You can get angry and upset without leaving the comfort of your own armchair these days. And listen to a lot of tinkly music while you’re doing it.
At the end of August, I took delivery of a new PC. An Acer X3950, to be precise. A terabyte of hard drive and Windows 7. A nice compact, quiet machine that did what it was told. Before the Acer, I usually had my computers custom-built, since I work the shit out of them, and I know what I want. This time I thought, “No, I’ll get one that has all the guarantees and suchlike in place.” I bought it from a big electronics chain in the UK called Comet.
Oh dear.
Last weekend the computer wouldn’t start. It hung on the welcome screen. I started it in safe mode and discovered that it worked. I disabled the graphics card driver and it started up. That meant I could do backups and then restore it to factory settings.
So it was ready to go back. The computer was barely six weeks old, so I knew I wanted a refund or a replacement unit. Why should I have it repaired? Under UK law, if the item is “not fit for the purpose” or “not of merchantable quality,” I’m entitled to my money back. I thought I was generous considering a replacement.
How naïve of me!
I called Comet. They said I had to call Acer. I explained that my contract was with Comet, not with Acer, and I wanted my money back. They explained that they needed my claim verified. I said okay, where’s the harm (like I said, naïve) and called Acer. All they were prepared to offer me was a repair. I rejected the repair, because again under law, if I accepted it, I’d accepted the unit, it would be considered used, and I couldn’t ask for a full refund. But they wouldn’t offer me anything else. Sod it, I said, (actually I said more than that, but only in private) and called Comet again.
Getting the idea?
But I got lucky at Comet, I guess. I found a nice lady called Amie, who, bless her, knew a bit more what she was talking about. She sent me back to Acer for what is called an RMA number, which Acer, naturally, refused to give me, and then I went back to Amie. Acer said to her that they thought it might be a software problem and they’d charge me for repairing that, so she sent me to the diagnostics department at Comet, who took me through a few procedures, and then were quite happy to sign off on it being a hardware problem and sent me back to Amie. Thank you, Amie, and your compatriots, for sticking with me through this.
That made me think Comet might have had problems with Acer before. Or was I just getting suspicious?
They wanted to browbeat me into accepting a repair. If I sent this thing off to Acer, they will repair it and then send it back, whatever I say, however I protest. One of the guys at Acer had me in tears, because whatever I said, he repeated his script. I asked him to put me on to somebody who knew what they were talking about. He repeated his line about only accepting it for repair.
The hassle? Makes me more determined. So maybe Acer were a little naïve. Or trying it on.
Oh and guess what. No email from any of these companies any more, so I can’t confirm anything in writing unless I write a good ol’ fashioned letter. Which I’ve done.
So the end of the saga? I took the unit back to my local store. They checked it over, confirmed the fault and gave me a refund. Great going. I’ll go there again.
What has this to do with publishing and books? It’s an example of an increasingly common mindset – bullying. We have an anti-bullying campaign going right now, and I think it’s extremely important to deal with the problem at its root, in the schools, because it leads to this kind of behavior. Just because you are bigger than me, it doesn’t give you any right to run rough-shod over my back.
Publishers totally do that. Not all, but sometimes they will do something just because they can. Not because it’s right. Now, I know the publishing industry fairly well. I know the conventions, how to do things, and what they are looking for. Sadly, I recently split with my agent, but I don’t want to rejoin the fray all on my own, so I’m looking for another. I want someone who knows more than I do, and is up for the fight, if a publisher arbitrarily decides that it wants to do something I don’t want it to do. I write, that’s my main focus, and I’m up for anything that frees me up to do that. And having someone more powerful than I am on my side.
So yes, Dorchester. The management at Dorchester is selling books they have no right to. Now in the past, a company could sell unsold copies of stock after a contract came to a close, but not print anymore. Dorchester is selling digital copies, so that doesn’t apply. Despite several authors sending takedowns, as of this post, the books are still there. The authors won’t see a penny of the money.
Do you see the connection? Some companies assume that because they can do something, then that’s okay. It’s up to the customer to know her rights. It’s up to the author/reader/customer, too. And once you stand up for your rights, you’re sometimes seen as a liability, an awkward customer. I came off the phone a time or two in tears the other day, but I got rid of them and came back, because once someone has driven you to extreme emotion, they’ve won. You’ll start to make unjustified, wild comments, or use emotion where it’s not appropriate. Lose it, in other words. They’ve got you.
Reasoned professionalism tends to get results. It doesn’t always do so, but it has a better chance than hysterics. Although, I wonder sometimes.
And at the end of this piece, I should also give an example of good service. A couple of years ago, I bought a netbook from Sainsbury’s (a big supermarket in the UK). After six months, the power button failed and there were a few other things wrong with it. I’m not a hard user, not a button-puncher. I took it back, expecting them to offer me a repair under the guarantee. After all, six months is a bit of a while to have free use of something. Nope. There and then, they gave me a full refund.
Fantastic. The result? I’d never hesitate to go back to Sainsbury’s and they’re one of the stores I go to first. Isn’t that worth something?
