more time only for the supervisor to immediately get on the line and say there was no other alternative? The supervisor I spoke with today herself said the other supervisor shouldn't have given the impression there was a possibility of a further make good option.
All in all this is insulting as a loyal customer who has stuck with the brand despite multiple hardware failures, software crashes that result in loss of data, etc. To not receive just a one time exception that isn't just a refurb, particularly after going through such a poorly designed experience is again, insulting. I've worked in CX for years, as a frontline agent to designing support workflows and even escalation workflows and this is just a miserable, poorly designed experience. That my recourse is either accept a refurb with no warranty protection or pay money out of pocket (that I do not have the luxury of doing right now as I have been in-between work for quite some time, is once again, insulting.
The supervisor I spoke with earlier acted as if this was the end of the issue but I will keep emailing, calling, posting in the forums, social media, and trying to escalate this and amplify it as much as possible. At some point maybe you will realize it would have been easier to just compromise your apparently rigid ideals to garner some good will with a loyal customer who is now actively exploring other options.
I've seen responses that there isn't much that can be done in these forums and to work with the support team but I just want to share this for visibility in the hope that someone, potentially higher on the management team, and will continue to contact support.
Moderator Edit: Word choice.
