A whopper of a lesson in user-interface design, part 2

In Part 1, I tried to upgrade my graphics card, only to be steered wrong by my computer manufacturer's website. The saga continues with my trying to swap the wrong card they had sold me for the right one.

The first step was a call to technical support, explaining the problem. After a fair amount of time on hold (or maybe an unfair amount), I reached someone who quickly and apologetically acknowledged that the company had indeed sold me a graphics card that would not fit my computer, and who equally quickly told me that the same manufacturer made an equivalent card with the right kind of interface for my machine.

"So how do I arrange for you to take this one back and send me the right one?"

"Oh, I can't help you there; I just answer technical questions. But I'll connect you to customer service."

Lesson three (Lessons one and two are in Part 1): When someone explains to you why the company's organization chart means that someone else has to help you, there is trouble ahead.

Lesson four: When you're designing a system that deals with customers, think about how the system looks from the customer's viewpoint, not just from the company's.

So it was off to customer service, and another fair (or unfair) amount of time on hold. When I eventually got to the front of the line, I had to explain my problem again, after which the customer-service rep arranged for me to return the inappropriate graphics card.

Lesson five: Design your system so that when your customer tells you something, the system remembers it and doesn't make the customer repeat the information.

Lesson six: If one of your people has to hand a customer off to someone else, put the customer at the head of the line.

So far so good: I had arranged to send back the inappropriate graphics card. Now the real question:

"How do I arrange to purchase the correct card for my machine?"

"Oh, I can't help you there; I'll have to transfer you to sales."

See lessons three and four, above.

Sales, of course, answered the phone much more quickly than customer service or returns. However, I had to tell the whole story again (See lesson five). The sales rep was happy to sell me a new graphics card. Not only that, but she double-checked whether that card would work with my machine.

It turned out, she said, that it wouldn't work either. The problem is that the card has a higher-capacity processor than my old one, and therefore requires more power than my machine's power supply can deliver. Fortunately, we can solve the problem if I buy and install a new power supply. Moreover, because I would be buying the power supply at the same time as the graphics card, she would offer me a discount on the combination, making the bottom line not much more expensive than the graphics card I was returning.

I checked the box for the graphics card I was returning. Sure enough, it said that it required a 350-watt power supply, and my machine had less than that. So she wasn't just trying to extract more money from me. Instead, the tech-support guy had failed to notice the power-supply requirement. See lesson one again.

So I shrugged my shoulders, took out my credit card, and ordered the new graphics card and power supply.

A few days later, they showed up. Being a cautious sort of fellow when it comes to hardware, I decided I would install the new power supply first, then verify that the machine worked the same way with the new power supply as it did with the old one, and only then would I install the new graphics card.

So I shut down my machine (having backed up all of its files the day before), took out the old power supply, unpacked the new power supply--and found that it didn't fit.

I mean that it physically didn't fit: The power cord from the wall plugs into a socket on the power supply, and the new power supply's socket was in a different place than the old power supply's socket. Which meant that if I were to install it in my machine, I would have to cut a hole in the metal panel on the back of the machine to allow the power cord to plug into it.

Lesson seven: When a customer calls you to replace something that doesn't work, and you sell him a replacement, you had really better make sure that the replacement works. Otherwise your customer is going to be very, very angry.

To be continued...

Posted by Andrew Koenig at 01:09 PM  Permalink