Kodak Customer Service !!!!!

[brooks short]

Last week I bought a Kodak Pro 14N from Calumet Photographic. Since

Thursday of last week, my ProBack Plus was enjoying a little

vacation at Kodak in Rochester. It had a blown pixel (pure white) so

the fix is to remap that pixel. These things happen and my warrantee

was expired. The Proback was on extended leave for 5-7 business days.

 

Anyway I had several jobs scheduled for this week and the clients

wanted digital, as most of them do nowadays, and my Proback was out

of town.

 

So I bought the 14N, which I've been looking at for awhile now and

which will allow me to use wide-angle lenses, unlike the ProBack,

but I digress.

 

So the 14 N arrives last Friday morning. First step is to charge the

battery. But the charger wasn't working properly and wouldn't switch

from a red to a blinking green light which indicates proper charging.

 

The warranty card for the 14N was still waiting to be picked up by

the mailman when I called Kodak to ask about the battery charger. I

explained my situation and the service guy at Kodak agreed that it

seemed that the charger was bad but it could also be the battery or

the cables etc.

 

So the tech at Kodak said that he would send me a new charger, new

battery and cables. But I needed them delivered on Saturday because

I had a job Monday at 8 am. The tech talked to his supervisor and

agreed to send the Airborne overnight for delivery on Saturday

morning for no charge.

 

Well, the battery charger, battery, cables etc. arrived at the

studio on Saturday at 10:30 as promised. Good customer service right

there. The new charger worked fine and I shot the job this morning.

 

But the story doesn't end there.....

 

After my job this morning I called Kodak to thank them for the

overnight shipping and to get return shipping information to send

the bad charger, cables and the extra battery that they had

overnighted to me, back to Kodak.

 

I thought that I could use a second battery (should have bought an

extra in the first place) so I asked the tech at Kodak if I could

give him a credit card # and buy the second battery rather than

return it. He told me that they weren't setup to receive payment for

products at the service center where he was. And so I wouldn't be

able to buy it from him.

 

And then he said......Why don't you just keep that second battery

($99 retail) for no charge to make up for the aggravation of

initially receiving a bad battery charger. Whaaaaaaaa ? Is that

sweet or what ?

 

So I just had to tell this story. Real, professional customer

service DOES exist in this world today.

 

Thanks to Kodak and the employees at the Service Center in

Rochester, NY !

[Palouse]

I've had experiences like this from companies such as REI in Seattle, ATT Wireless, VW, and Zeos computer (long extinct). I've always wondered if it was the company or the person. For example, I have always had great service over the phone with Alaska Airlines, every time except one (two days ago, when the guy wouldn't get off of first base for me--so perhaps it is people who have a genuine concern for their fellow humans. Anyway, good for you and for Kodak--more power to all.

[carl smith]

That's great, but I agree. 90% is likely who you've got on the other end of the phone.

[jason_eitelbach3]

I've found that if the person on the other end is that service oriented, probably that attitude comes from the top down.

 

Companies that try to micro-manage customer service and dis-empower their employees always have terrible service.

 

It's the people on the phone that serve such an important function with customer relations.

 

That Kodak employee probably cost Kodak $50.00 but made Kodak maybe tens of thousands of dollars in referals and repeat business from you and your friends any maybe some people on this forum.

 

I don't understand why companies don't get this. When I sold cameras I once took back a $1000 lens that wasn't in like new condition with no restocking fee. We sold that lens as a demo at a $100 loss and that customer proceeded to buy another $4000 worth of gear from me and his friend spent about $100 a month on processing.

 

Karma really works in retail I've seen it. I'm going to buy a DSLR in the next few months and I've been leaning toward Kodak because of stories like these. I don't know what the state of Nikon customer service is, but I remeber a few years ago when you used to call digital support you were lucky to get a call back in 48 hours. They didn't even have a warm body on the phone to answer questions. Unbelievable!

 

thanks for the heads up,

 

jason

[david_wade]

Glad to see you've joined the 14n family! There's a nice little forum dedicated to Kodak DSLRs over at (http://www.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1026) that you may find interesting.

[brooks short]

David,

 

Thanks for the link to the 14N forum. Looks like lots of good information. I think I'll be a regular visitor there. #8^)