Several months ago I wrote about the best support experience I’ve ever had. One of my Samsung monitors was deteriorating. I called Samsung support, and within two days they had a new monitor waiting for me at the UPS store (I merely brought my faulty monitor in to be shipped back and took the new one home).

Well, those days are gone. Another of my monitors is now failing. I called support and was told that their policies have changed. I now have to ship my monitor back to them and wait up to two weeks for repair and return (they’ll replace only if it cannot be repaired). Which means I am without the monitor for two weeks. Which means I need to buy a new monitor. This time it will not be a Samsung. And that’s a shame. I love their products and have been buying them exclusively for years. Maybe this is normal policy for the industry, but their old policy had me publicly singing their praises, while the new policy has me publicly deriding them. Wonder how that will play out for them.

written by Christopher Murray

I recently stayed at a Red Roof Inn up in Nashua, New Hampshire. My preference would have been to stay at the Radisson up the road, but because we were there only one night and coming in late and leaving very early, we decided to save the cash and go bare bones. We won’t do that again.

We had left my daughters with my brother and his family for the weekend but had brought with us a laptop so that we could Skype with them at night, say our prayers together and all that. We got to the room late and I immediately fired up the laptop because I knew they were waiting for us. No internet. I rebooted and tried again. No internet. I called the front desk after fiddling a while longer, and their suggestion was that I call Verizon. Well, it’s 9:30PM and my daughters are waiting; I’m not going to start talking with Verizon. We have to give up, and we eventually speak with the girls using the speaker on my cell. Very disappointing.

Done with the call, my wife goes in to use the restroom, which promptly overflows from the top of the tank when flushed. It does the same after I go in, and continues this throughout our stay.

So, early the next morning after cleaning up and leaving towels on the bathroom floor, we go and check out. The front desk guy asks how our stay was. I tell him I plan to stay elsewhere next time and tell him why. He wishes me a good day anyway.

I get a survey from Red Roof in my email this morning and decide to take the time to fill it out. It didn’t ask for my name or email, just my answers to questions. I was honest, explained what the issues were, and hit submit. End of story. I felt a little better about having had my little say.

But then this afternoon I get a very friendly and apologetic email from Ted, the manager of that franchise. He tells me he is concerned about my stay, assures me it is not the norm for them, and credits my account back the entire cost of our stay. I was pleased, obviously, about being comped, but I was mostly impressed that he bothered to find out who I was (again, no name or email on the survey) and that he would write back and then also to refund my rate.

I wrote Ted an email back thanking him for being a good person ahead of being an efficient manager. Because that’s all it takes to stand out above the crowd. And you don’t get too many opportunities to make things right once you’ve screwed them up.

written by Christopher Murray

The glow of yesterday’s customer support triumph with Samsung has worn off. I sit here in the “business office” of my local Honda dealership awaiting the completion of my 2007 Odyssey Touring minivan’s 60,000-mile checkup. The cost for the basic service was going to be roughly $400.

But the attendant has just visited and informed me that I need new tires. My vehicle will not pass inspection because the tires are worn from poor alignment. But that’s just the beginning of the story.

This car has what are known as PAX tires. Some people know them as run-flat tires. Their claim is that even without air, these tires maintain their shape and their ability to be driven on for many miles. It’s the special frames that allow this. The vehicle also has an impressive monitoring system for these tires. As you might imagine, these tires are very expensive.

But here’s where the fun starts. There’s a class action suit against Honda and Michelin because of these tires. People buying cars with them have been misinformed about their life expectancy. The tires themselves, while excessively priced, are also very hard to replace because there are very few dealerships with the equipment to do so. I got a notice in the mail a few weeks back from a law firm in the Midwest offering me to join in the suit. I have to fill out some paperwork and send it back to them. I imagine, like most lawsuits, I may get fifty cents or so while the lawyers themselves take in millions.

So, my $400 service call now is $1300 (tires and parts, installation, rotation, balancing, blah blah blah). There’s no lawyer here helping me to bargain or talk the dealers down. I will likely have to do this again in 20,000 miles or so (not the advertised 35,000 miles).

I’ve been a very loyal customer of Honda cars for years. In fact, since the junky Subaru I drove after college, all my cars have been Hondas. But this is the end of the road. I’m done with them. I’ll need another car next year when my other Honda finally times out. But it’ll be something else. Something without proprietary equipment that hoses me for years to come.

written by Christopher Murray