I went to the Lexmark website and was unable to find the part number for the power cord, so I sent off an e-mail to their customer support. The nice people there e-mailed me back with a number to call on this matter. I called the number they gave, and received a sexual proposal from the person who answered. Surely I must have mis-dialed? I called again and got the same answer as the first call. I went online and found a different number for their customer support, and got an actual customer support person for Lexmark. I lodged a complaint about the first attempted phone calls. I then informed them of the nature of my call. I was told that my printer was no longer supported, but that what happened with my power cord should not have happened, and if I would call their tech support number, they would hook me up with a new one.
I hesitantly called the number they gave, afraid that I would get another sex solicitation answer, but I got lucky (or not) and got into an endless hold loop. After being on hold for a week or so, I got an answer from someone who spoke broken English. They got some information from me, and then asked if I was calling from the United States. Yes, I answered, then to my chagrin I was put back on hold.
After a not-so-short wait, someone else came on the phone who spoke slightly better English, and he or she (I could not tell the gender of the voice) took my mailing information from me. I was then placed on hold again.
Good grief!
After what seemed like another week, yet another person who spoke slightly better English than the second person came on the line and informed me that a replacement part would be shipped out and I should receive it in 4 or 5 days.
While this was helpful and all, and it is wonderful that I’m getting a free replacement part, I think I would have preferred to pay for a replacement part knowing that the people I spoke with were employed here in the US and that Lexmark had not farmed their customer support out to a country that, while polite, does not have a firm grasp on the English language.
Why is it so flipping hard to get a new power cord??????
If I ever get any windfall money from an unexpected source, I think I may research which printer companies have not farmed out those kinds of positions to overseas locations, and buy a replacement scanner/copier/printer. I should not need to be fluent in other languages when calling a customer support number for the country in which I live!
OK, I’m off my soap-box for a little while now. At least until the next need to rant comes upon me.