Leslie,
As you may have heard, Great American Scooter Co. was able to get my wheelchair running on Friday. The service call lasted five hours because we ran into several minor difficulties, and they will be back sometime next week to finalize the job. I understand that you do have other customers needing your attention, and I appreciate that it must be extremely tempting to consider my incident closed. However, I think you will agree that I’m not a typical Invacare user. In fact, the support model used by most large companies does not work well with me at all. Basically, I live and die by the technology I use, and I usually know the technology better than the first line support people I’m expected to talk to. In my case, it works better to have a fixed contact person who can develop a rapport with me and build a dynamic understanding of my needs as they relate to the company.
By way of illustrating the point, let me introduce Bernadete Padua-Mateo of Dell. While you surely understand how I depend on my wheelchair, I’m far more dependent on my Dell laptops because they are responsible for all of my various form of communication. I currently have four laptops, three of which are considered to be on active duty. Those three have all of at least the essential software I require, and are under Next Business Day service contracts. I paid a bit more for those service contracts, but they theoretically entitle me to on-site repair the next business day. Notice, however, that I said “theoretically.” Dell’s technical support system, like that of most consumer product companies, almost necessarily assumes the user is little more than a talking dummy. The call-takers, previously in Panama or New Deli, could never understand that I already diagnosed the problem and only needed specific parts dispatched. As a result, getting service could take two weeks or more. Only after a lot of rather public complaining, did upper Dell management recognize that I needed a fixed contact who knows me. Dedet, as she’s called, is the latest in the line. She calls herself my droid, but I correct her by saying she’s my guardian angel. Having Dedet assures that a contract tech really shows up with the needed parts NBD. I also use her on any Dell-related questions or when it’s time to replace a retiring machine. Although I believe Dedet is a little higher up in the food chain than normal Customer Service, I think you can see how assigned us together also is to Dell’s benefit. I hope Invacare doesn’t wait until it learns the hard way.
We used both the Mk6i PSR joystick and controller that were sent Thursday. Please don’t forget to get those Invacare prices for me.
Scott