Setting aside any legalities for the moment I have the following comments:
After many years in our business I am no longer surprised to find that in
some plants a company can be known as the supplier from hell and literally
across the street that same company walks on water and can do no wrong. Often
these perceptions are based on events of years before and are related down
successions of engineers.
So whereas I well understand the frustration of being trapped by what turns
out to be a bad deal, I personally don't think letting off steam by slagging
companies off is going to be a positive or constructive move (if you are in
adversary situation now the best you can expect is that it will be made
worse). However asking via Technet for experiences or comment in certain
areas to build a picture to help in forming a course of action or get a
perspective certainly would be a useful thing to do.......
Mike Fenner
In a message dated 05/06/99 21:00:39 GMT Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:
> n a message dated 6/5/99 5:41:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> > I would like some inputs and advice from the Tech-Net community at large.
> >
> > Consider the following:
> >
> > I recently purchased a piece of electronic manufacturing process
> equipment.
> > The cost of the item was between $10 - $30 K. I would like to inform the
> > community about the very poor service and technical support from the
> > manufacturer and sales rep. The intent of disclosing this kind of
> > information is to inform others who may be considering a similar
purchase
> to
> > be aware of these shortcomings when purchasing this item.
> >
> > This is not a "single event" occurrance, this is month after month of
not
> > responding to e-mails, faxes, and phone calls. I am frustrated beyond
> > tolerable limits.
> >
> > What then are the risks disclosing this kind of information on this
forum?
>
> > Is it important for us to share bad experiences with the hope that
> perhaps
> > corrective action from the offending party may take place if disclosure
> > results in "lost sales"? Maybe this is not the right place for this?
> >
> > Your thoughts and comments are welcomed.
> >
> > Bill Kasprzak
> > Moog Inc.
> >
>
> Hi Bill!
>
> Boy I hear ya'! I think all of us at one time or another have been totally
> frustrated with the support from equipment vendors after they've sold us
> their wares. Before the sale is made, the story always is that you'll be
> supported 24-hours a day, 7-days a week should you ever have any problems,
> which you won't because their equipment never breaks and it does whatever
> it's supposed to do better than any other equipment out there.
>
> While all are more seasoned than to buy that line, there are those vendors
> out there that truly do try as hard as they can to make sure that their
> customers are supported well and that they are happy with their purchase.
On
> the other hand, there are times that a company that has been known for it's
> outstanding customer support can get into a bind for whatever reason. They'
> ve
> had a mass exodus of Field Service Engineers so they're short handed, or
for
> some reason when the machine was originally built there was some errors
made.
>
> But if they're up front about those kinds of things to their customers, and
> let them know that they're honestly trying to correct the poor support
> situation, I think most of us are reasonable enough to understand, and will
> cut them a little slack while they're trying to correct the problems.
>
> But there's absolutely no excuse to ignore their customers, or try and
> "suger-coat" a bad situation by not being up front about their problems.
You
> lose a great deal of credibility by doing something like that, and once you
> lose credibility, it takes a long,long time to regain it.
>
> Actually, I don't think it's a bad idea to expose a company that is
> marketing
> something that doesn't work as they say it does, or doesn't support their
> customers like they promise before the sale. Just as long as it's based in
> fact, and all other avenues have been exhausted to try and get some
> satisfaction. Maybe even the threat that you may let all of your colleages
> know about the poor support that you've been receiving will be enough to
> light a fire under their butts and get them to start taking care of you the
> way they should.
>
> I don't know how Jack feels about doing something like this on the TechNet,
> but I feel that if something is being marketed to those of us in this
> industry that is really no good and a waste of good money, I would
> appreciate
> knowing about it before I fell for the same trap. Maybe just a post like: "
> If
> any of you are considering buying a "XYZ Machine", send me a email and I'll
> share with you privately the experiences I've had with it and the support
> I've recieved." That way you won't be out and out flaming them publically,
> but you'll still be able to get the point across to other people that maybe
> thinking about buying the same thing.
>
> Companies can spend a lot of money on "glitzy" marketing and advertising,
> but
> the most effective advertising out there is word of mouth...and sometimes
> they forget that. With the advent of the INTERNET, word of mouth goes a lot
> farther and reaches a lot more people than it has in the past...
>
> -Steve Gregory
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