Panasonic Solves Gadget Problem Sent Through Generic Email Address!
Emailing a company about a product problem via their front-facing email address usually has about as much effect as wishing your way out of debt (just don't tell the producers of The Secret). But Steve emailed Panasonic and instead of getting nothing or a generic response back, he actually ended up sending a series of emails back and forth with a product engineer who solved his consumer conundrum. Amazing! Here's his story.
Steve writes:
So I received a Panasonic TH1211B Link To Cell For Christmas from my mother. It allows you to pair cell phones to home phone and vice versa. I couldn't get the base to pair with either of the 2 iPhones I own. I searched the forums, all over the net, and couldn't find much help, figured it boiled down to a bluetooth issue with the iPhone. Not one to give up, I searched around Panasonics website, and emailed the generic customer service, figuring I would never hear back from them and my request for help would end up in the abyss of auto reply never-ending emails, etc.A week later, Kevin Crowley, a Product Engineer emailed me back, and we exchanged about 5 emails back and forth troubleshooting the issue. He upgraded and tested with their in house iPhone and swore it worked, he even offered to let me call him to work through the issues. I explained more of my issues and he ended up resolving the problem over email and my link to cell stuff works great.
I haven't dealt with anyone in recent memory over email or phone from such a huge company, that actually helped me, and actually took the time to understand my problem. Maybe the fact that he is a product engineer and not customer service is the reason? Who knows, but I am grateful to Kevin at Panasonic, without him, my Christmas present would be in a box in the basement.
Cheers to you, Kevin Crowley, and the Panasonic front-line email readers who forwarded the message to him. You are customer service winners.
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Comments:
A week late but job well done.
One engineer from Top Global made direct contact with me after my router looped after a firmware update.
I dumped the routers log to him and explained the details up to the looping event. 4 hours later he fires a URL back with a updated firmware that fixed the issue. That same update was posted that same day on the support page of the site.
Believe it or not, I get most of my problems solved this way... examples include Verizon Fios, American Home Shield, and MPC (Gateway laptop repair).
I had a really great response from Vizio TVs recently. It wasn't even troubleshooting, it was just my complaining about the variety and shortcomings of their remote controls. They got two people involved and had everything answered and addressed the same day. Very impressive, especially considering I'm not even a customer (yet). Just a quick plug.
I wish Panasonic was that forthcoming when we needed help last year. We ended up selling the defective item on eBay and buying a different brand altogether.
I got a really great response from Samsung not too long ago. And it wasn't really a troubleshooting issue, it was more of a question like; "I thought the monitor would do this, am I wrong?" I talked to one person for about an hour, she said she would get back to me with a response, and within a day or two, she called, told me it was a software issue, emailed me a copy and snail mailed me a new CD, and it fixed the issue.
That was really great...
I came for the Hello Kitty picture but stayed for the heartwarming story of customer service gone right.
I'm pretty sure the producers of the Secret already know that. Just don't tell the buyers of it.
I have an email out right now to GE on their cheap water filters. Lets see if price = service.
@Addicted To Chocohol: I'm a product engineer, and I take the time to help customers. Although, my company only has about four major customers...
That's because Engineers rock!!! I'm an EE.
That's not the first time I've heard Panasonic be a winner for users otherwise abandoned.
For those who still use DOS (yes, there are many) the plethora of USB devices left people out in the cold...until Panasonic built a generic USB device driver for DOS, that is.
Panasonic did not release it to the world, but they don't seem to have made any effort to stop people from distributing it. It may not allow "plug and play", but devices are recognized after a reboot, including Flash RAM sticks, hard drives and DVD/CD drives.
@Addicted To Chocohol: They make rice cookers!! That's awesome, do they come with blu-ray players and a little monitor to entertain yourself? If not, they most certainly should.
I've had the same Panasonic electric razor for about a decade and continued to buy a few of their other products (TV, camera) without any fail. I never fail to be impressed with the quality and longevity of their products.
I had a weird question a while back about Kingston memory card and after the normal support wasn't very helpful I was put on with a product engineer who not only told me the normal support person was incorrect but also helped me work through my problem and got me the answer I needed. This sort of thing isn't unheard of but most companies don't seem to care enough about the customer.
It's so nice to see stories like this - reaffirms my faith in humanity. Thanks for sharing, Steve!
I've found that 9 times out of 10 if you can get past front line support, the specialized techs have a lot better idea what they're doing.
@P_Smith: That's sweet, But I didn't know people still used DOS. Also, what reason is there to use it, I guess there is one if it is still used.
@MightyDwarf56: Here are a few...
How about accounting packages, point-of-sale and other systems developed in DOS that would cost too much to port to Windows but can be cheaply maintained in DOS? Or for which Windows versions don't exist to purchase?
How about blind people using Kurzweil text readers and the Lynx web browser? I know two such people myself; it's easier for them to stick with hardware and software they know rather than learning new ones. Such people are also at a big disadvantage because many chip makers refuse to make DOS sound drivers, something the blind depend on. What are these companies thinking, that the blind are being Luddites and/or too cheap to buy a pair of eyes? 9_9
How about people who have a DOS partition on their computer (i.e. me) which is reliable and can be used to resurrect and/or recover the NTFS partition which isn't reliable? (Name one version of DOS that has ever killed a hard drive.) It's a simple matter of recopying the _ntdetect.com_ and _ntldr_ files onto C: and repartitioning or reading the logical parition with an NTFS reader.
It's also much easier to deal with DOS in dedicated applications such as industrial applications where reliability counts (something Windows can't promise) or in robotics where a GUI isn't needed.
There are two recent DOS versions that may no longer be updated (IBM's DOS 7.0 and DR-DOS 7) but two still in active development: FreeDOS and PTS-DOS.
Whoa, Product Engineer took the time to help out a customer?
Good on ya, Panasonic. Now how about fixing my rice cooker?