After sending my video and blog link to the folks at Jackery, I got a nice Email from Julie, who explained the reasoning behind the request for a video. It’s actually quite interesting, and makes a lot of sense.
Previously they used to require customers with defective units to mail the unit back to them. Customers had to box them up, apply postage (though I understand Jackery would also supply a prepaid shipping label), wait for the unit to arrive at Jackery, wait for someone to assess the unit, and only then a new unit would be sent out.
Jackery decided a “less cost and more green” approach would be to have the customer simply make a video of the defective item. To me, this does several things:
- Reduces the postage cost (to the customer, if self-paying, or to Jackery, if the customer is using a prepaid shipping label) for returning the item.
- Reduces the time between contacting customer service and Jackery shipping out a replacement product (if, in fact, the customer makes a “quick video”) since shipping is not involved.
- Confirms to Jackery that the customer indeed has a product (yeah, some people try to scam their way into a free item!).
- Gives Jackery an opportunity to see if there is simply some sort of user error during operation – though I imagine this doesn’t happen often. What’s so difficult about inserting a USB cable?
- Saves energy and waste by eliminating the packing material and transportation process.
I told Julie I understood the benefits of this process — now that I was aware of their rationale for it — and recommended that perhaps they should send a link in the email from customer service when requesting the video with an explanation of why. And for folks that might not be too savvy, how to easily make a video with their phone and send it. (There are still folks out there who don’t use social media and might need a little help.)
Here’s the substantive text of the Email from Julie — very nice, as one would expect from a customer-focused customer service rep:
We’re sorry to hear the Bar does not work properly. Although we work hard to ensure high quality products through multiple quality checks, we regrettably still come across defective products from time to time.
I totally understand the inconvenience to shoot a video and upload it to a media for display. We appreciate your time and effort sending us the video.
To share with you that in the past, we required customers to return the defective for RMA process. We try to go green, save energy and reduce cost therefore we start with this short video process. I believe this is simpler than printing out a prepaid label and sending the package to a local postal office.
We’ve created the RMA record of yours and will ship you the replacement by USPS in 48 business hours. You will receive an email from USPS for the tracking number.
Please discard the old one locally.
As I mentioned in my original post, I’ve got two other Jackery products (and my family has 3 more, collectively!), which we’re very happy with. And now we’re not only happy with Jackery products, we’re also very happy with their customer service.