Following up on the CalDigit TS3 Plus...

Yesterday my CalDigit TS3 Plus went poof.

Specifically: I'm sitting there doing a WFH day like I do every Thursday, and both external displays went suddenly black. On the Mac's built-in screen was a small message saying something about how the thunderbolt device is not functioning and that I should connect it to a thunderbolt port.

After doing a little self-diagnosis, I find that:

- All the peripherals still work, including the attached dual-HDMI adapter, provided that I connect the peripherals directly to the Mac rather than piping them through the Caldigit.
- None of the peripherals work when connected to the Caldigit.
- The Mac still gets its power charged when connected to the Caldigit. This means it is now the most expensive AC Adapter I've ever owned.
- Fully power-cycling the Mac or the Caldigit does not fix the problem.

So on a crazy whim, I checked to see if there is a phone number on their web site. And you know what? Not only is there a phone number, but the support experience I had with them was jaw-droppingly pleasant and retro. Imagine, in this day and age, having the following support call experience:

- Finding an actual direct phone number on their web site in the first place.
- Calling and not waiting on hold.
- Reaching a human being directly after selecting the desired department, instead of sifting through a ton of IVR menus.
- The person I reached was someone located in the actual building where the company resides instead of in an outsourced customer service department.
- They were super knowledgeable about the product being supported.
- They immediately got the feeling for my level of technical competence and spoke to me at that level.
- They understood my issue right away, and without skipping a beat, started walking me through further diagnostics.
- They went straight to the correct diagnostic procedures (in this case, double checking by walking me through an NVRAM reset of the Mac and swapping thunderbolt ports).
- They even knew the model of Mac I was using, and even mentioned that when I tried a different Thunderbolt port, that it should be on the opposite side of the Mac (because of that one-thundebolt-chip-per-side thing we've previously discussed here on the board).
- They were able to determine that my most likely culprit was a failure of the high-speed thunderbolt cable that they supplied with the dock. I didn't have a second suitable cable to use for diagnosis, since the regular Mac power charger cables are not suitable for this type of connection, so it's an educated guess based on the pattern of support cases they have seen.
- They also offered me the option to RMA the whole unit, but after discussing the options we decided to just try a new cable first, and only RMA the whole unit later if needed.
- They offered to ship me the replacement cable immediately, and they were even able to look up my name and address without me having to read it to them.

In particular, what was most amazing about all of the above was:
- The first person I reached was the correct person to help me, and all I had to do was "press 2 for customer support" when I dialed them.
- All of the above was accomplished in a single call, and the speed of the call, from dial to hangup, was all of about 15 minutes total.

Wow. Though I'm not happy about the unit failing, that was the most pleasant support experience I can remember having in the last dozen years or so.