How to fail at customer service

I called DELL's customer line to find out if any of their laptops had the hot swappable bays I'm looking for. It took at least 3 redirects, a bad connection to a call centre in India before I found out that the answer was NO while the guy on the other end started launching into a sales pitch.

Mark: FAIL

How to SUCCEED at customer service

I also called Lenovo. The first person to answer my call had the answer, the appropriate terms to look for on the Lenovo website, and which product lines to look for.

Mark: PASS

Fujitsu do not have a local reseller in Canberra but may have one soon. The first person I spoke to there promised to call me back in an hour with details once I identified the models I was interested in, and may also provide details of a NSW/VIC reseller with website ordering.

Mark: PASS (maybe not as strong as Lenovo but still WAY better than Dell).

So close and yet so far away...

Toshiba's customer service line also rates a pass: the first person you talk to knows what she is talking about and gives a straight answer.

Alas it seems that Toshiba DO have a hot swappable bay but don't have a battery accessory for it. Sigh.