Wow, what a day the last Sunday proved to be for me i.e. 19^th July 2009. From the personal perspective, I put myself under a great deal of pressure by not having any sleep the last night with 4 submissions lined up. And from the services perspective, I got to experience 3 different kinds of services of the same product category in the same city!! Even while I was going through it, I knew that it is going to come here.

My second encounter with the Computer Centre at XLRI, Jamshedpur in the same month

When I came back to my room after the 11am class, I discovered that the song playing on my laptop has been stuck and refuses to close down. I had no option but to switch off my laptop immediately and when I tried to restart it, the windows refused to open. So once again without much hope I approached the Computer Centre.

Expectation: After already having been almost rebuffed by them in the past, I was not expecting a great deal out of them. But the only reason I approached them this time was that because may be the issue is to do more with the software part, they might rectify it. If not rectify then they can revert me to some reliable source of help.

Service Offered: So here I reach their doors once again asking them to diagnose the problem my laptop is facing. I told them what happened and how my windows is not opening. Their exact words translated in English-“ mam, today is Sunday so we don’t have the softwares that are needed to diagnose the problem”. I was like “God, help me”, and that statement was more to do with controlling my anger against the CC than with dealing with the laptop issue. I asked them about, where the softwares are? So they told that there is one particular attendant who has it and he hasn’t come today. So I asked them to please call up that guy and ask him, where he keeps that softwares. In reply they told me that they didn’t have his number and he might not be keeping it here. Then enters another guy, who asked what the issue was, when told he said that there might be the softwares needed for it.

So, now we run 3 CDs on my laptop without any results taking about an hour (thanks to the repeated trials). Then I ask the guy that is he able to get what the issue is, he tells me- “no mam, I am not able to understand what the problem is”.

I decide, enough is enough and leave to go to Bistupur market.

Reliability: None, I am not going again there and will never suggest it to anyone. 0/10

Assurance: None again. 0/10

Tangibles: Not sufficient, they can do with more number of port cables and duplicate CDs and blank CDs which they don’t have. 3/10

Empathy: Even if its there, its of no use as they’re incompetent of handling any situation. Their knowledge is no better than any average engineer’s knowledge on campus. 1/10

Responsiveness: Again of no use and also it is not there in most situations, the eagerness to help a customer is not there at all. 1/10

My encounter with a local computer repair shop in Bistupur

Now, the reason I approach this shop in stead of going to the authorized Lenovo outlet has two reasons behind it:

Firstly, when I reached the Lenovo outlet-it was told to me that it is close for lunch (at 3:25pm) and the engineer will come at 4pm.

Secondly, in the past when I had a similar problem then one of these local repair shops had repaired it.

Expectation: to be able to diagnose the problem without any fail and shall be able to cure the problem though at a relatively higher cost.

So, again I tell this young boy (almost of my age or younger to me) on the counter of the repair shop about the problem am facing. Again, he tries to run the same 3 CDs on my laptop in spite of my telling him that I have already done that before and it is not working. So, when he has satisfied himself by running those three CDs and after wasting another 30 min of mine- he tells me that if I am ready to leave the laptop with him, he might help or else he cannot help.

I decide to leave and try my luck with the Lenovo shop.

Reliability: Not guaranteed but at least something can be done given some amount of value to the number of machines they operate upon in a day. 4/10

Assurance: Not guaranteed again, but again you’ll see some effort being made in trying to cure the problem even if that’s only from monetary perspective. 4/10

Tangibles: Not great, they lack upon many of the small basic necessities like port cable, USB drive, etc. 2.5/10

Empathy: Not much, they weren’t much bothered when I decided to tell them that if they can’t cure the problem today, I will not give them the money. 3/10

Responsiveness: Not bad, again since it is their source of income, you will see at least some effort. 4.5/10

My encounter with the Lenovo shop in Bistupur

Expectation: Since this was my last hope, I was expecting against hope that my laptop will get the right diagnosis it deserves and will be cured. And now I had stopped thinking about price.

For a change, I am greeted with a smiling face and a more assured voice asking me what the problem is. I told him everything that has happened and tell him directly that since no CDs or softwares are working, he’ll have to work by manually taking out the Hard Disk.

He immediately took notice of that and did exactly that and connected the hard disk to his computer, checked for the contents and copied all the important documents on his computer. In between he kept asking for water and asked me about the history of the laptop and other necessary information. The reason I felt a little more positive about the situation was because the professional way he was handling my laptop with. Taking little care like putting the hard disk with paper on the ground, made me feel that probably this is the best service that my laptop can get in this city.

After copying the data, we formatted the hard disk and found it working absolutely fine. So the engineer concluded that the problem has to be with the mother board so here he tells me that give me another 15 minutes and I will check the mother board and shall tell you the discourse ahead. I had no option but to stay, so after opening the laptop and brushing the dust off, we hope that the laptop might work. But it leaves us in despair. When I tell him the urgency of the situation of how my submissions are pending for that day, he tells me that if I can leave the laptop with him for that day, he might make it work. I ask him how will he do that so he tells me that he wants to give more time on that. With such kind of hope in the most hopeless situation, I thought that it is better to grab whatever hope is than to give up. So I take all the necessary data on a thumb drive and leave to complete my work on XL library computer.

After say a couple of hours, I get a call from the Lenovo engineer telling me that my laptop is working fine though he had to get the repair done from outside. Moreover, he came to XL campus to deliver the laptop as well. Though I had to pay a little more than expected amount but atleast I was able to get hold of my laptop again and was back to working from my room!

Reliability: A lot high, and as per me more than the Lenovo brand name it also had to do a lot with the people who worked there. 7/10

Assurance: High, at least you can be sure that they’ll make all necessary effort to help you out with the problem. 7.5/10

Tangibles: Good, they had a separate show room for sales and separate two small rooms for service with good quality service equipments and all necessary port cables. 8.5/10

Empathy: Again High, they showed enough concern for my situation. 8.5/10

Responsiveness: High, they delivered me the laptop in 3 hours. 8.5/10