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Xbox 360 repairs are complete: our first unit comes home

It’s returned home.


Our Xbox 360 that suffered from a severe case of the dreaded three red flashing lights arrived on Friday and is now up and running.


Well, not exactly the same Xbox 360: we were informed that the unit we received was a replacement unit, but it’s in fine shape. (Let’s hope that this one doesn’t scratch game discs.)  All told, we waited about five weeks from the first call to the Customer Service centre to this week when UPS showed up with a plain white box.


Not that anyone missed the gaming system today: it was a gorgeous day with baseball, bike rides and much more filling the schedule until late this evening. We had just one session of Dance Dance Revolution on Friday before the kids headed to bed.


What else was in the box: instructions included with the unit were helpful, and it was nice to receive a letter from the Xbox team (in English and Spanish, thank you) apologizing for the issue.  And the bonus of a free month of Xbox Live that many people called out in mail to me was included in the return shipment.


Which is a wash as the unit was out of service for just over a month.


Update on another unexpected bonus: as you may have seen in an earlier post, our older Xbox 360 just went south (a month after the standard one year warranty expired). Good news is that I purchased with a credit card that automatically extended the standard manufacturer’s warranty by one year. That means the $99 repair fee should be covered… a small victory and good reason to keep that plastic.  So check your card agreements and see if you’re covered (some exclusions always apply).


Case in point: I saw recently that Costco extends the manufacturer’s warranty on new computers and televisions to two years from date of purchase. But Costco does not, it seems, extend this offer to video game consoles.


Tags: Xbox 360, customer support.


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Make your customers feel like they are your top priority

Crystal Dupré is publisher of The Meridian Star in Meridian, MS, and wrote an op-ed piece for the paper today on “Customer service at its finest.” 


“This experience got me thinking: what did these two people do to make the service they provided seem so out of the ordinary? The answer was obvious and simple: they focused their attention on me, the customer. They weren’t preoccupied with chatting with co-workers. They didn’t see me as an interruption of their work. They didn’t act as though they were simply going through the motions without emotion.

“Instead, they acted as though they were really happy to help me. They made me feel as though I was their top priority. They looked me in the eye and sincerely thanked me for giving them the opportunity to shine.”


As you get ready for the week, think about the genteel attention paid to customers in East Central Mississippi, and perhaps how it might impact your own customer interactions.


Want to share your own customer service stories?


And if you want to provide your own feedback on good and bad experiences, to Dennis Rockstroh asked readers today in his San Jose Mercury News column to “send in your highs, lows with customer service.” He related a reader’s concern that customer service representatives at one firm are not to release their last names when dealing with a complaint.


MTCW: perhaps, they give it out freely when they receive a compliment. 😉



“Anonymity, like secrecy, too often leads to abuses.


“What kind of changes would you like? What do you think of the state of customer service today?”


You can send your feedback in directly to Mr. Rockstroh for “your experiences, good or bad…”


I can think of a few things. I sent him a link to Ms. Dupré’s column today, in addition to a couple of my own SiValley rant and raves.

[Added 081507: you can also read Mr. Rockstroh’s Consumer Action blog here]

Tags: Customer service.

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“Don’t just bring me a problem…” Get solutions too through Windows Problem Reports and Solutions

Rats. I hate it when an app crashes on my PC, especially when it’s caused by an issue with Windows Vista and one of its bundled Microsoft apps. In this case, a mainstream staple of my online use, Windows Photo Gallery.


But with Vista, I don’t lose any of the data (in this case, my scans or new imported photos) and thus the time associated with working on them: the window closed, asked if I would like to report the problem (I did) and if I would like to see if there was a solution (I would). 


I’m reminded of a discussion with a certain exec in which I heard very clearly (directed at a person who hadn’t done their homework and completed the equation): “don’t just bring me a problem, bring possible solutions, too.” (Although a tad more colourful. 😉


Fulfilling that equation for me today is Windows Problem Reports and Solutions: it popped open a window that detailed an available fix for the issue, saying that “there is a solution.”


Music to my ears.



Performance and Reliability Pack (KB938979)

Follow these steps to solve the problem with Windows Vista

This problem was caused by Windows Vista. Windows Vista was created by Microsoft Corporation.

A solution is available that will solve this problem.


Goody.


Solution: An update is available that improves the performance and reliability of Windows Vista


The update addresses some reported issues and should “improve performance and responsiveness in various scenarios” as well as “the reliability of Windows Vista.”


I believe that this addresses a “memory management issue” (aka memory leak) in switching between Windows Photo Gallery and another application. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base KB 932988

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932988/)

Also, I have the option in Windows Problem Reports and Solutions to rate this response and “Provide Feedback.”

I did.

Now my next step is to track down where in our group the feedback from Windows Error Reporting goes and what they did with the info… more on that next week.

BTW, a note on Knowledge Base articles… 

There was also a note “About Microsoft Knowledge Base articles” (aka “KBs”). If you’ve ever read a KB (and as you’re surfing on MSDN, I’ll guess that you have) you know that KB articles are often written for, as it is warned, “a technical professional audience.”

No kidding.

“These articles might contain specialized terms and descriptions, as well as lengthy procedures. Depending on your level of familiarity with computers and technical terminology, you might be more comfortable consulting with a professional computer technician to help you solve this problem.”

I know that our incredible team in Customer Support is working on ways to make the information in these articles more accessible, particularly articles that are geared towards consumers and less-tech types (customers who are not devs, IT Pros, sysadmins). I found that the above articles are fairly easy to understand and implement, so kudos to the teams working hard to make support for computers, software and systems more accessible.


Tags: Customer service, customer feedback

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Your questions: “What are some recommended strategies for managing email with Outlook?”

This question came today from Kim, drowning under a mountain of email…



“I’m getting a lot of email at work and at home. Are there some strategies and features you recommend in Outlook for managing email?”


As noted, I like lifehacker and particularly enjoyed the post on Merlin Mann’s presentation on managing mail. This was a presentation to Google employees “on dealing with the daily onslaught of email, and the video’s now available to the rest of us.”



“Merlin’s full presentation (slides available here)… is based on his excellent Inbox Zero series at 43 Folders. His system inspired most of the empty inbox proclamations here on Lifehacker, so this is your chance to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Thanks to Merlin and everyone at Google for making this one available to the public.”



Yes, thanks. 😉


I also recommend these links on managing email:



Tags: Microsoft, Crabby, Office.

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Your questions: How do I run Windows XP compatible applications on Windows Vista?

I extracted this from a comment on a previous post, and a question I receieved this weekend from a neighbour:



“I upgraded to Vista, but found that some of my applications I used on Windows XP don’t work… How do I run Windows XP compatible applications on Windows Vista?”


With Windows Vista, there may be problems running some older versions of applications, but you can set the compatibility mode for many applications.


“If a program written for an earlier version of Windows doesn’t run correctly, use the Program Compatibility Wizard to change the compatibility settings for the program.” (See “Make older programs run in this version of Windows” on the Windows Help and How To site for more details.)


To Run the Program Compatibility Wizard…



  1. Open the Program Compatibility Wizard by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Programs, and then clicking Use an older program with this version of Windows.


  2. Follow the instructions in the wizard. 

Setting the Compatibility mode to Windows XP (for apps you ran successfully under that OS) runs the program using the settings from Windows XP. I’ve had good success with this with most of the applications I have on Vista at home, even with kid’s games running from CD (which seem to be some of the most challenging). 


As noted on the Program Compatibility Wizard page:







Do not use the Program Compatibility Wizard on older antivirus programs, disk utilities, or other system programs because it might cause data loss or create a security risk.


In these cases, visit your vendor’s site for more details on application compatibility with Windows Vista.


To change settings for a program manually, use the individual program’s Compatibility tab: find the application’s .exe and then right click on the icon. Next, select the Properties and click on the Compatibility tab.


There’s a helpful page on the How-To-Geek’s site on using Windows Vista Compatibility Mode – see the Geek’s site for more helpful tips, a great general tech help site.


Also see…


  • What is program compatibility?
  • Program Compatibility Assistant: frequently asked questions

  • Tags: Windows Vistacustomer support, Windows Vista tips