In a feat of amazing stupidity yesterday (aided and abetted by a screaming three-year-old in the back seat), I managed to back our Honda Pilot into the garage door while it was still going up--I very nearly cleared the door, but ended up cracking the housing that holds the high-mounted brake light on the Pilot.
I called the local dealer yesterday, and they want about $150 for the thing--and it's a pretty simple looking piece of plastic. So I spent some time last night and this morning scouring the net for a better deal (but still from an authorized Honda dealer, as I wanted the genuine part). I was having some trouble finding the part, though, as I didn't know exactly what it was called. On one of the sites I visited, there was a button for "Live chat! 24 hour assistance!," so I thought I'd give it a try. Here's the actual exchange that took place with the "live" support rep:
Now, call me suspicious, but I don't think Simon is any more "live" than are the rocks decorating our yard. Sheez. If you're going to offer a live chat button, shouldn't you at least make sure it really does offer live chat?
I have to say that I had great luck with HP live support, as well as Panda Software's live help. My HP machine stopped booting, and the tech walked me through taking out the ram and putting it back in which fixed that. Panda directed me to a manual uninstaller when the Add/Remove program failed. So they aren't all bad. Now if only their products didn't have these problems to begin with...
Funny, I had exactly the same experience with Ikea here in Switzerland. They have a big "live chat" button on every page, but ask anything non-trivial and you just get a "I don't know". Robots...
You should try asking a very simple but unrelated question to find out if it's a real person or not, like: 'A three sided shape is called a _________?'
(That just happens to be the question I had to answer to post this.) If it's a real person, they'll probably think you're an idiot for asking it, but at least it shows if it's a computer or not.
There are actually some websites with Live Chat Support that really helps! Once I used Live chat while searching a place for my holiday. They can really help!
maybe they meant that only living people are allowed to use their chat site. Maybe it's something aking to a 'Aryan Chat Service - the place where there racially supreme meet to greet and beat.' Only people of the set 'live' are allowed on. I hate people who are prejudiced towards the living. Discriminatory bastards!
To provide you with the "live help" that Honda didn't provide, if you have all the broken parts, you might visit an independent auto parts store and see if they've got a special glue kit to join the plastic again. Cost would probably be under $10.
And if you're afraid the cracks will show, you might see if there's a metal or plastic "protection" grid of the sort people get for the lights on off-road vehicles. It might keep the same thing from happening again.
Last but not least, if your Pilot is more than a couple of years old, you might call auto junk yards. I got a turn signal assembly for my aging Toyota that way. Cost will depend on demand but will be much less than the dealer.
And at least Honda has a sense of humor--"Simon" must stand for the "Simon Says" of the childhood game.
--Mike Perry, Seattle
You should know to as ..." SImon Says" that should have been the first clue the Live Help was duping you. Call me a cynic
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