Positively concluded case worth sharing

To Mr Lino Apap, Aplan Centre:

I would like to protest strongly at the shabby treatment I received from your company.

On March 1 I brought my son's Sharp hi-fi system to your company's workshop for repair as the CD player was not functioning properly. The set was still under guarantee. On March 22 the hi-fi was returned to me but the fault persisted.

On April 1 I brought it back a second time to your company's workshop. On April 19 it was returned to me but it again transpired that the fault was not rectified. I took it back to your company's workshop for the third time on April 26. This time I complained formally to you and you had promised that you would personally look into the matter.

Despite the fact that 23 days have passed I have not had any positive feedback except that it was still being tested. To date, 80 days have passed and my son is still without his hi-fi.

I distinctly remember some time ago the Customer Service Column of The Sunday Times boasting in no uncertain terms, presumably on information supplied by your company, about the excellent customer service supplied by Aplan Centre. Some service! (James Farrugia)

A very strong letter indeed written by a very dissatisfied customer. Indeed Mr Farrugia's dissatisfaction spills over on to the Customer Service Column. Could Aplan change this dissatisfied customer to a satisfied one?

More letters were sent but I shall only feature two more letters starting with Aplan's reply:

I wish to refer to your letters on the subject of your son's Sharp hi-fi unit and our subsequent telephone conversations and meeting.

As you know, I had personally investigated the matter and the information given to me was that the product had been extensively tested. I was also informed that during these tests the unit worked perfectly and the fault had not occurred. This intermittent nature of the fault was the principal reason why resolving this matter was no easy task.

After you returned the unit once again on May 20, I immediately asked that the system be tested in my office before passing it on to the Technical Department. Sure enough, the fault occurred within an hour of being switched on. The unit was then forwarded to the workshop and a clear identification of the fault was made.

At this point we spoke over the phone and I had the pleasure of meeting you and your son in an effort to resolve the matter without any further delay. As you know, I offered you the options of having the unit replaced with another equivalent model or a full refund of the money you paid when purchasing the original unit.

Due to the unavailability of a satisfactory replacement, we are therefore effecting the second option and a refund is being made. Please find enclosed our cheque no. 2444 for the amount of Lm120.

I sincerely regret the inconvenience caused by the repeated failure of the product and the inability of our technical department to resolve the matter in a satisfactory manner. I realise that the fault was of an intermittent nature and that this makes it harder for the Technical Department to resolve matters as quickly as we would like to and, in such circumstances, it becomes impossible for us to give you the high quality of service that we usually offer our clients.

Although we were unable to replace the unit with an equivalent model, I trust that we have managed to resolve the issue to your complete satisfaction by refunding you the full amount paid. I would like to thank you for bringing the matter to my attention and for your co-operation without which a solution would have been impossible to achieve. (Lino Apap, general manager)

Indeed, when it comes to intermittent faults, it can be very difficult. I believe Mr Apap couldn't do any more but at the end of the day the most important point of view is that of the customer.

Please refer to my letters of May 19 and 23, and to your subsequent letter of June 6 together with enclosed cheque.

I would like to thank you for the professional way in which you dealt with my case when it was brought to your attention.

Please note that the matter is now closed to my entire satisfaction, leaving a very satisfied customer. (James Farrugia)

Well, there it is, a very dissatisfied customer transformed into, as the customer himself wrote, "a very satisfied customer".

As I keep saying until I am blue in the face, a complaint is an opportunity to make a positive impression on the customer. Another statement I often make in this column is that a well handled complaint can leave a customer with a better impression of the company than a customer would have got had the bad situation never happened in the first place.

I compliment Mr Apap on the way he dealt with his customer. In such situations it is the 'personal' rather than the 'material' service that saves the day.

Finally I refer to Mr Farrugia's comment suggesting that I boasted about Aplan's excellent customer service, presumably on information supplied by Aplan. I can assure him that it is not my policy to draw conclusions about any suppliers' "excellent customer service" on the basis of information supplied by the suppliers. I am not that naïve. I rely on my own assessment but, more importantly, in a given case, I also rely on information supplied by satisfied customers. Indeed this case substantiates my point in that Mr Farrugia, the customer, described himself as "a very satisfied customer".