Mind of Murph
I am a big fan of Intuit’s QuickBooks Point-of-sale, but unfortunately I have had more than my fair share of hardware issues with ‘their’ proprietary devices. These problems have ranged (for years) from the wrong or no “device drivers” on the QBPOS CD (as directed in the hardware set-up interview), to bluetooth barcode scanners that don’t hold a charge for 5 minutes, to broken or damaged cash drawers.
Well as the case would have it, I have been in Eastern Colorado this week working on a multi-station QBPOS installation and when unpacking at one location the Cash Drawer looked like it had been ‘beaten to death by a sledge hammer in a street fight’. Upon opening the box there was no way it was going to work, so sure enough I picked up the phone and called for hardware replacement.
After a 20-minute wait to get a Representative, “Hello, can you hear me…..hello, can you understand me….hello, are you there…..”. You then spend the next 15 minutes trying to explain for 15 times that ‘the cash drawer is broken, the cash drawer is damaged, the cash drawer doesn’t work’…..and you can tell that the level of understanding is still “doesn’t have a clue”.
Now you get to start reading off every number that appears on your ‘order confirmation’ and the ’shipping documents’; you would think if you give them the order number they could look up the parts THEY SENT OUT in the first place…………………NO WAYYYYYYYYYYY! You have to give them all six Serial Numbers on the box, the shipping label and the cash drawer itself………..now spend the next 12 minutes repeating them, only to be asked to confirm your order numbers again……….can you say frustration at this point (well actually about 20 minutes ago).
Then THEY keep telling you they can’t find your order, or the serial numbers don’t match…..OK, enough is enough, “I want to speak to your supervisor……….NOW!” So after 3 minutes of ‘ho, hum’, you are put on hold and 5 minutes goes by before you get a supervisor and have to start explaining all over again, reading numbers and dates, and telling them how lousy this ‘customer care’ is. Finally you get told, we will send you a replacement ‘right away’, followed by “I am connecting you back to my Representative to get your information”.
It’s the same one as earlier, and you would think he doesn’t understand what you have just been told by his supervisor, so it’s as if he starts from the beginning, but at least it takes only 5 minutes to go through the ‘same old stuff’. Sure enough, you get to the point where they tell you they are going to send you the replacement cash drawer via overnight, but all they need is YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER……..”WHAT?????????”
This is supposed to be a warranty replacement, why do you need my credit card….it’s your cash drawer that is damaged…..I want a new one and I want it “TODAY”……the battle continues back and forth, but in the end, if you want your cash drawer replacement, they are going to get your credit card, or you are not getting one…..just in case you don’t put the ‘piece of broken/damaged junk’ in the box and return it with the shipper pick-up order.
I ask you………..is this customer service? I ask Intuit……….is this customer service? What do you want to bet……..I won’t have a ‘cash drawer’ by tomorrow?
I will……….let you know…. Oh yea, “good thing I still have Mr. Underhill’s American Express number from those ‘Fletch’ movies.”