Out of Warranty – Not Out of Luck

Beatrice liked using her Kindle. It worked great until a few months ago when it wouldn’t hold a charge like when it was brand new. She would charge it up and after using it a short while, the Kindle would power down. After a little experimenting, she was sure there was nothing wrong with the plugs she had used at home. The problem was inside the Kindle. She called customer service.

The Kindle phone representative spent over an hour with Beatrice. She tried to fix the problem remotely, which required an additional day of wait time. The next day, Beatrice spoke to the same rep, and unfortunately, the problem couldn’t be corrected. Beatrice asked for a new Kindle. The rep looked up the date of sale and found it was five days out of warranty. The rep stuck by the warranty’s expiration date and denied Beatrice’s request.

What to do? Beatrice didn’t give in, she gave the representative reasons why they should agree to her request. She pointed out that the problem had been ongoing for much longer than five days. She said she belonged to a writer’s group where she promotes the product and felt she was a good salesperson. How would it sound if she told everyone the Kindle didn’t work because it was defective?

The Kindle phone rep said she would talk to the Kindle group. The rep phoned back with an okay to ship a new Kindle to Beatrice based on Beatrice’s actions as a promoter. The new Kindle arrived within days and Beatrice has a story to tell her writing group – one with a happy ending.

Author/speaker Janet F. Williams is a high-end sales professional, sales trainer and coach for personal and professional development. She speaks on topics contained in her award-winning book “You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get” to businesses, networking groups, non-profits, book clubs and more. For more information or to buy the book, please visit: www.JanetFWilliams.com and www.GoodDayMedia.com.