Re: Kodak Mailers

From: Nick Makris <nick@mcn.org>
Subject: Re: Kodak Mailers
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 15:29:15 -0700

> Eric, earlier Richard K. suggested to contact Kodak (he supplied an 800 #),
> which I did. After several attempts and persuading someone who wanted my
> account number (which I don't have) that I simply wanted to know if the

Sorry to hear that, but that's just because Richard K doesn't need an
account number! His phone number from caller ID is secretly stored in
Kodak's computer and routed to a special department
automatically. He's not the customer to train their new employees on
:-)

A few major companies' tech support centers I know have similar
systems. If you complain irrationally too often, your call goes to
legal affairs department. If you ask questions about 5 best products
they've ever made but somehow long discontinued, you get a tech
support with higher level of experience.

Japanese manufacturer's are a bit problematic. Japanese corporations
regularly relocate personnels every 2-4 years. I only keep good
reliable cameras so I don't need to call them often, something like
once every few years. And my cameras are often very old. It's very
hard to ask a new young tech support to go look for a part that is 50
years old just because the guy I had 5 years ago told me there's an
unofficial stock of old parts where he would find what I need. (And
this is a company whose quality of repair service is not very popular
among photogs there.) To explain the part I need to the old guy, all I
needed to say was that part under that and above that at about 7
o'clock of that thing that looks kinda like distorted Z shape, which
is engaged when shutter is charged, or something like that. To the new
guy, I needed to send a few digital pictures, a line drawing, and a
few paragraphs. But I am grateful to that company for keeping some old
parts and at least willing to go look for it.

--
Ryuji Suzuki
"You have to realize that junk is not the problem in and of itself.
Junk is the symptom, not the problem."
(Bob Dylan 1971; source: No Direction Home by Robert Shelton)