Let's be clear here - I'm using powers of deduction to glean that you have some connection with Onkyo UK Office? Great customer-centric post.
Firstly, re your snidey comment re receiver/amplifier ((Onkyo employ pedants eh?). Hey, I feed stuff into it & gets amplified, the fact that it's got a £1.95 RDS FM radio tuner in there which in 2006 holds no appeal, so to me (& most) it's an amp.
Customer feedback: Please bin the feeble RDS FM tuner & knock the £1.95 off the RRP (or put a DAB radio in & increase the RRP)
Ok then, let the AVforum readers decide....click on here
http://www.onkyo.co.uk/ then click on 'contact' (erhmm like the usual place for contact info!), then "Address"...(remember folks, this is Onkyo's UK web presence) - what do you see? Yep, I see Germany office/phone number listed - pure brilliance.
I'm a punter & as such I shouldn't have to hunt around under dealers/distributors links for the manafacturer's number!please put it in the obvious place - "Contact Us". Your suggestion that I should know the structure of a company I wish to make contact with is a joke. To a punter, a website called Onkyo UK, represents Onkyo UK....clicking on contact should give me Onkyo UK's telephone number (if there is one)....if the 'Contact' shows Germany, I call it - I don't think "Hmm, I wonder if Onkyo Uk's website is a German based site & therefore Onkyo UK will be under the distributor'(????) link!
Next, can I have a customer servce helpline (the helpline number I called in Germany- ie as extracted from the UK website - referred me to the UK, where yep - I get a receptionist)...if there's nobody there to service a customer request, how about saying "There's nobody here to help". As it went, I felt as if I couldn't be sure of the info I'd received.
Your proposed game sucks (or maybe it's just your setup that sucks) - I don't think Meridian would have a receptionist answer the supplied customer service helpline, but if they do, I'm sure they'd actually put me through rather than fudging.
You've misunerstood the cut & thrust...I'm not having a go at the receptionist (& now you've made it clear she was even less so)...just giving fellow consumers my "Onkyo customer experience" ie outlining more the mickey mouse setup you have in place to service customer requests presently.
Let's make this easy for you.....
1. Put all your new product's owners manual on the web ( hey, customer quesries reduced by 80%!)
2. Put UK contact numbers in the 'Contact Us' part of the UK website (this one is a top tip & I claim my £10.)
3. Have a proper customer service helpline...at the moment it sounds like there's someone who'll take call if they're not up to other things which is how local garages do it (but you're meant to be a little above that being a global brand)
4. If number 3 isn't available...have a voicemail to take a number & call the customer back.
5. Don't make it hard for customers to find out what they need (see number 1)
6. Be sure to hand out info with full authority (as it went, I came off the call thinking I'm about to burn 500 BIG ones on a bit of kit & I think it's going to have lip sync compensation...still don't know the maximimum delay. blah, blah)
7. Read up on how the customer relations....certainly a Onkyo rep being sarcastic on public forum does little to promote the Onkyo brand.