I had a rude awaking yesterday morning as I got out of bed, I discovered to my horror that my Kindle screen was broken! It was actually my fault as I needed to recharge my Kindle’s battery and so I plugged it in to my computer’s USB port the evening before, and I placed it beside my bed, thinking to have tucked it safely underneath the bed.
Well, during the night I had to head a biological call and so I got up out of bed and felt for a moment that my foot landed on top of my Kindle. I didn’t think much of it at the time as I thought that I had not really applied any pressure to it at all. Well, when I picked my Kindle up to get some early morning reading, to my shock and absolute horror, my kindle could only be read on a small portion of the screen!
Naturally I was all calm about it because I am so cool, calm and collective (I freaked out), I was thinking, oh no! I am going to have to buy another one and I just got these a few months ago! I looked up support to see if maybe there was something I could do with a reboot and get it going again. I tried everything I could think of, and nothing made it work! So I took the plunge and I called the International help line since I am currently in Italy. And here is how things went:
Amazon: Hello this is Amazon assistance what can I do for you today? (with a cheerful voice and an interesting accent)
Me: Uh err, I sort-of kind-of seem-to-have stepped on my kindle by accident and I was wondering if there was some kind of CPR I could perform to revive it? I rebooted it holding the button for 20 seconds and it turns on but I can only see a part of the screen.
Amazon: Tell me what you see, does it look as though the paper is ripped?
Me: (Is he spying through the phone?) Why yes, in fact it looks exactly as though the page is ripped!
Amazon: Well that means your screen is broken.
Me: (Heart skips beat, despair sets in, I am convinced that I will be without a kindle forever until I order a new one) Oh my, but I am in a real fix, I am sort of, you know, addicted to my kindle.
Amazon: That is a healthy addiction, don’t worry sir I will send you another kindle right away.
Me: REALLY! wow this is great! (even though I broke it!)
The kindle is being shipped as I write this post, I will send back the damaged one, and Amazon of course knows that if I need anything, I will be visiting them first to see if they have it!
This is not the first time I contacted their assistance; the last time was online, I loaned a book and it was stuck in limbo again due to my mistake for having loaned it to the kindle email address instead of my wife’s actual email. I wrote my question, and without exaggeration, within 10 minutes… problem solved!
Amazon knows the principle of “give and it shall be given unto you”, they do smart marketing through excellent service and assistance, I am sold on them and frankly if you don’t buy Amazon, I think you are nuts! Ha!
On the other hand, those who give things away “free”, but then leave you hanging when you run into a problem like I have with my current WordPress Theme, and go on to state on their site that, “we do not offer any assistance for free Themes” will end up losing out big time! This is not a winning strategy and will cost you in the long run. When I get something, even if for free, and I run into a problem, I would appreciate help with it.
Take for example the Commentluv plugin which has not worked on my site due to some technical issues with my current Theme. I really like the Theme I have, and I believe that the company I got it from, free of charge, is very talented and have great Themes. However, they placed plain as day on their site that they do not offer technical assistance for their free Themes! I had to test them on this since dear Andy Baily took a portion of his precious time to try to help me (for his free plugin), but could not help me due to some settings on my theme.
I wrote to see if I could get some help, and well, sad to say to this day not one word has come back! Guess where I will NOT be purchasing my theme from when I move on to a paid platform? I think you figured it out. So let this be a lesson to anyone who is out to make money, in order to receive you have to give. Give freely, and you will see that once you have built up a trust with your clients, once you have something that they need, you will be the very first place they will come to buy! You have to be there for those who have gotten anything from you, even if for free. People are your best publicity, not you ads, not simply your site! If you don’t win your clients over through, products and good follow-up, you may sell to some, but your success will be short-lived.
What is your take?
