Customer Service is Not Dead

[This is the second post in a series that I'm doing just to get some old stuff that I wrote up onto my blog. This was originally posted 25 October, 2001, and I still think happy thoughts when someone mentions Griffin.]

Although I've thought for years that customer service in the technology industry was dead, I recently discovered that it's alive and well and spending its afternoons over at Griffin Technology

I've had an iMate USB to ADB converter for almost 2 years now. I use it at work with my Maltron keyboard (which doesn't have a USB model). Not only do I use it with my desktop, but I take this keyboard (and the adaptor) with me on the road with me from 5 to 15 weeks a year, so they get abused regularly.

The other day, in the process of trying to reseat a loose wire in the iMate, I ripped two of the four wires right off the solder pads in the dongle. At first try to fix, I soldered the wires on backwards, so I decided to see if I could get a hold of someone at Griffin before I completely cooked the thing.

I went to their website. I found a phone number to call in less than 30 seconds.

I called the phone number. A human being answered on the third ring.

A human being answered the phone. On the third ring.

He introduced himself as Vance. I explained my dilemma and that I was trying to solder the iMate back together. Without flinching or chastising me about warranty violations, he asked me to hold for a second while he went to find another iMate. Less than a minute later he came back on the line. He cracked his iMate open and told me which wires went where. And then... and then, he told me that if I couldn't fix it to give them a ring and they would send me a new one.

*boggle*

Mind you, the one I have is almost 2 years old and I'm attacking it (rather ineptly) with a soldering iron. And he offered to replace it. Free.

In this day where you wind up in voicemail jail for 20 minutes just to get to some half-wit who can't even remember what products his company sells, this was, needless to say, immensely refreshing.

I told Vance that if I couldn't get it to work I would buy two of them from Griffin.

I did get it to work. I also bought a new iMate, just in case.