The Padded Blog

The echos of WAR stain my mind.
The innocents that will die.
The murderers that won’t cry.
The souls that will never return.

The echos of WAR stain my mind.

The old saying comes to mind:
FOLLOW THE LEADER OR QUESTION WHY?

You wake up expecting her to be there

You smell the sent of her hair

You taste her red lips

See the shades of her immortal eyes

Even though she was never there

…and now I can’t play it.

Customer service in Singapore continues to surprise me by it’s lack of inability to think out of the box or off-script.

I received my Xbox 360 as a Christmas gift in 2009 - they’re was a small issue with the controller disconnecting every now and then, but it never caused too much of a problem. Recently, that problem started to get a lot worse - so I called in support to see what they could do - only to be told flatly that it wouldn’t be covered under warranty since “accessories” are only covered for 90 days from purchase.

That’s ok - it’s clearly my fault in this situation and I should have known better, despite the fact that it highlights a clear issue with the quality of first-party accessories from Microsoft - a company I’ve usually had great experiences with.

Anyways, the response from the customer service rep was that a buy a new controller - which cost a mind boggling $70 + dollars mind you, to fix a problem that I didn’t create. And who’s to say that this controller won’t give me issues after 90 days? Alas, “buy a new one” should never be the first response a customer service rep gives to their customers - there are always other options, even if your hands are tied.

In this context the rep could have suggested that I try borrowing the battery cover from my friends to see if that was indeed the problem with my controller - and if that worked, I could look into options like purchasing a cheaper rechargeable battery pack or play and charge kit - yes, I might still go out and get a brand new controller, but at least this gives me the impression that you might actually care about me as a customer.

But this whole experience has all but left a bitter taste in my mouth, and I will certainly be thinking twice before I purchase new products from Microsoft, which is unfortunate because I’ve generally been pretty supportive of them.

The fact remains that, at some point or another - I am going to have to deal with customer service for one reason or another and I’d rather be dealing with someone that can think out of the box and off script - even if it’s just for a moment or two.