With my imminent departure from a permanent job I will no longer have a work laptop which I can take home and use. I didn’t use to have do this but the HP laptop we bought 2 years ago is broken (again) and Currys refuse to fix it because we cancelled our ‘What ever happens’ warranty.
It’s true. We did. A couple of months after buying the laptop it crashed and we couldn’t get it to restart. Calling Curry’s ‘What ever happens’ helpline they said they’d fix it for us, but we’d had to pay £90 to get the data off the computer first. Utter disgrace. When do you normally need help with a laptop? When it’s crashed and you can’t get it to start. Naturally, with a policy named “What ever happens” I don’t expect to have to pay to back up my data. “Utter crap” policy cancelled, thank you very much. In hindsight we should have returned the faulty computer and stood our ground on getting our data off it first, without paying.
Since then said laptop have continued to crash to the point where we now can’t even re-install or do a system restore. Fixing it will cost money and as the screen has fallen apart (yes, I know utter crap purchase) we’re not wasting any more monies on that piece of junk. I need a laptop which I can rely on, easily carry around without breaking my back, and which isn’t going to crash on me in the middle of work or meetings.
So I’ve decided to buy my first ever MacBook. Being a sucker for all things new and shiny the 13″ MacBook Air is looking rather lovely. But also rather expensive. But look at it, soo pretty!
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Now this is what happened:
Last week…
…I shared my MacBook Air crush with a friend who told me that you can buy computers cheaper if you buy them at the airport. With three trips planned in the next 1 1/2 month I got quite excited and went online and found the Dixon travel site. The high spec MacBook Air I was looking for wasn’t featured on their site, but as the site said they don’t feature all products anyway I gave them a call to see if they indeed would feature the one I wanted. I suspected not but best find out for sure.
I was put through to a woman in the Dixon store at T3 and listed the MacBook Air specification I was after. She didn’t seem to pay very close attention to the details, but I thought she probably knew what I was after seeing that she worked in a store like Dixon. After having been put on hold so she could check their stock she returned and said something along the lines of:
– “Yes, we have it at the moment but I can’t guarantee that we’ll have it on the date that you travel, so you have to call back 7 days before your travel date and pre-order it to be sure”.
– “Not a problem”, I said and then I thought best to double check that she did get that specification right so I asked her if they definitely had the 13″, 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB SDRAM, 256GB Flash storage MacBook Air, to which she said:
– “Yes”, and then repeated more or less the same thing about calling back next week.
I also asked what the price was and she said £1,242. That’s quite a lot under the £1,541.99 price that buying it straight from the Apple store would have cost me. I checked a third time that the price was indeed for the spec that I’d specified and she confirmed that it was.
My eyes were glowing with excitement at this point and I’m pretty sure I was jumping up and down a bit as well. Not only do they actually stock it, but it’s also significantly cheaper. Hooray!
Today…
…was the day that I was supposed to call them back to pre-order my lovely 13″ MacBook Air. As I do, I’ve been looking forward to it for a week. All excited but still a little worried they may not have it I picked up the phone and called them. “Hello Dixons terminal 3″….
To cut a long story short it turns out that no, they don’t stock the high spec MacBook Air that I was after. And, no she’s not sure why they said last week that they do, but “Would I want to buy a lower spec instead?”, she asked. Noooooooooo! I effing don’t! It’s not the same, is it?!
Shame on you Dixon for getting my hopes up by telling me something last week which isn’t true. And for getting my hopes up. I made sure to triple check and I trusted you. You’ve ruined my plans. And my afternoon. It may not matter to you but it matters to me and I was a prospective new customer who would have raved about you, had you just delivered.
Experience and details matters
Dixon, this is what you say on your website:
Our full product ranges are not displayed on this site currently but if you are looking for something specific our stores will be happy to take your call.
At least make sure that you have properly trained people on the other end of the line who understands that “specific” means just that. It’s a particular product specification, not just random numbers. They mean something and they matter. Oh, and make sure they don’t over promise and actually take their time to ensure to check the details before confirming to a prospective customer that yes, you do stock it.
Details matters. And experience matters. Not just in website, app and software design, but in every type of experience that a user has, off or online. And that, not so dear Dixon, includes customer service.
