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Support or Lack Thereof


Bob6831

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Hi.

I have been to Sony support via emails, and was completely frustrated with their lack of understanding and help on my problem, even could not help me figure out my model number.

Their online chat help was good.

Today I chat with HP online support and their person was also very frustrating to work with. Had told him that I did not have the package CD to work with (had misplaced it), but he keep bringing up that CD probably was bad!!!!! Got to his supervisor, per my demand and he was better, but again was a big frustrating experience.

Is it just me, or does most everyone have problem with these big companies support service?

Bob

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Kingston comes to mind for terrible support, you really have to fight them and wait along time before getting any help. Asus is poor imo, their website is a mess, you have to wait 5 or more minutes to get someone on the phone, their support staff do not seem to care, but their rma department is painless. Shuttle support has been somewhat good in my experience, no wait time on phone, the people seemed knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. However ideally I would not need to get support at all. :)

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It's definitely these companies outsourcing support. You're not the only one who has had problems with bad support.

Amen! The company I work for is an HP ASP, and we can't get a straight answer out of those clowns half the time either. They're even charging US for support on out-of-warrant items! ...And still I get some bubble headed teen ager that wants to read quips from the manual in an attempt to pretend I'm being "Supported" (If the answer was in the :) Manual I wouldn't be on the flipping phone now would I...).

Christ on a Cracker I'm stuck not lonely ... I don't need to be paying $39.50 to have some id10t read to me, I can do that on my own.

Sorry ... When I started typing I hadn't planed on ranting ... I was just going to agree with you. :)

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Talked to Sony online tech support again today, for different but similar problem with my laptop.

I am starting to understand better how support there works:

1) Each Tier 1 person there must handle 100 calls per minute, because they never can remember what you have just told them.

2) Their job is only to give you canned answers and get you off the phone asap

3) When all else fails, or customer demands better service or explanation, Tier 2 support kicks in. They appear to have less calls to answer and appear to know a little more about THEIR product.

4) But....... when all else fails, have customer reload the driver and if that don't work, but some other media to try and then if that don't work, do a System Recovery!!!!

I want to choke a Support person today!

Bob

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Anyone in tech support will tell you one thing: People want the best product, but they dont want to pay for it. so companies end up lying, saying you get great service, when you don't. The problem is people dont want to pay for support. they want something from nothing, that's not how the world works. if you want great support then pay for it.

-gosh

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<off topic> Gosh is alive :o />

Yeah I've had some terrible experiences with ACER technical helplines, It almost feels like they reading from a script, but when present them a question there way out of there depth

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Almost daily, I get a phone call from someone who's just about in tears, trying to get help from their PC manufacturer.

"Computer Support" is becoming a Conundrum. If the person answering the phone actually knew something, you couldn't understand him anyway. But usually he's just reading a script from his monitor, in his very broken and highly accented version of English.

One word they all seem to understand and speak real well is, "Format".

Say "Hello" to MS's newest customer support rep.

Click

B)

Edited by Tarun
Removed image that exceeded 300x200 as per rule 3.
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Almost daily, I get a phone call from someone who's just about in tears, trying to get help from their PC manufacturer.

"Computer Support" is becoming a Conundrum. If the person answering the phone actually knew something, you couldn't understand him anyway. But usually he's just reading a script from his monitor, in his very broken and highly accented version of English.

One word they all seem to understand and speak real well is, "Format".

Most of the reason people perceive support to be poor is because they don't pay for it - the vendor does. Oh yes, maybe even 10% (and that would be a high number, I'd guess) of the cost of that machine or software package went to pay for support costs that may be incurred, but that's in the hopes that few will actually use it. Even for companies that charge money to provide support, they are losing money almost immediately after that initial support call or email thread starts. Why would the vendors hire expensive support staff to handle mostly simple support calls? Someone has to pay for it, and since it's the vendor, they'll hire the most qualified person who will work for peanuts - that usually means someone in poorer country who maybe has some technical skills and can speak the language well enough, or it could be an outsourced call center in country staffed by PFY - but in cost of business, that option is very cheap comparatively, and thus very temptimg. Support for manufacturers and software companies is a cost center, plain and simple. What it boils down to is that most consumers do not WANT to pay for support, even when given the choice - oh, consumers want the top-grade support, but they want it for FREE. What ends up happening is that they get the free or cheap support because the vendor needs to provide it to meet the support burden, but they'll do it as cheaply as they can get away with it, period, because it's the vendor's dime. I understand customer loyalty issues, a desire for return or repeat business, and percieved quality of product commensurate with quality of support offered perceptions, etc. - but it will always boil down to the fact that product support of almost any kind is a cost center, and vendors who do provide it will always strive to do it as cheaply as they can and still sell product and not negatively impact customer sentiment too far.

If you want good support, some companies do provide it (Microsoft, for instance, actually does provide fantastic support for those who pay for the incident or have a premier support contract; EMC is another vendor who provide excellent support to customers who pay for it when they buy an EMC product) - but most people who complain about support are home and small business users who deal with the free "consumer" support most companies offer, and that is why the "support is sooo bad" claims fly around about all of these companies. Deal with their higher-ups and you'll generally get very good support and service - but remember, those people are making good salaries, and if you want those kinds of people manning the "front-line" stuff, you're gonna pay that vendor for it. When do consumers want to actually PAY for something as intangible as support when they buy a product? When is the last time you thought about a company's support quality when you bought a product? Seriously - it's probably a very small percentage. And until that sentiment changes and we're willing to pay more for the same product from our vendors, support will at best only stay the way it is - or, it could get worse.

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The flip side of that being that half of the stuff being built today is designed to be disposable, there's no point in fixing something that you're supposed to toss in the garbage (Ah the Joy of Planed Obsolescence).

However as a Microsoft Certified Partner, I will agree, their Tech Support is Excellent. One guy (from Canada) was walking me through an Exchange recovery (power outage/corrupted mail store) while walking his dog ... and he never missed a beat. We had the box back online in less than an hour. So not all out sourcing is bad.

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Yea it's a hassle but all depends on what kind of support your looking for. If your joe schmo calling in like most of us trying to get a simple resolution to a complex problem you end up getting someone with terrible communication skills reading a prompter and basically documenting your issues for the first 20 minutes.

On the other hand I have a friend of mine who works for accenture and when he calls anyone he always announces who he's with and usually gets to the upper food chain b/c they don't want to screw up a large account whether it be simple support or needing assistance from Oracle.

Tis the world we live in - Long live message boards

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