I’m an owner of an Epson 800 Artisan Printer and it has an ADF on it, it failed and I called for support; this is my story… You can take from the introduction, that I’m not a proud owner of an Epson printer.

When customers contact the manufacturers of their devices for warranty support there are certain concepts that people have in mind about the word “warranty”. when individuals think about the word warranty, you don’t envision large expenditures with getting the item replaced repaired, because it’s under “warranty”.

Here’s my story…

21, December in 2008, I purchased an Epson Artisan 800 printer. I kept the receipt, I registered the product, I completed my rebate information and I installed all the software that came with the printer; everything that I should’ve done. And luckily, I kept all my information and I was able to find my purchase receipt for the item.

THURSDAY

I contacted Epson support on December 10, 2009 [Thursday] and I spoke to ‘Michelle Ann C’; she was a support representative from Epson, and initial call to Epson support was surprisingly painless. She was able to find my information, show that the unit was still under warranty and that the printer would be replaced under warranty [no problem].

The interesting part of this process was that Michelle asked for my credit card number, she indicated that the credit card number would only be used if the printer wasn’t returned. It seemed a bit odd to me that they had all my contact information,  and yet they thought I was contacting support just to get a new free printer.

As Michelle indicated, my credit card would not be utilized, unless the printer was not returned within 5 to 7 business days. And then she proceeded to tell me that the printer would arrive at my location 7 to 10 days, and then I would have that fore mentioned timeframe to return the printer.

But here’s the problem, I was going on vacation on the 17th [the next Thursday] and that I wouldn’t be able to be there to receive the printer in 7 to 10 days, and that if the printer was shipped to me it would not be able to return the printer and 5 to 7 business days because I would still be on vacation and out of the state until the end of the month.

I explain all this information to Michelle, she checked with her manager, and then she approved shipping of the printer, two day priority; this means the printer should have been on my doorstep by Monday afternoon- plenty of time to get the printers swapped out and shipped.

Epson support verified all my contact information; phone number, e-mail and mailing address. When I asked Michelle if she was going to e-mail me information pertaining to the warranty of my printer, she said NO. I asked if I would receive some sort of confirmation e-mail from Epson in regards to our conversation; she said no.

Being extremely curious, why someone would verify my contact information and then not utilize it just sparked my interest.

I made the suggestion to show that, if you’re going to verify someone’s contact information, and you’re going to collect information from them on how to contact them, perhaps you should use the information to keep in contact with that person so that there’s confirmation that the customers request is being handled… at this point Michelle agreed to send me a simple e-mail with my callback number and RMA information.

Dear Larry,
Thank you for contacting Epson regarding your Epson Artisan 800.
Reference Number: 091210-000184
Return Authorization #: 07-######
Should you require further assistance with this issue, please reply without history (when possible), as our email system contains all previous correspondence. If you have a different technical support issue, please submit another email request via our website (http://www.epson.com/support), and we will respond in a timely manner.
Thank you again for contacting Epson.
Michelle Ann C

Question Reference #091210-000184

Product Level 1:
All-In-One

Product Level 2:
Epson Artisan 800

Category Level 1:
PC

Category Level 2:
Windows Vista

Date Created:
12/10/2009 06:43 AM

Last Updated:
12/10/2009 06:43 AM

Status:
Resolved

We both agreed on a course of action and that ended my first phone call.

MONDAY

I received a phone call on Monday afternoon from Epson support.

The individual that was speaking to me sounded like she just graduated top of her Ebonics class [in the top 5%] and also had completed customer support training 101 that day. She proceeded to tell me that the printer was covered under warranty, and not been shipped to my location because my credit card was denied. blah blah blah – what?!

I explained to her that the credit card was not to be used unless the printer does not return there for funds from the credit card was not required; I was told the use of a credit card was simply a formality. The more I try to explain the situation to this individual, the more redundant she became. I would ask a question and she would simply read something from her sheet. I would try to explain the situation, and she would simply tell me to call customer support- who was she then? I ended my call with queen of the idiots…

I immediately called back to the Epson customer support line, waited a few minutes and referenced my call number to the next customer support representative.

The gentleman that I was speaking to was able to understand exactly what was going on, told me not to worry about the ‘queen of Ebonics’, and that my printer had been shipped out already; it was en route- it was going to have the printer that day, or on Tuesday.

The call ended, the printer didn’t arrive Monday- I would wait for Tuesday…

TUESDAY [evening]

The replacement printer still had not arrived at my home; Tuesday afternoon I contacted Epson support.

After a few minutes of being on hold, I was connected to “Melvin”… this guy was the idiots of the world. I called in with my called tag number, explain to him what was going on, and that I hadn’t received my replacement printer yet; he proceeds to try to troubleshoot my defective printer?! WTF.

This idiot is trying to troubleshoot my defective printer, while I’m explaining to him that my replacement printer had not showed up on time. He’s completely lost, and asking questions that make him look like a complete moron.

After entertaining Melvin for another 2 seconds, I told him I needed to speak with his manager. I was placed on hold…

When the phone picked up again, it was Melvin, he was trying to explain to me that Epson had not followed through with the warranty on the printer because there is a ‘problem’; he didn’t know what the problem was, or why the printer had not shipped. I explained to Melvin, ‘…I understand there’s a problem, that’s why I called you, and now you do not understand what I am saying to you – get me your manager’. I was placed on hold…

When the phone picked up again, 20 minutes later, it was Melvin again; just as dumb as ever.

He was explaining to me that there was a problem with my credit card and that printer could not get shipped… blah blah blah – I told him that I didn’t think he had been promoted while I was on hold- I asked for his manager again. I continued by explaining to Melvin that he wasn’t very smart, and this would be the third time I’m asking for his manager.

I asked for his full name, and then I asked for his manager’s name [because I was about to call back and ask the person directly by name]. Right about that time, the manager, Lisa, interjected into the conversation- she apparently had been listening in on the line secretly.

After getting on the phone with her, I explained the situation, she understood the issue. At this point, I understood the printer had not shipped. Lisa understood. but there’s no way the warranty could be processed because of the time constraints. I was simply trying to get the printer cover under warranty, recorded, and then processed later after all the holiday vacations/season. I wasn’t going to be back until 28 December, and she wasn’t going to be back until January 4th, 2010. She said she would handle the issue after she returned from vacation; this was perfectly acceptable to me.

So, in a matter of 15-20 minutes of intelligent conversation, between two professional people, I was able to explain my problem, have it understood and then an intelligent resolution provided.

WEDNESDAY [January 6th]

It’s 2010, a new year- January 6th, I received my new printer and shipped back the old and everything thus far is fine. Epson shipped me a new printer, I placed my defective printer into the same box and then return the defective printer to Epson per the instructions they provided.

Curiously enough, I emailed Lisa and thanked her for her service and I appreciated her attitude during the process. My experience was not a great one, but it had a good result ultimately.

Customer (LARRY HENRY)
01/07/2010 11:28 AM

This should go to the attention of LISA [ support manager ].

Lisa,
I wanted to contact you and let you know the printer you sent has been
received in good condition. It’s been installed and is functioning as it
should; everything seems fine at this point. The defective unit has been
packaged and provided to FEDEX has per the instructions.

As soon as I’ve the tracking number I’ll provide it to you.
I’m sorry that our support relationship didn’t go as smoothly as would be
expected, but I wanted to personally thank you for stepping up, and making
it right. I think everything was handled and resolved very professionally
once I reached your level.

The best to you and yours and I hope you had a nice holiday.
If you have any questions, please contact me.

Thanks,
LHenryJr.
www.lehsys.com

NEVER AGAIN

Lastly, I’ll never buy an Epson printer again. Why?

Basic stuff…

• When I bought the printer, I paid $299 [$229 on sale] and I’ve spent that much already in buying the ink cartridges for it. They don’t last very long.
• Startup printing on the Epson Artisan 800 takes longer than my laser printer to start [8 seconds]; every time I would like to use the printer, it wants to prime the heads. Using up ink.
• If you take a cartridge out before it’s empty, and put it back, you can’t use it again.
  Printer won’t let you – it’ll say put a new cartridge in…
• And the Artisan 800 is a printer that will NOT print [at all] if all the cartridges are not there- even if you’re printing BLACK.
• I had just replaced the ink cartridges in my Artisan 800, I received my new printer and it wouldn’t use the high capacity cartridges I purchased- it made me use the introductory ones to initialize the printer, so I’m going to have to go buy new cartridges [high volume again – that’s another $100].
• You can’t even use the device for scanning [from startup] if the ‘initialization process’ hasn’t completed.

CLOSING

It seems so odd to me, that something so simple, should be SO complicated by dimwitted minions. And all this complication is spawned by a complete break down in communication. If your going to do something do it. If there’s rules to a process, show them. If you’ve the opportunity to communicate with someone, do it; show you care.

Why it takes days to clear up a 15 minute conversation because the people that work for you’re the same people that think their IQ is like a golf game [lowest number wins] is beyond me.

The other issues, were the communication. Epson wanted all my contact information, but weren’t going to use it; why confirm all of it, and not use it- if nothing more than to have a record of the conversation/call. It’s a service to the customer…

The other is the credit card…

The printer is under warranty, they were going to charge me $270 for a new printer and then credit it once the defective printer was returned. And my next question is, how many other people are not going to be able to use THIS warranty because they don’t have a credit card, or a credit card with that balance, OR would be willing to BUY another printer why the replacement is being shipped to you?

I think this is a really bad warranty policy for Epson, but if you’ve to call Epson Support- I honestly hope that your support call goes much better than mine did. [laughingly] If you get a guy named MELVIN, ask for Lisa the support manager immediately.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
L. Henry Jr.
http://www.lehsys.com

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