Originally Posted by
Walter S
+1. It might be appropriate to usually hope for a response that fast. But to demand it as part of adequate customer service is asking too much. A retailer that can guarantee that kind of response has no choice but to inflate their prices to ensure customer service capacity at all times. I'd rather not pay for that.
-1
I guess this is where we differ. I'd gladly pay extra knowing that this service exists. For example, I pay extra when I buy something electronic in the EU (20% sales tax usually), but I automatically get a 2-year full replacement warranty by law.
I could save roughly 20% by buying the same item in the US as I travel there quite often. iPhones, MacBookPros and bikes are roughly 20% cheaper, but I'd rather have the warranty.
At a certain price point, I will by the cheaper option.
For example, I bought my recent MacBookProRetina in Japan because it was 40% less than EU (the yen is quite low now) even though I have no effective warranty.
On the whole though, on something I use daily like a car/bike, I'd pay extra to ensure that it was always serviced within a 24-hour period.
In fact, I buy a 24-hour turnaround repair/replace policy on all of my research equipment as it usually costs me roughly £200/$320 to pay a single researcher for a day of work and if I have 6 people standing around due to failure, that's $2000 lost automatically (which usually pays for the 24-hour turn around policy).
However, at the MS price point in the US, one can't really expect that much service.