Iomega, Class Act or Class Action?:
A Continuing Study
Into How Iomega Treats
Its Customers and Employees

They are in the process of laying people off and outsourcing repairs to their drives
to an oriental branch.

They have laughed and have reported in writing their laughter about customer complaints.
Their arrogance demands a firm correction.

>Why go to all this bother just to claim a $200 victory?
-- A $200 victory will hardly begin to compensate me for the troubles I have taken, [Anonymous]. The point is that this company can afford to give good customer service. They give none at all, free, charging per incident. To gain a firmer understanding of what I am saying, visit some of these sites

        http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/surak1/iomegag.htm

        http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/surak1/iomegag1.htm

        http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/surak1/iomegag2.htm

        http://www.akula.com/~jwu/wwwboard/wwwboard.html

        http://www.akula.com/~jwu/wwwboard/messages/1363.html

and chase for yourself where they lead. IMHO, it is time for American companies like Iomega to give [their] customers a fair shake in the user-support arena.

Nonetheless, I grant you that your attitude has great merit. I just wish I could be so charitable, after having gone through the great pains I have experienced trying to deal with Iomega. Love their product (at least the Zip drive, the only Iomega product I ever owned), but hate their absolute lack of customer support. In the words of Mephistopheles in Goethe's opera "Faust," "Something must be done."

Steve

.....]

[>Today's business model doesn't usually allow for a personal support component.
-- I'd like to fix that.

>That's why most software vendors charge for calls.
-- I can still point to companies providing excellent 1.800 support to their users, who do not charge per incident.

>Most corporate accounts, for example, would rather separate out support costs from product costs, as they can take care of support internally. So they drive down the unit price to the point where the publisher -- or manufacturer in the case of peripherals -- can't afford to give away good customer service...
-- Happy mediums are desired. I do not want to put any company out of business by insisting that it stay on the phone with any single customer too long. But there are times when long phone calls are necessitated by exigencies beyond the user's control -- as in the hardware mismatches I just took three weeks going through. I never would have solved the problem without lots of good help from several directions, including my ISP.

>For myself, I don't expect to use support unless something just flat out breaks.
-- You are an engineer. Most people are not so knowledgeable as you about all this. If manufacturers take a bloke's money, they should provide support.

>In the case of Zip drives, you are getting a lot of product for the money, and you pretty much take your chance. If it breaks, count on buying another one, just like with worn out toner or inkjet cartridges. Tough model, but there it is...
-- When people never can get it to work in the first place, they should not have to eat the drive.

>I agree Iomega takes the "to hell with the customer" attitude a bit far,
-- Thank you.

>but you have to go into something like that with your eyes open.
-- No. I can expect better consumer protections in the computer world than have yet been invoked, and I can use the existing powers of the law to try to correct a damnable situation.

>To expect reasonable service in such a situation is -- IMHO -- an unrealistic assumption.
-- OK.

>Hey, if that's important to you, fine.
-- It is important not just to me but to many others as well.

>I tend to be a bit more pragmatic about the way the business operates these days...
--No, I think that you have given up as a consumer and that you tend to see more the side of the producer than of the consumer. All I want is fair play and a level playing field.]

4.
"To: s@theriver.com
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 1996 05:36:14 PST
Subject: Re: 1.800.2Iomega?
References: <199610220012.RAA23701@pantano.theriver.com>
X-Juno-Line-Breaks: 0-1,4-5,10-13,15
From: jbc7@juno.com (J B C)

"Bravo, Steve,

"Under the circumstances Iomega is getting off light. [How lightly they 'get off' will be a function of how reasonable they get and how quickly they do so. S.L., 25Oct96] The technical response I got that forced me to abandon my quest for a Zip was their machinized non-human anonymous, no-questions asked 'help' line that was a no-brainer, as well! Iomega company projected the idea that no problem was so big that buying MORE of their equipment wouldn't solve.

"Thanks again Steve, a GOOD JOB!

" ._.       =              ^   0      ^0^                       ^   ^
" \_   (js)\.    GBY&Y"

5.
"To: s@theriver.com
Cc: tdowling@strong-funds.com
Subject: Re: 1.800.2Iomega?
References: <199610220012.RAA23701@pantano.theriver.com>
X-Juno-Line-Breaks: 0,4-5,12-15,27-28,32-33,36-37,39-92
From: karendowling@juno.com (Timothy M Dowling)
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 1996 21:46:33 EDT

"so, is the subject phone # available for them?

"is that the first response that you got from Iomega? if it is, its really too bad that customers should have to go through the hassles of writing to the state attorney general to get any response or action. how can companies like that stay in business? at least they admitted their mistakes, more than we ever got Olan mills to do. it ended up costing us about $100 and five trips to the courthouse and we got nothing out of it.

"They had lawyers come up from Tennessee and just when the judge was about to award karen the case (even though he spent a long time laughing about it earlier) their lawyer showed the judge an unpublished change in the law, which actually had happened because of all the lawsuits that were brought against olan mills, that didn't allow someone to file a claim against them until they had harrassed at least one additional time.

"have you been using your scanner to scan these letters in? i've used the OCR a couple of times."

6. 
 "Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 08:26:27 -0400 (EDT)
X-Sender: bl17@postoffice2.mail.cornell.edu
To: s@TheRiver.com
From: bl17@cornell.edu (Barbara LeGendre)
Subject: iomega

"Stephen:

"Barbara