Another customer support story

Late last year I wrote a post on my terrible technical support experience with Linksys (and Earthlink). I have another story along the same lines to relate, though this one has a happy ending.

I bought an OtterBox Defender for iPhone from Amazon. Actually I should say I ordered it on Amazon.com, because while the order was placed through them, it was actually ordered from a "seller" called TechNGnet. (I'm going to be very cautious about ordering from Amazon "sellers" in the future, even when they have good ratings like TechNGnet does.)

The case arrived in a plain box, wrapped in bubble-wrap, and did not have the protective film that the instruction sheet that came with it said it should. And the touch-screen membrane was scratched. It looked to me like they had sent me a returned item.

So I looked up TechNGnet and sent them an email. Instead of the response I was hoping for ("Oops! Sorry. We'll do what it takes to satisfy you.") I was told to read their return policy, which said I could send it back at my expense and they'd send me a replacement. I replied and complained (since they had sent me damaged goods) and did not receive a reply.

But I'm glad I also wrote to Otterbox. They sent me a replacement at their expense, and I didn't have to worry about sending the first one back. The replacement arrived in proper packaging. But unfortunately it had a small defect: one of the snaps was bent. I felt a little guilty about writing them about it, but they sent me another immediately.

Now that's how a smart company treats its customers. TechNGnet on the other hand got the lowest possible rating from me on Amazon, and these unflattering words for people to find.

I need to write another post in this "series" that details the ridiculously bad technical support I've received from Roxio on Popcorn and Toast. I don't have closure on my problems with them, but it's just such a pathetic example of how bad technical support can be that I can't resist describing it. Stay tuned.

Eventually I intend to write about Spanning Sync also. But I will wait until I get closure on that first. I will say I was quite impressed when Charlie Wood commented on my previous post. (He must have a Google Alert searching for "Spanning Sync". Hi Charlie!) He also sent me an email and has responded promptly and helpfully to my emails. And Spanning Sync (the company) does a great job responding to questions on their Google Group. So I look forward to writing some positive things about them.

Finally, the Apple AirPort Extreme I bought works great. And after some aggravating initial problems with Comcast's Internet service, it's now working reliably too.