My customer service experience of the day

The setting: "Worldwide Technology", a deceptively-named computer shop in Siem Reap where I bought my laptop a few months ago. Their website is under construction, but their motto appears there: "We bring you to the latest technologies." Yesterday I brought the laptop in because six of the keys stopped working. 

Me: (Enter the shop)

Employee: (One runs into the back room, the other greets me with a big smile) "He go get for you!"

Me: "Thank you."(Back-room guy returns with my laptop.) "Is it fixed?"

Employee: (They exchange confused looks.) "Not sure."

Me: "Could we check?"

Employee: (After long pause) "You want turn on?"

Me: "Yes, can we check to see if it is fixed?" (Hopeful smile)

Employee: "OK" (They wander away)

Me: (Remove laptop from cover, hit power button. No response.) "Do you have power cord? So I can turn on?"

Employee: "You need power cord?"

Me: "Yes, power cord. So I can turn on."

Employee: "I think battery finished. No power."

Me: "Yes, I think so. Could I use a power cord to plug it in?" (Repeat this exchange again. Employees eventually produce power cord by opening a box with a new computer in it and removing the cord. After a few more minutes, they are able to find an outlet and get the laptop plugged in. I turn it on, bring up a new Word document, type the previously-reported-as-not-working keys and get no response.) "Not fixed yet. Still has the problem with the keys that don't work."

Employee: (Looks at me incredulously, then calls guy from the back room to come. Lively exchange in Khmer.) "Uh, you speak Khmer?"

Me: "No." (I'm never going to admit it even when I do, if I ever do.)

Employee: (More lively conversation in Khmer. Thanks to the globalization of language, I am able to pick out the English word "keyboard" many times.) "OK, but can work. Have to be strong strong with keys." (Guy from the back room begins pounding the offending keys with great vigor. Eventually, they begin to work.) "See? No problem." (Big smile.)

Me: "No, still a problem. I should not have to hit the keys 'strong strong.'"

Employee: "No, you hit strong strong and then work. No problem."

Me: "No, still a problem. It should be easy all the time. Just like the other keys, easy all the time. I think you still need to fix."

Employee: (After more Khmer conversation) "Cannot fix now. Now no problem. If no problem, cannot fix. We fix screen already last time!" (Referring to the time I had to take in last month when the screen crapped out.)

Me: "I know you fix the screen already. Thank you. But now we have one new problem: keyboard. This computer is not old. I buy from you five months ago. Should work easy easy all the time."

Employee: "But cannot fix now, because now no problem. You take home, bring back if problem again."

Me: "If I take it home, I think I will come back tomorrow because the problem will start again. Can you fix it if I come back tomorrow with same problem again?" [Only as I type this do I realize how I sound when I talk to Khmer people with limited English. Is it condescending or kind to simplify my grammar and vocabulary in order to be more easily understood?]

Employees: "Yeah, yeah. Maybe tomorrow." (Begin to wander off again.)

Me: "I think this laptop still has warranty. Maybe the company can fix."

Employee: "When we send to company, take long time. Go to China. Problem with keyboard, we cannot open laptop to fix. Only company can do."

Me: "OK, maybe we should send to the company. Maybe they can fix the problem." (Test the keyboard again myself. Find that the keys work easily, until I hit SHIFT and then they don't work at all.) "See? We still have the problem."

Employee: (Tests keyboard and confirms that keys don't work when SHIFT is pressed, even after vigorous pounding.) "Not work now because you press SHIFT."

Me: "Yes, exactly."

Employee: "If no press SHIFT, no problem."

Me: "But sometimes I must press SHIFT, when I need to make the big letter. So still have the problem."

Employee: (One gathers up laptop and heads in to the back room) "He go now, clean keyboard."

Me: "He's going to clean the keyboard?" (Employee nods to confirm understanding) "I think maybe he did that already, when he tried to fix yesterday."

Employee: "No, he not clean yet!"

Me: (slightly defeated) "How long until finished?"

Employee: (After shouted Khmer between front of shop and back room) "Not sure!"

Me: "Maybe I come back later..."

Just another day in Customer Service Land...Endlessly entertaining, but not so efficient.