Would You Like Fries With That?

There’s a well known Latin phrase that customers always are warned about: “Caveat Emptor” (translated to buyer beware). That phrase is now coming into clear view in regards to our new printer/scanner. I don’t want to throw the vendor under the bus, so let’s say the printer was made by a company who’s name rhymes with “Dewlett Rackard”.

A few weeks ago, we decided to look into getting a scanner. That led us to then consider getting an all in one printer/scanner. A trip to Best Buy and a chat with one of the “experts” there resulted in purchasing an all in one Photosmart unit. We got it home, hooked it up, and proceeded to have the ink cartridges not function. So we placed a call to customer service who kindly sent us replacement cartridges at no cost. Got those installed, and the printer seemed to work OK scanning and printing documents.

Fast forward to last week and our attempts to print some pictures to take to the guys day care for their classes. Rebecca goes up to print the pictures, but the photo software can’t find them. She gets onto a web chat with the customer service rep who is overseas (3 guesses which country he’s in). They try to trouble shoot but can’t fix it and Rebecca is told that she has to call the customer service line.

Yesterday I worked from home so I decided to call them up. Luckily, we have speakerphone now installed in our office, which my neck is already thanking me many times over for its use. I call up customer service and the guy (referred to as Thing 1 now) wants to take control of my computer to try to fix the problem. While hesitant to give Thing 1, who is thousands of miles away control, I agree to do so and he starts by uninstalling and reinstalling the same software package Rebecca uninstalled and reinstalled 2 times before. I get Rebecca on my cell phone so we have a pseudo conference call going. Thing 1 tries to show how smart he is by enlightening me on the use of the right click feature of my mouse. Wow. Then Thing 1 grabs his script because I am informed of a special deal the company is running on notebooks and he can get me all set up for only $799. Um, not interested, but thanks. Reminds me this offer is only good today. Still. Not. Interested. Finish up the call, I think the printer is fixed.

About 2 hours later I realize I STILL can’t access the photos that are clearly visible in our My Pictures folder. So it’s time for another call and computer takeover help session with Thing 2. Thing 2 does actually get the software package to recognize all the pictures, but confirms it’s a manual process to add a folder each time you create one (like any normal person would do when organizing pictures). Still can’t get the printer to recognize the flash drive when it’s plugged directly into the printer. Decide to see if it’s an issue with the flash drive (Rebecca bought some new ones yesterday) and get an ID # when I’m ready to call back. But wait! Thing 2 wants to make sure I’m aware that there is a special running on extended warranties and asks if I would want to get hooked up there. It never ends with those guys in customer service! I’m wondering what the commission rate is if they sucker someone into a deal?

So to recap:
1. Printer is scanning and now printing pictures, though not with the same quality as before.
2. New picture folder = Manual adjustment of software
3. Flash Drive retest to occur in next 48 hours
4. Cahill’s will NEVER purchase another product from this manufacturer.
5. No means no. If I say I’m not interested in your deal du jor, I’M NOT INTERESTED!
6. Reading from a script should be left to actors and actresses.