I used to work for KPNQwest, which was a pan-European company. They tried to offer seamless service across Europe (which failed miserably) and tried things like regional service centers.
Dealing with Interxion gives me Deja-Vues. They, too, try to offer the same service in all of their Datacenters across Europe. And they, too, have their centralized customer care. Here the fun starts:
We (/me @ job) rent one rack in the Vienna Datacenter. We need a new server, so we order one from our usual supplier (SCC) to be directly delivered as there is no point in unpacking it at the downtown office. Ok, I know that Interxion wants to be told in advance if they should accept a shipment, so i fire up my web-browser, head to www.interxion.com to find the form to fill out.
No deal. The only customer-care thing they have on the web is the contact info for their helpdesk. Okaaaay, let’s call them. After sorting out whether we should talk German or English the nice guy there promises me to send me the right form, and it promptly arrives in my inbox. (The question of why that thing isn’t on the web yields only some “security” hand-waving)
It’s an excel sheet. Good. I start to fill it out. Two problems arise:
* Some of the cells you’re supposed to fill out are protected. WTF.
* They want to know the exact date (preferably including time) when the shipment will arrive, plus what the carrier is, and what the tracking number is.
Yeah right. First of all, any delivery date given to you by any courier service is highly speculative and not to be relied on. And secondly, SCC never told me (nor do I care) which shipping service they will use.
Ok, I sent a mail to both of them to work this our between each other. I certainly can’t help here.
Let’s see how this works out next week.