Around Christmas time I bought a device called EyeTV (made by Elgato) that lets you plug and play your digital cable on your computer (mostly for Macs). It worked great for the most part, but it was susceptible to failing when my computer would come out of sleep mode or when I would change user accounts. When the device would fail, all I had to do to get it to work again was unplug and replug the USB device, but it was still pretty annoying.

I contacted Elgato support via their site and documented my troubles. A customer service guy named Eddie got back to me quickly and offered some help; namely, he suggested I install a new version of their software that was supposed to fix this problem. It didn't work...

In response to the software not working, Eddie offered to swap my faulty device for a new one. I thought that was a great idea, but I asked him if he would send me one and I would send my faulty one back to him after I had received the new one. Basically, I didn't want to go without the device because it worked well enough that I'd miss it for the week while it was in the mail and the new one was on the way. Eddie said they didn't do advanced replacement. I was kind of bummed out and figured I'd just put up with the poorly functioning device instead of going without it for a week.

Was it realistic or logical for me to assume they'd send me a new device and just hope that I'd send the old one back to them? I thought about it for a bit and figured I was being a little unreasonable and assumed the situation would effectively die on the vine if I didn't send my old one to them first.  I decided the device was "good enough" and moved on with my life.

Well, a couple of weeks after my communication with Eddie had ended, I was surprised to find a UPS package from Elgato on my doorstep.  It was a new device! Along with the new device there was an orange sheet of paper saying, in effect, "please send us your old device now :)".  I took the new one, hooked it up, confirmed that it worked, packaged up my old one in the box, attached the shipping tag that Elgato provided (free shipping!) and dropped it off at UPS the next day. I was not only surprised that this new device showed up out of the blue, I was also ecstatic that Elgato took the time to do what I thought was the right thing!

So, to review the situation, here is what Elgato did for me (without me having to push the issue):

• they shipped me a $150 device without confirmation that I would send my old one back to them
• they shipped me a $150 device without confirming that I had actually bought my old device (via a copy of my receipt or something)
• they sent me everything I needed to get the new one working quickly and easily, and it worked perfectly
• they sent me everything I needed to send back my old device back to them quickly, easily and without additional cost
• most importantly, someone in that organization read my support history and made the decision to change (or make an exception to) their policy of not sending out advanced replacements.

MORAL OF THE STORY

I now have an Elgato device that works flawlessly, I am very happy with their company, product and support, I have told pretty much everyone I've talked to about what a great company this is, I took the time to publish this blog post, I have looked at the other products they sell, and I will undoubtedly buy more stuff from them in the future. If they hadn't gone above and beyond and sent this device out to me, I'd still have a device that didn't work right, I'd be mildly irked with their product and support procedures, and I'd be very unlikely to buy anything from them in the future.

This experience with Elgato exemplifies how smoothly and mutually beneficial an interaction between a consumer and a business should be. Instead of the usual "we care about our customers!" lip service, this company actually walked the walk and proved to me that they have my best interest in mind.  As a result, I now have their company's best interest in my mind. This is the way all companies should handle service issues. I highly recommend this company!