Unusual Follow-up!!!

I recently had a notice appear on the screen of my PC alerting me to the upcoming expiration of a software license. The alert gave me the impression that by clicking through I would be presented with the correct version of software to order and extend the license one more year. Unexpectedly as I went to the next screen I was presented with an array of choices which appeared to be setup to result in ordering a more expensive and unnecessary license. Confused, I called the company’s customer support line to determine what action to take.

The call with the customer service agent was even more confusing as he referred to a notice that I should have received that “completely” explained what action I was to take. While this was being explained to me I checked my incoming mail box (I never delete anything) and no notice was found. I told him that I was surprised with the level of software sophistication that exists today that the prompt should have automatically told me what was already installed and what ordering action would be appropriate to update the software correctly and extend the license one more year. The agent was unable to assist me in making the right decision so I suggested (strongly suggested) that he refer this problem to his management that this required so much of my time to resolve (now a half hour) and it was still unresolved.

I let the system prompt me daily for the next week as my time to make a decision decreased. On the last day I clicked again and a new screen appeared that clearly identified what license I was to order to efficiently update my license. The whole matter took less than 10 minutes to complete.

Two hours later I received a call from the software company. The person calling expressed his concern that there had been a problem (earlier call seven days previously) and that this problem had been reported by others. He was personally calling to make sure there was no further confusion in ordering the correct license to retain me as a customer. I told him that I successfully navigated what must have been an updated sequence of steps to order the new license correctly. Since I noticed a positive response either due to my feedback or from others I also took advantage of an incentive and added an additional feature to the license.

I was stunned by the interest of the company to make a personal call, most likely costing more than the lprice of the icense upgrade, to make sure that I was satisfied and by someone who was in a senior position and clearly had the resources to deal with the matter. He also freely admitted that there had been a problem and was taking action to contact each person who reported it to make sure their customers were properly served and not confused or lost over the issue.

To say the least I was impressed. It is not unusual for software vendors who think they are pretty important to be unresponsive in situations like this and I will often seek out other competitive products in the marketplace. By taking this action I am now a more loyal customer who has first hand witnessed the extent this company will go to make sure that I was serviced correctly despite some difficulties on their part.

The name of the software company is Symantec.