Accustomed to Being a Customer, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #151

October 19, 2011 Arthur Tebbel 3 Comments

Hey everyone.  After the week I’ve had I don’t really feel comfortable giving anyone my advice.  I did have the single greatest customer service experience of my life this week though so I’ll tell that story and then next week we can all get back on track.  Deal?  Great.

I play video games.  A lot less than I did when I was younger but still more than a grown man probably should.  What I have realized in my years is that video game stores are hives of scum and villainy.  I will only shop at one if it’s my absolute last resort.  As such much of my business has gone online.  In the Amazon Prime era it’s almost impossible for me to actually go anywhere and buy anything.

This brings us to Forza Motorsport 4, the latest in the series of critically acclaimed racing games from Microsoft studios.  I ordered the game directly from Microsoft’s online store because by the time it was on my radar Amazon had sold out of the fancy collector’s edition.  I even had to pay for shipping.  And it was going to be ground shipping at that!  Now I know how the cavemen felt.

I had resigned myself to the fact that I would just have to find another way to amuse myself for a few days when, last Monday I got an email from Microsoft saying they were giving me a free upgrade to overnight shipping.  That was really decent of them.  Unfortunately, that email went out after they actually shipped all their pre-orders via ground shipping.  The Internet got pretty upset over this.  They didn’t pay for the service but they got an email god damn it and that should mean something (it probably shouldn’t).

Microsoft overcompensated in a huge way.  They sent everyone a second copy of the fancy collector’s edition of the game.  This is significant because both Best Buy and Walmart had to deny customers that edition of the game when they didn’t receive enough copies.  The second copy was actually sent overnight and we were told to keep both copies.  They also refunded my money and gave me a code for a free game (up to an $80 value) for my next purchase.  So I got three games for the price of zero over this.  The kicker of the whole matter is that they ship out of Ontario California, which is about 40 minutes from my apartment so the ground shipping arrived the day after it shipped anyway.  I explained this on Friday night when a Microsoft customer service rep called me to make sure I was satisfied with this transaction.  He insisted I keep both copies of the game.

I will certainly be recommending the Microsoft Online Store to everyone I know.  They sure know how to make things right, even if they weren’t really wrong to begin with.

If you own Microsoft stock I have a completely different recommendation.  Sell.  Sell now.  They’ve clearly gone crazy.  They’re giving away what sounds like significant amounts of money for no reason.  This is a great argument for corporate personhood.  Microsoft is your rich aunt after she’s gone senile and starts tipping the young man who delivers her groceries with hundred dollar bills.  We need to put them in a home.