
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 19, 1992                   TAG: 9203190094
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Medium

IBM OPENS HELP LINE FOR ITS PC CUSTOMERS

International Business Machines Corp., hoping to ease consumer dissatisfaction over personal computers, said Wednesday it has opened a national customer service center that will provide help over the phone.

IBM, the world's largest seller of personal computers, also announced a package of related offers, including an unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee on its PCs.

Company officials said the announcement follows marketing research that showed consumer satisfaction is declining even though PC prices have been slashed in the past year. The dissatisfaction has contributed to a slump in computer industry sales and profits.

"Last year everyone wanted to talk about prices. They still do, but what people were forgetting was a different dimension. It is time, in my mind, or past time when we've got to do something about customer satisfaction," said Sam Inman III, president of IBM's national distribution division.

The toll-free customer line announced Wednesday (1-800-PS2-2227) will handle complaints about PS-2s, IBM's main line of personal computers, and offer advice on how to use them and how to shop for an appropriate model, Inman said.

The line also will answer questions about OS-2, IBM's operating system software for PCs that is in heated competition with similar software called Windows from Microsoft Corp.

The help line will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily in all U.S. time zones, Inman said. The center, in Atlanta, will employ about 200 people, most of whom are being transferred from other IBM offices.

Despite the need to be more consumer friendly, one industry observer questioned the wisdom of opening the center in the wake of IBM's $2.8 billion 1991 loss.

Sam Albert, an independent computer industry consultant, said he was concerned that the new center would add to IBM's payroll, which the Armonk, N.Y.-based company has been trying to pare.

Even though few new employees are being hired to staff the center, Albert said, "I'm not totally convinced that it doesn't cost more money than it did before."

But the center should help IBM build a file that could be useful for marketing, Albert said.

"They get a data base that's huge, because they obviously will take your name, address and telephone number," he said. "They will finally know who their customers are."

by CNB