The SERVICE in Customer Service

Here's a 'good news' customer service story. When's the last time you heard one of those? They happen, but we don't tend to write about them. Here's the story -

Before we headed out on our cruise with our new Acer Netbook, we decided it would be a good idea to have a lock to secure it (hotel, stateroom, even on our own boat). I found a Kensington combination cable/lock on eBay for a reasonable price and, although they always seem to charge too much for shipping, I ordered it. It arrived very quickly and we followed the instructions to reset the combination from the default (0,0,0) to our own. Checked it out - worked fine - packed it away with the netbook for our trip.

When we arrived, I noticed that the lever which you flip to reset the combination had flipped itself and the numbers had changed. The short version - simply carrying the lock in the laptop case had changed the combination and there's no way of guessing what the new one is (you math people know how many combinations are possible with three wheels with 10 digits each). That's why they call it a security device!!

We contacted Kensington and they suggested contacting a locksmith - seems pretty expensive to reset a lock which can obviously reset itself again. A quick Google, and it was apparent that others have had this problem. An email to Kensington, suggesting that they were in some way responsible for serving their customers who had purchased a lock with an obvious design flaw, brought the following response: give us your mailing address and we will send you a new Kensington lock (the newer model which can't reset itself!!). Arrived today - works great - THANK YOU, KENSINGTON!! That's the way customer service should serve customers.