Palm Customer care – brutal edition

I have had my fair share of standoffs with Palm’s customer care myself; but this story trumps it all – here’s the best excerpt from it:

…
So I asked employee C11329 to be transfered to her manager. She told me she was the most senior person at Palm. I asked her again politely to transfer me to her manager. She told me she had none. I asked to be transfered to the person that was reviewing her work, giving her assignments, etc.. I was told she had none. I told her I felt that was odd as, apart from the chairman and CEO, I didn’t know of anyone in a company not having a manager. She told me she was the CEO.

For a second, I paused. “You’re the CEO of Palm, Inc.?” I asked again, not really believing what I was hearing. “Yes, I am” she replied, now with a defiant tone. “So you’re telling me you’re Ed Colligan?” I asked. “I am the CEO and that’s all you need to know.”

Well, turns out I was now in a very odd situation. I had been at several industry events where Ed Colligan spoke (including a number of product launches from Palm) and, as far as my memory was concerned, his voice was neither feminine nor did it sound south-Asian in its inflection. My memory might have been playing games on me but I was pretty sure I was not talking to the CEO of Palm.
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Head on over to tnl.com for the full scoop…hope this helps all those of you frustrated with Palm’s Customer care to a good laugh…

P.S. Wonder how I found this? I was actually looking for horror stories on a courier service…more about that on request!

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2. A hart-warming tale from customer care
3. Palm Inc customer care revisited
4. Customer care hell: asking about specs
5. Give stuff away for successful customer care