A Good Experience in the Mall!

I arrived here in Muscat the other day with a completely dead laptop. The hard drive had been replaced in NYC, but the replacement was “bad,” and just before I went to the airport I had to race back to the (Mac certified) shop to see why it was dead. They told me the hard drive was “bad” (and I paid $260+) and so changed it out for a new one. But no time to reload any data on it. Not a word of apology though. It would have been polite even if it wasn’t technically their fault. It’s happened to me more than once with “bad” hard or software, so you figure it happens to other people too, so it follows that you might figure that maybe someone would check the quality of those hard drives and other electronic crap. Their attitude was the usual impersonal and minimum engagement one we get so much and nowadays passes for politeness. I hate it but I guess I’m in the minority.

So I arrived here with a raw new hard drive with no data on it and a time machine back-up I had made and what a surprise (haha) that I couldn’t get it to back up to restore the data. Details of what happened next are about as interesting as hearing the minutiae of someone’s court case, so all I’ll say that the new Mac store, it's called "Mi Store" in City Centre Qurum, went above and beyond the call of duty, especially as I never bought anything from them. There is only one guy who knows anything and so he had to juggle everything and everyone but he spent an incredible amount of time with me, over two days. He patiently and bluntly explained what he could and couldn’t fix, never getting annoyed at my endless questions. The first day was just getting the saved load of crap onto the computer.

The second day I just had to deal with the programs that didn’t come over properly--itunes, word, my broadband, and quicken. He fixed itunes, and found a better solution for word and quicken, so I am bailing from them. I always did hate quicken but after 4 years had still not abandoned it. So all well there. And Mac’s “Pages” effortlessly changes word files. I didn't spend one cent in there! I just have macs!

Nawras, on the ground floor of the same mall was also excellent. In fact, it’s possible they were even better. The laptop couldn't recognize the modem, and the lovely, polite, and brilliant Omani technician fixed it and installed a better one. He fixed my broadband on the ipad--it had been declared unfixable. There had been a scene the night before, with the sim and a missing part, and a needle and disaster. And he upgraded the software on both that and the laptop. And all these things were done with a smile, and happily and for free, except the 2RO charge to buy a new sim card. Yes, I'm a Nawras customer, but still. Wallah it was ridiculous.

Compare it to that disgusting Verizon Business in New York declaring all companies under 100 employees “mass market” instead of "small business" and not even thinking enough of our business to have a phone number! (You can upgrade your account on line--but for moving or cutting services, forget it. It's cheaper for them to just let you stop paying and then send a collection agency. I swear the guy I eventually got on the phone told me this--he was from "Medium business" 100-500 employees) Or t-mobile, horrible company, that will not allow me to do anything in a store, including buy a new blackberry. I am supposed to do it online or on the phone (that they don’t answer) because I am a business account. Last time I wanted to upgrade my blackberry, as the old one had died, t-mobile informed me I could either find something on my own or pay $499 cash for theirs, as my plan did not apply. (This is in America, where most people get huge discounts on phones in return for signing service contracts.) I wound up buying a blackberry, (probably stolen) from one of the employees in a transaction conducted outside and for cash. And that one was dead within 2 months, only to be replaced in Salalah, with an upgrade, and they rescued all my destroyed information too, for 3 RO. And they delivered it. With a smile. That from Yassar Mobile at the edge of souq harami.

Seriously, I can’t stand hearing this complaining about customer service here in Oman or how it’s inferior here in any way whatsoever. Look in your own damn backyard! Unless you’re Swiss or something, the light of nostalgia is coloring your views, trust me. If you live in New York City, you will be nodding in agreement, I think. An occasional surly clerk does not poor customer service make. It's like when Americans, used to the worst airlines in the world, get to fly a decent airline, outside the USA, and their shock at not being yelled at by the flight attendants; never mind being greeted, smiled at, helped with their luggage and served a meal with cutlery even on a short flight. This is something most people never expected to experience again in their lives. To have people greet you and smile, even if you have to smile first, is nectar. Who cares if they don’t always have a ready answer? Here in Oman you can still find people who care to find an answer.