Patience Persistence Politeness (Part I)

I am (almost) finished with two experiences that were unnecessarily unpleasant and time consuming. I have been examining my performance and the results I obtained, hoping that I can come up with some lessons learned that I could share with others who find themselves entangled in similar quagmires. Both of these adventures started in early July, but weren’t resolved until late September.

Because our neighborhood seems to experience more than its share of power outages, three years ago, I bought a generator. Now, I will have power when the power goes out. I bought a big one that runs off our natural gas line. Power, or no power, I wanted to be able to run the air conditioner during our hot South Carolina summers.

One night in early July, we suffered three power losses in less than one hour. Twice my generator cycled on and off as it should. The last time it didn’t. During an extended phone call to the individual who installed and maintained the generator, we determined that the problem was the transfer switch. We also discovered a temporary manual solution that gave me power until the technician could come out the next morning.

After a thorough investigation, the electrician determined that the coil, an electromagnet that threw the transfer switch back to line power when power was restored, burned out and needed a replacement part.

A replacement part was ordered.

After a week passed, I checked in with the contractor. He told me four to six weeks.

After almost six weeks passed, I called again. This individual said he would check into it. A few minutes later he sent me a text message. I am not certain what was said in that phone call, but the man who installed and maintained my generator told me to find someone else to repair my generator. He was through dealing with that particular manufacturer. He suggested another company that might do the work. I checked out that recommendation with someone of my age who used to be in the business. My friend said he knew about that company, giving me a go ahead to work with what we will call Company II.

Company II sent out a junior technician who consulted over the phone with a senior technician, troubleshooting the problem just like I did with the individual who sold me the generator. He reached the same conclusion, a burned-out coil. He went back to his shop to order the part. About a week passed. I called the parts expediter. She told me four to six weeks. This is not what I wanted to hear. I was also given the choice of ordering a part for a total cost, including installation, of a bit under $2,000, or replacing the entire unit for a little over $2,000. I chose replacing the entire box and everything in it. Although I wasn’t happy with the price, at this point I just wanted my problem to disappear.

I came up with the bright idea of calling the manufacturer’s customer service line. In my nine years’ experience in American factories, I was familiar with calls from customers looking for some kind of odd ball part. Often, we could find one in a warehouse, somewhere in the supply chain, or on the shelf of another dealer. The conversation with this office lasted for 45 minutes. First the representative collected a great deal of information, consulted with the “team,” then collected some more information, and had another consultation with the team, before telling me they couldn’t do anything to help me. This exercise in futility ended with a conversation with a rude supervisor, who basically told me to go pound sand. I hung up the phone on him. This is something I have only done on two occasions that I can remember. Usually, I am not that rude.

At the time, I was juggling a number of problems. I was not a happy camper, so I wrote what might best be described as a controlled outburst of seething anger that I mailed to the president of the firm that manufactured the generator and the transfer switch. After a week, or so, passed, I received a phone call from an anxious engineer in their technical support office who wanted to know every detail of my problem and my experience with customer service. He told me Company II was in their system and that my problem would be fixed. After another week, or two, passed. I received a second call from the engineer. Company II was not in their system and so was not authorized to fix the problem. He told me I would hear from Company III who was an authorized dealer. Actually, a few minutes before receiving this phone call, I had already talked with Company III. They bragged that they had seven switches on the shelf, but were unwilling to ship one over to Company II. I was also informed that Company II could not perform the repair if it turned out to be a warranty repair.

I called Company II, asking to cancel the order. Gracefully, they confessed they were not authorized to perform warranty repairs. During week five of the second 4 to 6-week window for delivery, my order was successfully canceled.

After a few days of rain delay, a senior technician and his apprentice arrived at my house with an entire transfer switch. They planned on taking the parts they needed out of this unit and replacing them at some later time. At this point, I should note that a transfer switch is a big steel box about 2.5 feet in length, 2 feet in width, and about six inches deep filled with electrical gizmos, wires, and circuit boards. For the third time the coil was diagnosed as the problem. When it was replaced, the switch still did not perform as it should. It turned out the circuit board that controlled the coils was the culprit. It was replaced.

Now all is well. The final repair was covered by my warranty. I would say it didn’t cost anything, but that wouldn’t be true. I had to pay the contractor who sold me the unit and Company II to incorrectly diagnose the problem, but I am happy with the outcome.

Sometimes dealing with contractors and customer service representatives turns into an extended wrestling match. When the system breaks down, the victim needs to be persistent, patient, and maybe polite, at least most of the time.