What a Faulty Laptop Can Teach Us About Productivity Culture
I've been reflecting on an experience with a well-known supplier of business PCs, which offers some interesting insights into organisational productivity and culture. Over the past year, I’ve been engaged in frustrating interactions with this organisation, a company I’ve been loyal to for 24 years. Despite my longstanding relationship as a business customer, the issues I’ve faced highlight significant cracks in its productivity culture.
A Longstanding Customer Relationship Gone Awry
This supplier has been my go-to source for business computers—servers, desktops, and laptops—for over two decades. Throughout that time, I’ve always worked directly with an account manager, avoiding the website and relying on human interaction and advice for orders.
Just over three years ago, I purchased an expensive touchscreen laptop, complete with an active pen and docking station. However, when it arrived, I discovered the active pen wasn’t compatible with the device. While I was offered a refund, the company never resolved the compatibility issue, leaving me unable to fully utilise the laptop for its intended purpose. Frustrated, I eventually purchased an iPad Pro to meet my needs instead.
A year ago, the laptop started to show intermittent charging issues. I reported the problem and was sent a replacement charger. Then the Bluetooth began to malfunction, switching itself off randomly. After working with its online support, who remotely controlled my device to troubleshoot, the issue persisted. I eventually gave up and switched to using a USB mouse.
By March this year, the charging issues returned. Another replacement charger was sent, which failed to solve the problem. In June, just before the expiry of the three-year next-business-day on-site warranty, I contacted the support team again. This time, the representative diagnosed a faulty battery, and I paid for an engineer to replace it. And… this also didn’t work. Another engineer's visit saw the motherboard being replaced (under warranty), again, the issue was not resolved. What followed was months of back-and-forth troubleshooting, during which the system became increasingly unstable.
The final straw came during a workshop I was delivering to a group of CEOs in September. The laptop repeatedly shut down whenever I connected it to the room’s remote screen, forcing me to borrow someone else’s laptop for the half-day session.
Since then, the device has been sent back to their repair centre twice. It has undergone two additional motherboard replacements, another new battery, new memory, a new hard drive, new internal cables, and two new chargers. After all of this, the problem persists. The supplier has finally given up and offered me a partial refund.
Linking the Story to Productivity and Culture
Productivity is a financial metric: the output (or value added) per worker. In organisations with problematic productivity cultures, you often find inefficiencies like rework, replacements, refunds, returns, or revisits. This case exemplifies these issues perfectly.
Financial Metrics Tell the Same Story
A quick check of this organisation’s financial data at Companies House reveals its productivity wage quotient (PWQ) stands at 1.4. This ratio measures the value added per employee relative to their wage bill. A PWQ between 1 and 1.7 is a red flag, firmly placing it in the realm of a problematic productivity culture. It’s clear that inefficiency isn’t just reflected in customer experiences—it’s embedded in the broader organisational performance.
The Value of a Lifetime Customer
What stands out most is the organisation’s complete lack of appreciation for the lifetime value of me as a customer. Over 24 years, I’ve spent a significant amount with this supplier. Yet this experience has severed that relationship.
While it operated strictly within its terms and conditions, it’s approach has cost it far more than necessary. If it had addressed the issue holistically—perhaps offering a replacement unit or full refund earlier—it could have retained my loyalty. Instead, the rigid adherence to policy has burned bridges and resulted in substantial additional costs.
Broken Promises
From the outset, this laptop failed to meet its intended use. The lack of any genuine effort to resolve the initial active pen issue left me disenfranchised. Over time, the responses to my repeated attempts to resolve problems felt begrudging, as though representatives were doing me a favour rather than taking ownership of the issue.
The Hidden Costs of Poor Productivity
Productivity isn’t just about outputs; it’s about the balance between the value of what you sell and the cost of delivering it. In this case, consider the costs that were incurred:
Multiple replacement parts.
Seven separate courier journeys to deliver parts or collect and return the laptop.
Two engineer visits.
Two returns of the device to the repair centre.
This doesn’t even account for the human cost and my own personal loss in productivity. I dealt with an account manager, their manager, first-line support, an escalation team, third-line support, and an engineer. The number of people and their time involved in this process far outweighs the value of the original device. And in the end, I was offered a refund of 65% of the purchase price. The result? A clear net loss.
A Failure in People and Processes
Throughout this saga, I’ve been treated poorly by employees. Emails were ignored, communications were dismissive or bordering on gaslighting, and for much of the time, no one took ownership of the issue. This speaks to a deeper cultural issue: employees who are disengaged or constrained by rigid policies that prevent them from delivering exceptional customer service.
On the process front, the inefficiency is staggering. The number of people involved in attempting to fix one faulty laptop is mind-boggling. Wouldn’t it have been more efficient to offer a replacement unit or full refund earlier, cutting out the need for endless interactions, courier journeys, and repairs?
The Bigger Picture
This experience suggests the organisation may be suffering from a problematic productivity culture. If my experience is indicative of a broader pattern, the organisation is likely burning through resources and alienating loyal customers unnecessarily.
Adopting a more holistic approach—one that considers the long-term value of customers and empowers employees to make meaningful decisions—could transform its productivity. Rigidly adhering to terms and conditions may tick legal boxes, yet it often leads to inefficiencies, dissatisfied customers, and ultimately, a decline in profitability.
It’s a lesson that organisations of all kinds could heed: productivity isn’t just about processes, costs, or outputs. It’s about people, promises, and the holistic value you deliver. Sometimes, stepping outside the rulebook and prioritising relationships is the most productive decision of all.
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