theholtsite

This story is kinda long, but good 🙂

I have had a Griffin PowerMate for a few years now. My dad got it for me one Christmas. A few months ago, the cool blue light on the bottom stopped working. The unit remained functional, but the light was the most geeky, cool-looking part of all, so I was sad. I figured I’d email Griffin’s tech support department to see if they could help.

A lady named Shannon got back to me with some tips on how to fix it, but to no avail. She then wrote me (elipses indicate parts that were taken out of the quote):

With that unfortunately it sounds like it is defective and I would be more than happy to get you set up with a replacement.

Rather than have you send us the defective product, we request taking a digital picture of the defective product destroyed. You can smash, burn or crack open in whatever way you would like, so long as you do so safely. Also, take a digital picture (or scan a copy) of your receipt. If you do not have the receipt, please let me know the timeframe of the purchase.
…
Once I receive the email and verify the photos I will send a replacement to the address that you have provided below.
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I can then send you out a replacement.

Please give me 24 hours before receiving a response due to a heavy amount of e-mails recently.

Thank you and have a good one!

Shannon

Griffin Technology
Technical Support

Such awesome support right from the start! I didn’t even have to send in the old unit, just provide proof that it was broken. My response:

Thanks for the offer to replace it!  I don’t have the receipt as it was a gift for Christmas about two years ago.

I do love my Powermate, and wonder how I’d do without it while the other one is in the mail.  I use it a lot!

If that’s the only way to get a replacement, I guess I can break my current one… it just seems very sad to totally destroy a working one (even though the light is broken).

I wonder if you can send a new one, and then I can break it then?  I know this requires trust, but I’m a trustworthy guy 🙂  If not, I’d be more than happy to comply with your original email and will actually break my beloved PM.

I honestly didn’t expect Shannon to comply with my offer… she had no reason to, and Griffin was already doing me a huge favor. I had no receipt and had provided no proof of a broken unit. But Shannon wrote back:

Thanks for the photo of the terrified PM, but I do need that photo of it destroyed first.
UNLESS
You can print out this e-mail and incorporate the little mermaid somehow with the PM, then I will send out the new unit first.
If not, then just send that photo and I will get that replacement to you.
Thanks

Shannon

I didn’t know if Shannon was playing a joke on me or not. Maybe she just wanted a laugh at the office? But I figured I might as well play along, and I like the LIttle Mermaid anyway, so I followed instructions:

Shannon, now apparently convinced I wasn’t trying to scam a new unit out of her, replied with:

Hello

I have set up that order for you. Once it ships out you will receive tracking information to your e-mail address.

Thanks and have a good day!

Shannon

Sure enough, today I received the order confirmation! I was very happy that Griffin decided to give me a replacement unit when I had no receipt and the unit clearly was not under any sort of warranty. Shannon’s fun customer service was a refreshing break from the scripted Indian phone calls with “Bob” I usually have. She was also trusting and emailed the replacement unit with no proof (other than the Mermaid picture) that the old one was even broken. Needless to say I’m very happy with Griffin!

That was about a month ago, since the order confirmation I received said “back ordered”. So I wrote Shannon asking when I could expect my new PM:

Just to let you know, still haven’t received the PowerMate in the mail.  I got one that said it was backordered, but nothing since then!  Should I just keep waiting?  Thanks!

Shannon’s reply from this week:

Hello

We are still processing all the data from our old data system to our new system, and I checked on your order and its still being processed over. I just went ahead and set up that order in the new system and set that  to NEXT DAY shipping. That should go out in the next day or two. When you get both orders, just keep both units. Dont worry about sending it back to us or anything.
Sorry for the delay.

Thanks

Shannon

Well, by now I’m just shocked. Griffin is now sending me TWO REPLACEMENT UNITS because the first one, that I really didn’t even deserve, was taking too long! Remember that the first unit that broke wasn’t even under warranty and was over two years old! Honestly, if I was Shannon I’d have told me to take a hike after the first silly exchange of emails.

Sure enough, today I received ONE of my shiny new PowerMates:

I plugged it in and it works great! I hope it lasts for many years so I don’t have to bug Shannon anymore 🙂 True to my word, I have to cut up my old PowerMate and send Shannon proof of it’s demise. I just took these two pictures a few minutes ago:

Thanks Shannon, and thanks Griffin, for my new shiny geeky blue PowerMate. I can’t imagine there’s a company anywhere that provides better customer service. I hope to do more business with you in the future 🙂