One of my biggest pet peeves. It's mind boggling how unhelpful business are. It's like they don't want your business
There is one (of many) nuts/candy store in the neighborhood where the owner truly cares and is helpful and he gets all of our business. Just for putting on a smile and asking if you need help.
A phone that is especially suited for seniors was purchased in August. It is malfunctioning and should still be under warranty. Called the seller's service department, automated system says I'm #7 on line. I patiently wait for about half an hour until it says I'm next in-line, the next activity was a disconnect. Called again, I'm #4 in line. After 20 minutes I get the privilege to talk to someone who tells me the phone should be under warranty and I need to call the distributor. He looks up the number online for me (no regular number, just a *xxxx number, so if I wasn't physically in Israel, I would have no way to deal with this). I call that number and am told they will send me a list of repair centers. I look at the list and find one that's within a reasonable distance. It's in a mall. Finding the actual store took some time, but I'm finally in and take a number. For about 40 minutes no number gets called. A person ahead of me on line starts making a fuss, they start moving the numbers (this is within an hour of closing). Finally when it's my turn, the rep looks at the phone, opens it up and sees some kind of green label inside. Talks to another associate and then tells me they won't repair the phone under warranty, I need to call the distributor directly, they are just agents for the distributor. I told them that I contacted the distributor and was told to come here. Nothing doing. They just tell me to call the distributor again tomorrow morning. I ask to get a written statement (I'm not
@Dan, didn't think of videoing the encounter until after I left) that they won't repair it and I need to talk to the distributor directly. "We don't give such written statements". Next morning I call the distributor, give the IMEI number - "the phone isn't under warranty". I state the purchase date. "Oh, you need to contact the seller so they activate the warranty" (remember the phone experience with the seller above? luckily they also have a whatsapp contact, I send a whatsapp message about activating the warranty and haven't heard back).
I deliberately didn't break up the above to be more readable, just to convey a little frustration of the experience. They just make it as difficult as they can, and don't even try to be forthcoming. COVID-19 just gives additional excuses for bad service. Let's not talk about my experience with a bank and a POA that they refuse to accept. And then there's the experience with ועדת חריגים trying to get out of here (on Thursday there was an online form where one was able to get exit permission as long as they agree not to come back withing 60 days, by Sunday the form was offline - they probably realized that there was no legal way to require people to make such commitments).