Customer service with a capital C and a capital S

legalluke · Guest

I am not much of an early adopter (being an attorney I like to wait and see how products fair out).

However, with 3600 sq.ft. + of carpeting, and one huge (150 lbs.) and shedding Bernese Mountain Dog, the wife was tired of vacuuming.

So we got a Discovery SE...and like all the postings on this site had warned me, it broke. We maybe used it 15 times. It performed flawlessly, until it started just going in circles. :roll:

Turns out Roombas do this (their wheels fail or something) and their customer service people have experience diagnosing the issue and correcting it.

The procedure is simple: they get you to confirm one wheel is kaput, you mail them the protective grill/grate from your unit and they mail you a new unit, sans the attachments (you keep and use your old charger(s) battery...).

Believe it or not, my unit broke Dec. 22nd, while I had a group of 10 people down visiting for the Holidays. The wife went ballisitc. The prospect of breaking out her Dyson was not appealing. :?

I contacted Roomba, they were helpful. I removed the grill and mailed it, that same day, and they returned a new unit to me. I had it on Dec.28. I actually saw where they shipped it on Dec. 24th.

Amazing customer service. Wish my luxury cars were treated that way. MY 60K Ford is a POS (piece of sh*t) and I got nothing, I mean NOTHING from Ford. :evil:

I hope Roomba's strategy is sustainable (it can't be cheap) and I tell you what...if they ever make a car, I'm buying one.

PS: don't ever buy a Ford Excursion.

JJ · Guest

Glad to hear it luke.

For now at least, iRobot does seem to just be sending out brand new replacements whenever anyone has a problem that can't be resolved over the phone, and as I have said in other posts, as long as they retain their excellent customer service, I will live with the spotty reliability of my Roombas.

What a lot of us have done is bought a Roomba Red as a backup. After you get your replacement Discovery, you wind up with all of the parts needed to convert a Roomba Red into a fully functioning Discovery anyway! (Second homebase, fast charger, wall mount, remote, etc.)

That way, when one of them is 'down' while waiting for replacement, I always have one up and running. And when they are both running, I get twice the cleaning power when I leave for work. (Start one up stairs, one downstairs. Come home, both are done and fully charged on their homebases.)

JJ