As mentioned in an earlier post, I emailed Uxcell this email:
"Thank you for the reply. I will return just the player (i.e not the cable, charger adapter manual etc) as this is cheaper for postage costs. Can you confirm that you will refund my postage costs. 2 to 3 weeks seems rather a long time to investigate the problem and complete the administration. I would hope that you can reduce that time to a week at most."
I then posted off the faulty player. The same day that I posted it off, I recieved the following reply from Uxcell:
"Dear customer,
That's ok, please just send the player to us. We will arrange to send you a
replacement once your item is received.
Regards
Uxcell customer service"
I think that this is showing good customer service from Uxcell. They are listening to the customer (me) and providing me with feedback on progress. I do not think that you could ask for much more than that.
Think it is worthwhile summarising (esp as some recent posts have been quite negative) my opinion on Uxcell customer service so far:
Uxcell have responded within a reasonable timeframe to all emails that I have sent them - At most 24 hours, most often within 12 hours. Bearing in mind the time zones, I think that the communication has been prompt. Well done so far Uxcell.
The tech support has been as good as I would expect. Bit frustrating to be asked to run diagnostics that have already been run, however this is the nature of tech support questions and they need to be answered. Again, good service.
Uxcell have acknowledged and replied to concerns around "potential" slow turnaround of faulty player. This is good customer service.
If Uxcell deliver on their promise (and I have no reason to to think that they will not), then I think that this is good customer service.
I hope that this thread provides a fair and balanced (it should as I am just reporting facts) view of the type of service to expect from Uxcell.
I will continue to update progress on this thread.
As I posted here at the time, I was having connection problems right away with my 2GB Glacier. Worse at some times and on some computers, than others. I emailed UX rep here and waited for a response, and none came. Then the player developed a more serious problem, whereby all of a sudden, it would no longer charge any of the Nokia BL-4C's I had, including the one it came with. (It was confirmed that this was not a problem with the charger, the computer, the USB cable or the battery). I wrote another message to the UX rep explaining all the new problems I was having, and patiently waited for a response, but none came. I read that he had not logged in for a while, so that's understandable.
Today, I finally did get that response from Keith, who explained he didn't get my messages, probably because of an overflow of PM's (the software used on the site limits the amount of messages you can receive). He apologized for that, and in gratitude for my patience with customer support and patronage, promised to replace my Glacier! I couldn't be happier with the resolution of all the problems I've been having with this particular unit (I bought another 1GB Glacier before this one that so far has never exhibited problems), and as you say, I could not ask for more than that.
So I am fully in agreement when you say "this is showing good customer service" on the part of UXCell. They may not be the Speedy Gonzalez of customer service for everyone, and I can imagine why this might be from a busy outfit, but I think they should be commended for the sincere efforts that they are making to ensure good customer relations, particularly when you can't always say that for their competitors. (Just ask someone who has problems with their Clix how far they got calling iRiver). As an update to my progress, I will post a confirmation when I get my new player, and some notes maybe, if I find there are any differences to (what I remember of!) the old Glacier.
Recieved an email from Uxcell yesterday (15 Feb) advising that a replacement Glacier had been despatched. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is not delayed by the start of Chinese New Year (as of this minute it is "awaiting processing from Hong Kong" - Hong Kong Post Office Tracking). If it misses the New Year holidays I should get it in about 4 days.
More Detail:
My faulty one was delivered to Uxcell on the 10th Feb (Saturday), waited until Wed 14th before chasing. Got an email next day (15th) asking for order number, replied and within a couple of hours had the notification of despatch.
Thoughts so far:
OK, so they are not the quickest. You could probably argue that 3 or so working days to turn around the faulty player and send replacement could be better. However it is not that bad. Bearing in mind that they said in an earlier email that the turnaround could be 2 weeks, 3 working days is more than acceptable.
As I have said before, I am dealing with a company that is in a different time zone (7 or 8 hours ahead of UK time). So this will affect responses (in both directions). Taking that into consideration, I think that the service I have recieved (and I know I have said it before), has been good.
I think that Uxcell have had some inappropriate bad press on these forums from people expecting that buying from the internet (halway round the globe) is liking buying from the corner shop. You get better value for money goods, but have to accept that it will take some time to resolve problems if they occur.
That said, I also believe that customer feedback (good and bad) is very important. Customer feedback should allow Uxcell to review and improve their service. We must not forget though, improvements may cost money which would then (inevitably) be passed on to the customer. You get what you pay for.
OK, so they are not the quickest. You could probably argue that 3 or so working days to turn around the faulty player and send replacement could be better. However it is not that bad. Bearing in mind that they said in an earlier email that the turnaround could be 2 weeks, 3 working days is more than acceptable.
As I have said before, I am dealing with a company that is in a different time zone (7 or 8 hours ahead of UK time). So this will affect responses (in both directions). Taking that into consideration, I think that the service I have recieved (and I know I have said it before), has been good.
I think that Uxcell have had some inappropriate bad press on these forums from people expecting that buying from the internet (halway round the globe) is liking buying from the corner shop. You get better value for money goods, but have to accept that it will take some time to resolve problems if they occur.
That said, I also believe that customer feedback (good and bad) is very important. Customer feedback should allow Uxcell to review and improve their service. We must not forget though, improvements may cost money which would then (inevitably) be passed on to the customer. You get what you pay for.
Will update once new player recieved.
I think you hit the nail on the head, so naturally, I totally agree. The issue I have with many customers of UXCell is that they seem to neglect the fact the company is halfway round the world, they're not in the same time zone, they're not a corner shop, and they are dealing directly with a Chinese factory! In fact I've told people this before; if you want corner shop service, buy from a corner shop! If you're counting the hours after you've sent in a faulty player, waiting for a response and with nothing to do but post here each hour about how frustrated you are waiting each hour for a response, you're going to be disappointed!
People are lucky they even have a resource like UXCell! A few years ago, it didn't exist, and the $300+ iPod was the only game in town. Thanks to the King Of Customer Gouging (APple), ,many would not have been able to afford iPods this Xmas or later, to give as gifts or even buy for themselves. Its places like UXCell that made it possible for many people to own anything close to an iPod.
There are problems with name brand players like the iPod, and if you come in to the store one year and one day later, Apple don't wanna know from your ass. They'll just tell you to buy another Nano. I'm not even sure how good their service is within that one year warranty period. Its probably fair to say the Apple product is less likely to come with as many problems as we're seeing with the unbranded products. Like you said, I think you get the best value from unbranded products like UXCell sells, but not the best quality control. The money you save buying these products has to come from somewhere....
I believe part of it comes from no advertising budget, very low mark-up (profit by the manufacturer and the rest of the distribution chain), less QC, significantly reduced customer service, cheaper parts, shoddier firmware and other factors. I accept that, and that it takes longer to receive customer service, and so should anyone who buys such products. And a good point has been made that if you want better service from merchants like UXCell, you're bound to pay a higher cost for your product. But when starting out to buy something, people generally buy on price and price alone, and dont do lengthy comparisons of customer service between one merchant and another. Only later do they complain about the quality of customer service, after they've gotten their terrific deals, and may require it. You can't have it all, folks! In terms relative to their direct competition, speaking from someone who's dealt with many other Chinese merchants, UXCell is doing an above average job of customer service.
ITS ARRIVED - The replacement player arrived yesterday. Fired up OK and it has the full 2 meg reported by windows and the disk format tool.
Not tried the memory hack (will only do this if I have any problems).
So far added about 700 MB of data, mixture of ogg (which play fine) and amv files.
Really pleased that the delivery just avoided the Chinese New Year, only took 4 days to be delivered after notice of despatch (this included the weekend).
I am now winding up a mate at work with the superiority of the Chipod v iPod.
Also just taken delivery of a genuine Nokia battery (BL-4C), currently running tests to compare this to the Uxcell supplied battery. Will post results on a seperate thread (Michiganjfrog guess you will be interested in this?).
The final (and would be icing on the cake) bit to close this is for Uxcell to credit back my postage costs in returning the faulty player. They did email to say that they would refund this. Will wait and see.
Re: 2 GB Glacier Memory Size Problem
