A Case for Control Phreaks

Up front, let me say I love my Dyson vacuum.  The product is so amazing, I beg the dogs to shed extra just so I can clean the carpet.  Our experience in buying it, well, let's just say there are some lessons and observations in here for you.

Here in Canada, like the U.S., there is a variation of the home shopping channel.  The vacuum was being offered at a good price with some extra goodies so out comes the credit card. 

About a week later the box shows up.  Inside the box are the main parts as you have to put this product together. No problem, there is a picture on the box as well as a manual that, rumor has it, some people actually read.

Like any normal male, I spread out the parts, look at the picture and begin to piece this puppy together.

Take a look at this picture:

You can see the handle/grip faces to the back.  This picture was on the box and the cover of that thing called the instruction manual.  Basically, the handle gets shoved into a hole, you put some other pieces together and you are done. 

All good except for one minor problem, mine wouldn't fit as shown in the picture above. 

Try as I might, I could not make my pile of parts look like the picture.  And this was no ordinary try harder exercise, I even -brace yourself- read the manual to see if there was some secret decoder ring like thing I was supposed to do. 

The only way I could make the parts come out was to have it look like this: 

 

As you can see, not like it was supposed to be.  Time for reinforcements.  I call the toll-free line and attempt to get this sorted out and after waiting close to 35 minutes:

Dyson: Thanks for calling, what can I do for you.

Me: My vacuum doesn't go together correct. I think I got a bad part or something was made on a Monday as it won't go together correctly. The handle is backwards.

What's your model number?

XYZ-123

No sir, you have it right.

It doesn't look like the box or the pictures in the instruction manual.

Yeah, we know. The company changed that awhile ago and there are still old boxes and manuals around.

So, if I got this straight, I'm wasting my time, your time, and tying up the toll-free line asking about this when all the company could have done was put a note in the box saying ignore the pictures, we made a change.

Ah, yup, the company is kinda goofy about stuff like this. We get a bunch of calls on this all the time and have complained to management but everybody keeps saying it is cheaper to just deal with the calls then making a box change.  I figure I have to put up with this for another 4 months or so and then on to the next silly thing.

Clearly, there were some things the company could have done, the simplest being a note with the instruction manual. But even assuming that was expensive or problematic for some reason, a simple recording on the toll-free line saying if you are calling about the handle, etc, would have saved me 45+ minutes and some frustration.

The lesson for you and your product/service, is to spend the time walking through what the mere mortals are going to do.  Get others, not close to the project, to do the walk through and give you feedback. 

Dyson's product is so amazingly good that I'd recommend it despite the so-so customer service.

You, with all of your competition, might not have that edge so it is wise to ensure all facets of your operation are customer friendly and take into consideration what the average Joe is going through.

Comments

[Jevon MacDonald]

Our old Dust Buster just bit the... dust,. and I lust after the Dyson like vacuuming male should. Time to do a quick price comparison.