"We never promise the vacuum cleaner would suck the carpet," Dyson replied to my complaint

I let it go for a while before I started writing about the Dyson experience. The reason is that A, I don't want to be misled by emotions. B, I also want to look at this matter from an objective perspective.

It is quite simple. My old Dyson vacuum broke, so I bought a new Dyson online to replace it. This machine has been on and off since it was bought, when it used Max mode to suck the carpet. At the beginning, I didn't take it seriously, because of my busy lifestyle.

I went to Dyson to try to get it fixed on a whim two months ago and it was an unmitigated experiential disaster, to the point where I now tell everyone: "Don't buy anything from Dyson."

In dealing with Dyson, its "intelligent" customer service was terrifying.

In China, all consumers are required to go to its official WeChat account to register for a warranty. But behind this account, I suspect it has no human there. I am a big believer in technology, but after I have played with a machine’s irrelevant answer many times, I think it is a very stupid thing to do with the “AI rep”. Bottom line: If I, the customer, have typed "Why do you keep repeating the same answer?", a human customer should intervene immediately.

Dyson may have done so, since I later found a typo in one reply. At least that sentence should have been typed by a human. But it was again just repeating what the machine said before.

Even on Tmall, the E-Commerce platform without robots, the human customer service is simply copying and pasting what has been written. The other side even made a mistake by sending the instruction to me: "If a client says... ", please reply in this way. ".

It's a total customer service disaster. I know that the workload in China is always high compared to other markets, so some special measures are needed. But it's not hard to see the culture of this company: I don't care about how you feel, I care about how I get my work done quickly.

The problem with my vacuum cleaner was ultimately unsolved. They were forced by me to take it back to examine and repair, then quickly responded to me: no problem with the machine. I forced it because they repeatedly tried to get me to fix it by following the video they provided at home. I did, but it didn't work out, and as mentioned above, I communicated with "customer service staff" several times in order to get it be taken back.

However, even after I provided my proof video, the "no problem" machine was forcibly returned to my home. In this communication, the other side first said that the suction head I used was wrong, and then said that the product was not suitable for long hair carpet. When I asked why my previous one sucked on the same carpet, they said it had an overheat protection mechanism.

However, when I raised a very reasonable point: no matter what mechanism it has, I cannot use it to clean carpets well, your publicity did not mention this potential problem. I think it is a quality issue, please solve it. They chose to shut up. 

Since then, no matter what channels I have used to approach Dyson, including sending emails to global customer service center, complaining to authorities, and complaining to the E-Commerce platform, they chose to briefly learn the matter, then refused to deal with the machine, and never paid any more attention.

My outbox still contains email I sent to the global customer service a few weeks ago, but no one has responded.

The most interesting twist to this story was when the customer service of Tmall received my complaint, they first talked to Dyson, and then came to me and said, "Their product description page never said that this machine can suck carpets." I couldn't believe it. I thought I was seeing aliens. I blurted out, "Is that what you think? Or is it Dyson's answer to you?" The other side went silent.

I don't know how to describe how it all ends up making me feel. It's like someone pouring me a bucket of ice-cold water on a 200 degrees hot summer day, or trying to solve a puzzle and realizing I don't have high enough IQ.

I couldn't believe that a brand I trusted and bought in different countries without any hesitation would treat me like this. Maybe because I'm only one of millions or even tens of millions of their global customers, I'm too small to be taken seriously. As a human being, I can accept that.

But as a marketer, the way they treat a customer is really eye-opening. What I mean is that the foundation of a brand is word of mouth. Word of mouth for products is important, but word of mouth for services is even more important. When I pay a higher premium to buy a product that purported to be high-end, I expect humanized and reasonable service.

And when everyone who works at Dyson knows that the model is flawed and still forcibly sends it back to my home, they probably don't know every time I look at it, I think: what an irresponsible brand it is. I impulse propaganda with everyone: do not buy Dyson!

Mishandling consumer complaints happens often, but when a brand's experience is indifference, unreasonable, and runaround, I doubt its entrepreneurial spirit and despise its mercenary core.