i think tech support is a major reason why Apple Inc. is consistantly rated high in customer satisfaction. i recently called about one of my 'puters software & eventhough it was out of warranty, the tech on the phone gave me the help i needed to keep working. tech support is part of the reason i have more than one Mac. and most of them are willing to engage in a friendly chat while looking up stuff to help me out.

also i've had good experience with SBC/Yahoo!(now AT&T/Yahoo!) in setting up & maintaining my net connection.

i think tech support is a major reason why Apple Inc. is consistantly rated high in customer satisfaction. i recently called about one of my 'puters software & eventhough it was out of warranty, the tech on the phone gave me the help i needed to keep working. tech support is part of the reason i have more than one Mac. and most of them are willing to engage in a friendly chat while looking up stuff to help me out.

also i've had good experience with SBC/Yahoo!(now AT&T/Yahoo!) in setting up & maintaining my net connection.

I had a great experience this weekend w/ Buffalo. I was having some problems installing a router. After arguing w/ it for a while myself, I called their tech support and was lucky enough to get someone who knew EXACTLY what to do and was extremely friendly. (Hooray for the Midwest! She was in Chicago.) There were a few points in the installation process that required a wait of a minute or so, and she was able to chat pleasantly during those times.

This experience, however, was essentially compensatory. I called after having trouble with both the instructions that came with the router and the instructions I found online. Also, their voicemail routing system was somewhat problematic.

Dell has the worst tech service I ever encountered. I had some computer video problems two and 1/2 yrs into a 4 yr warranty and when I called tech support the rep had me borrow equipment from a neighbor to effect the repair. When that didn't solve the problem, he had me open the tower and unplug the memory......so then I had a much bigger problem, blue screen. All day, all week this went on until I demanded, instead of tech service from India, I wanted to speak to someone from Dell HQ. On Fri afternoon around 4 PM an arrogant executive tech support called and rather than try to fix my $4000 system, offered me a used replacement, - take it or leave it - that is all you are getting. I declined and went out on Saturday to buy a $700 eMachine replacement that is working fine.
I complained in writing to Michael Dell. I never received an answer or any satisfaction after wasting a full week of time and an expensive XPS system. Dell stinks.

I have had Dell computers since 1994, and the techs based in the USA have always been excellent. I have never had any problem they haven't been able to help me with. I would never buy any computer other than a Dell and would and have reccommended it to others.

I bought an Apple iPod video when they first debuted and was dismayed to find some dead pixels on the screen. Like many other retailers, Apple considered that a minor flaw and I was told by a Genius Bar employee that the object wasn't defective (it really wasn't -- it was a tiny number of pixels -- but I wasn't happy). So I figured I'd give them a call and see if anything could be done.

The wonderful woman I talked to listened sympathetically as I told her that I'd been an Apple customer literally since childhood -- I grew up with an Apple IIgs and haven't used anything but apples since then. I told her I understood the product was in good shape but that I wasn't happy with it and asked if there was anything I could do -- could I resell it to Apple at a cheaper price and recoup some of my money?

She put me on hold and less than two minutes later came back to tell me Apple would be sending me a new iPod as a reward for my loyalty.

I bought a package of phone services from Verizon last year, and when I called tech support a couple of times for help in using the features, they asked if it was okay to open my account information in case it was needed. The first time, I said yes. The perky friendly woman spent most of the call trying to sell me new services and only a few seconds answering my question after I had fended off the sales efforts. The second time, I said no, and the (different) friendly perky woman proceeded to try to change my mind because she might need my account information help me with my call. Yeah, right. By that time, I had read reports of Verizon's "support," so I knew what she was up to. I stood firm and said that we could get into my account later if it became necessary. I knew what I wanted to know, and it was pretty simple, and I was certain that it didn't involve my account information. We took care of my service question quickly. She then tried to sell me new services, but I cut her off, thanked her, and hung up. I got the strong impression that their real job is sales, not service. I wouldn't mind so much if they would promptly and efficiently deal with one's real service issue and give that their full attention and as much time as needed, then suggest further products if this were done in a low-pressure way as an afterthought. But in these calls, the support part was obviously the afterthought.

I'm not surprised that "Increasing revenue creation opportunities from service and support" was the top thing on these executive's minds. That fits in with too many experiences with big companies these days. I almost long for the days of listening to loud, irritating Muzak while on hold waiting for a "customer service representative," instead of having to endure recorded loops of spiels for the companies products and services.

I wouldn't mind being punted to a web page if companies would actually design pages that are helpful in any way shape or form. Most just figure if they put a pdf of the instruction manual they've more than satisfied their obligations.

I am fairly savvy when it comes to home technology, and I don't call customer service until I'm REALLY stumped. So these scripts they use drive me crazy with their "Is your computer on?" and "Have you tried rebooting?" steps. In these instances, talking to a human is no better than sifting through a FAQ page.

i got so angry with overseas technical help that dell gives that i threw my dell computer away and would never buy another one. i wrote michael dell and a few months later got a call from some defensive employee. it is a horrible experience to talk to people who you can barely understand, who will go away and leave on the line and never come back. i now buy my computers from local tech guys who will also give me service when i need it. i just hope all these large companies like dell suffer, and eventually go bankrupt for the way i was treated.

Thus it has ever been: sell the product, then spend as little time as possible on follow-up if the product is defective. Car salesmen had this perfected decades ago. When all else fails, tell the customer to take a walk, 'cause you're done talking about it.

My Verizon DSL service would slow down to less than 56kb from 11AM through 9PM. Repeated calls to Verizon always came back with "Nothing wrong, it must be your PC."
When I asked why my PC worked OK at night they couldn't answer me. After 10 calls to support, all closed out without asking me if the problem was cleared, Verizon said I was too far from the CO and should switch to 768Kb service, which they did without anything changing except now service was slower at night too! Finally, they agreed to send out a tech to the house. He showed up two weeks prior to the appt. and that morning, like magic, the service had started working fine before he got there. Repeated speed tests showed over 1000kb (they switched me back to regular service prior to this). He had no answer except to say that Verizon departments don't communicate with each other! No S***! And this is a communications company? Anyway, without ever getting an answer and enduring this problem for the whole month of March 2006, the service has been fine ever since. Go figure! Why don't I switch to Comcast? Too expensive for a retiree.

First, Kudos to HP for their excellent printer trouble-shooting pages, with detailed diagrams, photos, and instructions. I've kept at least one printer alive long after is expected demise because HP helped me tinker with the thing. And the two or three experiences I had with Dell a couple of years ago were surprisingly excellent, but that may be because the machine had a corporate-purchased warrenty that really impressed the tech.
Last year I got to compare two approaches to service when Logitech and Linksys products failed at the same time. We did extensive testing, and when I finally called Linksys, the tech, who spoke limited English, refused to listen to what we'd tested and insisted on walking through a script which she obviously did not understand. 3 hours, 3 phone calls, and I finally got permission to mail it back. The Logitech tech listened to what we'd tested, agreed that it was dead, sent a replacement (actually an upgrade) and did not want the dead unit returned. She apologized for the equipment failure.
The Logitech item cost about $5 more than the Linksys, so we're talking comparable company expenses. Guess where my product loyalty is? Guess what I'll never but again? And do I tell everyone I can about this? You bet.

I have had excellent tech support with my IBM laptop. Any time I have called them they have been prompt and solved the problem immediately. They have been very friendly also. I have had the same service with my Linksys router. They keep me on the phone until the problem is solved and they are patient. I will come back to Linksys when I am ready for a wireless router and will look to IBM for a newer laptop when the time comes.

Money drives the engine of the train, but the engineer bears the brunt of the actual success of the train in reaching its destination. Les Schawb, the founder of a great tire repair service recently died at age 89. So what does his death have to do with the computer industry? It is all about SERVICE (with a smile) and treating your employees with respect. As my sainted mother used to remark, "You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar." The business world changes; basic moral concepts do not.

I completely agree with the above comments about the "scripts" that tech support people follow. A few years ago I had a problem with a 3Com router, and after I briefly explained the problem and the steps I had taken, the initial tech guy told me there was nothing he could do and immediately transferred me to higher level tech support. The problem was fixed in about 15 minutes. Why can't more tech support have this option, where people who have already conducted the basic troubleshooting be able to pass up the "did you plug it in" questioning?

I've had phenomenal support and abysmal support on the same call, but some companies stand out on both sides:

Qwest lost my business for phone and DSL by double billing me and then sending me components that were broken and not compatible with my existing hardware (their recommendation).

On the excellent support side, my Verizon rep for cell service actually got me a better deal on the phones and package than I expected by bundling some pieces that I did not ask for, but the overall package was less costly than the pieces I was initially looking for. He also got me a better phone for free and was both friendly and knowledgeable at the same time. Kudos to Verizon for having people like that on the phone.

Recently purchased a new laptop with Vista (mistake) for my wife. See uses CoffeeCup HTML editing software to maintain a few websites. We purchased the newest version because it was compatible with Vista. Well it didn't run after install so contacted their tech support which BTW took a full day to get back to us. Their suggestion was turning off user control and reinstalling. That didn't work. Turns out after a few minutes of web searching that MS left some of the WYSIWYG web editing Dlls out of VISTA but had an MSI to fix this. That worked but it is hard to believe Coffee Cup support is unaware of this fix. This was my first experience with Vista and I wish it was going to be my last.

I've had hit-or-miss experiences with Verizon DSL support. Most are mediocre script readers, some are painfully clueless, and a few are smart and and helpful.

Tech support for my IBM ThinkPad has always been a pleasure. When I told them "it has a bad stick of RAM," they believed me and sent a replacement for free, along with a box to ship back the defective stick. No need to spend an hour convincing them that it wasn't a software problem. I hope Lenovo maintains this high quality of support into the future.

Lotus Notes users BEWARE - Lotus Notes is incompatible with Vista.

I've owned several Brother printers over the past few years. I've never had any serious problems with them -- at least none I couldn't fix myself.

Like one of the earlier posters, I consider myself savvy enough to fix most of my computer problems -- so I rarely call on any company's technical support. On the few occasions I have, it's been a disaster. Most of my "technical support" these days comes from Rob and his Washington Post colleague, Brian Krebs. Thanks much to you both!

Anyway, a couple of months ago, I was unable to get a new Brother printer working. So I called their toll-free technical support line. The wait-time was just a minute or so -- in itself, quite an accomplishment.

And then the friendly technician who came on asked me to describe the problem -- and she listened intently. She knew instantly what the problem was, and told me how to fix it.

Total time on the phone was about 3 or 4 minutes. Now that's great customer service!

If anyone would like to experience the very definition of bad customer service, try flying United these days. Apparently all the money they saved during bankruptcy went into the pockets of Mr. Tilson and his executive staff, and not toward improving the airline's customer service. From the absolutely abysmal reservation service coming out of Mumbai, to the Rube Goldberg system of luggage check-in att SFO, United seems dedicated to making you a customer at every other airline. The folks on the front lines struggle to make it work, but the odds have been stacked too high against them. Nice job Mr. Tilson.

I thought I had seen abysmal customer service until I tried to get decent a internet and TV package.

I started with Adelphia. I always had my cable channels, but when it came to stable, high speed internet there would be outages at least once a week. Some of these would last for days at a time. Then Adelphia was bought by Comcast and it became even worse with the addition of losing tv. After enduring this for 4 months of being told by tech support that it was a temporary problem caused by upgrading he hardware, I finally quit. They charged me additional fees for that as well.

But, alas, Embarq DSL is reliable, but slower and comparatively more expensive, and the Satelite TV is constantly going out. Even the techs that come out can't seem to fix it.

However, for a model of customer support, Alienware computers before they were bought by Dell had excellent customer support - very knowledgable about computers. Now, I try to get support for my service contract and those inteligent folks are replaced by "the script." Drat.

Comcast internet tech support blows. I'll just leave it at that instead of writing a 4 page rant. I'd leave in a second if somebody else would sell me high speed internet.

I've always had good customer service from AT&T Wireless/Cingular/AT&T over the past 7 years I've been a subscriber. I've had billing errors and phone problems and they've always fixed them quickly and satisfactorily.

On the other hand, our own corporate IT help desk stinks. We outsourced to a global company a few years ago and have been cursed with incompetent techs since. They usually stop by our office once a week to fix any outstanding problems, and they often misdiagnose and prolong the problems instead of solving them quickly. Case in point: one day my coworker's Lenovo ThinkPad was crashing during boot, so I Googled the error message and narrowed down the problem to his memory sticks. He called the help desk and they sent out a tech, who then spent the next month replacing the motherboard, hard drive, and other elements until he figured out it was - you guessed it - the memory. In the meantime, my coworker had to use a slower, locked down loaner until his personal laptop was returned. And *how* did we save money by outsourcing again?

I Hate Woodscape Apartments in Newport News, VA.

A consultant named Fred Reichheld calls a "detractor" in his book "The Ultimate Question", a must-read for anyone concerned about customer service. Which brings me to Reichheld's "detractor" theory. I'm certain the Director Emeritus of Bain & Company, would call this fee a "bad profit"--money made at the expense of customer relationships. "Whenever a customer feels misled, mistreated, ignored, or coerced, then profits from that customer are bad," Reichheld writes in his book. Why? Because these fees create company critics (or detractors) who will eagerly tell friends, colleagues, anyone, about their bad experiences. "In the past, the accepted maxim was that every unhappy customer told 10 friends. Now, an unhappy customer can tell 10,000 'friends' through the Internet."

The problem of "getting hooked on bad profits" is disastrous, Reichheld said. "Bad profits choke off a company's best opportunities for true growth, the kind of growth that is both profitable and sustainable. They blacken its reputation. The pursuit of bad profits alienates customers and demoralizes employees." Does that sound like any company we know? Please read on ...

Before I elaborate on my recent poor experiences with Woodscape Apartments in Newport News, VA. I think it's necessary to point out that I appreciate good customer service reps and companies that treat me correctly and solve problems effectively. I appreciate good service to the point where I will take the time to write a good service rep's manager/company with a positive experience. This is my first negative experience I felt documenting because the overall service was so poor, in my opinion.

I rented an apartment a few years ago in anticipation of selling my DC-area home and purchasing a new home in Tidewater. Below are some of the issues I had with the apartment management.

November: Mid-November when I first moved in I documented dozens of problems with the apartment, took pictures, and shared these in person with Woodscape management. Management said she would submit a work order for the documented issues and made a note of this on the documentation. So far the only thing fixed from the list of 50+ items I submitted was the phone line. For this repair item above, someone from Woodscape apartments entered my apartment and left cigarette butts in my kitchen sink. I don't smoke. I know this because the phone jack faceplate was changed from a double to a single jack. I took before and after pictures. Since this repair, I installed cameras watching the doors of the apartment so I could prove any future entries. Since the installation of these cameras, I have recorded 3 unauthorized entries (see below).

Late November: My video camera caught a large white Caucasian male entering my apartment twice on the same day. The lighting was poor so I couldn't make out any further details. I have adjusted the camera angle and have much better lighting now. Regardless, I called the office during the middle of the day and asked what the emergency was since someone from the management team entered my apartment twice that day. Their own policy states no unauthorized entry in an apartment except for emergencies. No one answered so I left a message asking for a call back. No one bothered to call me back.

December: (the dead of winter)
Mid-to-late December, on a Thursday, Woodscape management decided to paint the front door of the apartments even though the temperature outside was barely above freezing (35 degrees). Notices were sent 24 hours in advance stating that the front doors will have to remain open while the paint dries, to secure any pets inside, and that a security guard will be posted outside the apartments. I had an issue with this because of the following: Paint does not dry under 50 degrees. What was management thinking? Leaving my door open in the middle of winter will cause me to loose all my heat inside the apartment. What was management thinking? It was freezing that day. Am I going to be reimbursed for heating the outside world BECAUSE THE FRONT DOOR HAD TO REMAIN OPEN IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER WHILE THE PAINT DRIED. What was management thinking? I had just returned from an overnight business trip to discover that notice. If management had decided to paint the door 1 day earlier, I would not have had any advanced warning. Therefore, my cats would have run away BECAUSE THE FRONT DOOR HAD TO REMAIN OPEN IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER WHILE THE PAINT DRIED.

The security in place while the apartment doors were left opened was a joke. This security guard did not know who the tenants were because he does not live there. Also, I saw he was guarding dozens of buildings and could not watch all buildings at the same time. Anyone could have walked into my apartment and helped themselves to all of my possessions BECAUSE THE FRONT DOOR HAD TO REMAIN OPEN IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER WHILE THE PAINT DRIED. I called management the day I received this 24-hour notice. No one answered (as usual - you will see this theme occur over and over throughout this blog) so I left a message and asked for a return call so someone could explain their reasoning for this decision and see if it couldn't be done when the outside temperatures were more moderate. No one bothered to call me (again.)

January:
Mid-January - Management decided to pull up some bushes behind my building. Without doing any investigation, they uprooted the bushes including power and phone lines servicing the apartments. How stupid was that? Some were without power ALL DAY!!! You guessed it - I call the office, no one answers the phone and no one returns my call as requested.

Late January Woodscape decided to exchange the mailboxes for the tenants with newer and larger boxes. Good idea except the new mailboxes cannot be locked. The new boxes stay OPEN for the entire world to help themselves to my mail. Since this period of time when my mail was left in an unsecured open area, I have received my paycheck, several 1099s, several bank statements, a credit card, 2 DMV titles for my vehicles, 3 credit card solicitations, and more. From just this documented sampling of just my mail (not the other tenants) I am at risk of identity theft because the apartment management decided a broken mailbox would suffice regardless of the risk to the tenants. I have called every day expressing my dissatisfaction over the unsecured mail and have not received a satisfactory response - or any response for that matter. No one bothered to call me back. What ever happened to customer service?

January 25th - This one takes the prize - ANOTHER UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY INTO MY APARTMENT OCCURRED TODAY. I caught on tape that a skinny Caucasian male wearing a ball cap, white jacket, jeans, holding a ring of keys, and had a goatee entered my apartment to apparently check the A/C since he opened that door. I did not authorize this entry, nor was I aware of it. When I checked with other tenants in 102, 201, and 202, they all reported the same. They had no prior knowledge of this in direct violation of our contracts. This makes the third unauthorized entry. I called the office to complain. No one answered the phone so I left a message stating my dissatisfaction and requested someone call me back. No one called me back. So the next day I visit the office in person after calling them first. Of course, no one answers the phone. 30 seconds later, when I walk in the front door, I notice one of the ladies at the copier/printer. We discussed the unauthorized entry and I learned that the man in my apartment was the head maintenance man from the corporate office who was down for the day inspection everyone's A/C unit. There was no time to send the 24-hour notice. No time? Corporations sending full time employees to another location did so with no planning? Hard to believe.... But, the new manager stated that this unauthorized entry was for an Emergency. We know this to not be entirely true now ... don't we? Some would say this management response was an outright lie - but I'll stop short of calling her a liar. Regardless, I find it amusing that once I notified management of my security cameras, no one ever entered my apartment again. Guess they realized they had a tech-savvy tenant amongst them now.

And here is the kicker ... I was so sick of horrible management at Woodscape Apts. that I vacated the apartment 1 week early with proper written notice given and received. I had the carpets professionally cleaned, and the apartment professionally deep cleaned before I moved out. I used the same professional cleaning service that I used for 8 months cleaning the apartment every other Saturday and have receipts to prove it. Then, 5 weeks after vacating the apartment the property manager sends me an invoice for $1750 for replacing the entire carpet and padding within the entire apartment, as well as resealing the apartment. What is strange here (and suspect dishonest business practices abound at this apartment) is I demanded to be present for any final inspection as my contract states. I was not notified of any final inspection. My written request to be present for the final inspection was documented in my written notice to vacate the apartment, and was personally delivered my myself. The professional cleaners have also stated that the apartment NEVER smelled. They would know because of their thoroughness (the pro cleaners) in the cleanings. Next, I write a certified letter asking for proof that the carpets were replaced and the apartment resealed but I never received any proof or invoices. I guess they can do anything they like once they have all of your personal information at their fingertips. BUT WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?

This is by far the worst company I have ever dealt with - EVER!! Worthy enough for me to write of my experiences on this blog and inform the entire world.

Having been one of those mindless drones on tech support for a few years, I sympathise with them, but don't excuse their management for creating this mess.

I started out at at (three letters starting with A and ending with L) internet company. Was still in training (week 2) when I was bumped to senior support and taking 'advanced' calls - because I could talk someone through resetting their internet cache and manually resetting a modem without a script. Left them for a bank (the 'bank of North America') when I was forced to sell on every call, and wasn't allowed to support 'offscript'.

Bank wasn't much better, but since we were only supporting the web page usage, not their ability to get online, it was easier and less sales. I left there when the selling got bumped up and became criteria for raises.

I know that so much tech support is rotten - but please, don't blame the person you're talking to. They are most likely paid the least the company can get away with, trained for a week and thrown onto the phones with no support and a maximum call time requirement. Blame the companies that employ them - and stop buying their shoddy products!

I bought an H-P desktop less than a year ago. It was dead on arrival. After much wasted time with tech "support", H-P took the machine back and "repaired" it. It came back in non-working order and with several components disconnected.
Last month the computer crashed and I went through pretty much the same experience: endless hours spent with incompetent South Asian script-readers who say they'll call back but never do; even a promise of a house call from a techie who didn't show when he said he would, followed by my demands for "escalation," followed by the arrival of an empty box for returning the thing to H-P. The computer came back d.o.a. with its graphics drivers removed. During all this time, the quality of tech support was on the same level of dog feces.
I've sent faxes and letters to Mark Hurd, H-P's CEO and one of the company's executives who somehow avoided the recent pretexting scandal, but never received an acknowledgement. If I ever buy anything from H-P again, it will be because I have become insane.

We have our phone,cable TV and internet service with a company where you can call people in this very town and often get the information you need quickly. If they can't handle it over the phone, they schedule a convenient service call time. They will work on the problem you are having until it is resolved. Tech support is completely separated from sales. A rival company advertises wonderful "deals", but we stay with this company because of their service.

This isn't exactly on point (non-tech), but it's a pretty good customer service object lesson nontheless.

10 or 15 years ago, my folks special ordered a car from a local, small-town dealership. After a weeks-long wait, they were called in to pick up the car. But it was the wrong car. The dealership tried to sell my parents on the wrong car, but they held firm and waited another few weeks for the car they had ordered in the first week. After they (finally) completed the purchase, my mom fills out a corporate-level comment form detailing their experience.

(Here's where the story gets good.) A few days after sending in her comments, my mom gets an angry, half-deranged call from the WIFE of the dealership owner (I said it was a small town) berating my poor mother for submitting her honest opinion of her buying experience. "How could you? Don't you know that you've hurt our chances at a dealership performance award?" Stuff like that. Scared my mom white-headed. She remains white-headed to this day.

I have read many studies that say that 95%-98% of tech support calls are completely unnecessary. The answers are already in the user's manual or the FAQ's on the company's website. By giving mediocre or poor tech support the companies are just trying to force people to stop being so lazy and read their manuals, instead of picking up the phone for a "nice, friendly chat with a 'nice' tech support person. It sounds like many people here have inadequate social lives.

Only a couple about the Comcast/Adelphia switch? I'm surprised.... they're will be more coming...

We didn't have Adelphia for very long (new to the area) but after the switch to Comcast our internet would be out for days at a time. We finally called and their tech support person had us do the typical handstands only to tell us our Router was the problem.

Yeah, right. It is working now. We were reassigned a new IP that says we're in Washington, we are in Charlottesville (as was the old IP - when it connected at all). The router is still working just fine.

I'm convinced they are overselling and if you don't call to complain they just give your connection to the people who have complained.

I am still laughing over this one...

"Why are the pointy-haired bosses so clueless? They don't even agree with their customers on what tech support's supposed to do. Accenture asked these 35 companies' executives about their priorities in customer service, and "keeping the customer happy" didn't even make the top-10 list.

The most important priority? "Increasing revenue creation opportunities from service and support."
Also popular: "Increasing customer self-help capabilities via the Web,"
"Improving call resolution times,"
and that perennial favorite, "Selling new extended support agreements."

Sounds like a company I work for.
Customers are secondary to the bottom line. Someone forgets that customers do not exist to create a bottom line, but their satisfaction is primary to having a nice black bottom line month after month, year after year.

We had computer problems and a friend of ours recommended http://www.remoteassist.com.au - an Australian computer support company. It took three clicks to have a technician take over our computer and fix the problem remotely, and it only cost $25.00. Bargain!

Many of my clients have suffered at the hands of less-than-stellar tech support from vendors. One ISP left my client's computer unable to connect to the internet, because they made all connections pass through their activation server. Talk about leaving a scalpel in the patient! Another one disabled the security I had set up on my client's wireless router, the told him to call Microsoft to fix it!

Craig Herberg
http://info-safety.com

I second Barbara Ashby Klemm's experience.

I have had five Dell computers.

Two are brand new. I needed a bit of help on the phone and I got it quickly and easily.

Of the older three, a laptop needed a new monitor, They came to my office in two days.
A desktop just needed re-seating of the video card after being moved around a lot. I had no video. Dell shipped me a monitor no questions asked (of course, I returned it).

A desktop needed a new case front after two and one half years because a bit of plastic covering and integral with the power switch fatigued and broke. They were at my house in two days.

I have full confidence in Dell.

To be absolutely honest, I'd rather open a vein than call tech support. I've been on the other end of that phone and I just won't do it. So far I have never had a problem I couldn't find information about on the internet.

Well, I'm a consultant that helps business & government agencies establish technical help desks & customer service call centers. I've been doing this work since 1998 (when I started out as a first level tech support phone jockey).

Which means I've been witness to the cancerous replacement of the original mission (to deliver customer support & service) by the new mission (to use any instance of customer interaction as a lever to foist additional products, services and/or contracts upon the already-disadvantaged customers).

The momentum of this unfortunate trend seems to be unstoppable. And the consequences are myriad.

It means less technical, and more push-marketing skills are used to write the new support desk staffing profiles; this can only diminish the overall quality of the customer's technical support experience.

And this staffing profile has the added "benefit" of bringing labor costs down. Save the big dollars for a small over-worked and largely unappreciated upper tier of technical engineers to whom far too many calls will be escalated for any of the calls to receive unhurried and quality-concious attention.

Since technical support by nature is a service that people never invoke unless they are already experiencing a problem and are already unhappy, there was once an emphasis on obtaining--and quantifying--genuine customer satisfaction. There was (and doubtless still remains at the very best of the help desks and call centers) a sober dedication to (and an understanding of) ethics, empathy, attention, articulation and follow-up.

There is a cynical hope to which I cling, however, and it is simply that Americans will not put up with today's sorry excuse for technical support & service. They will speak with their wallets and with their voices. And they will denounce this craven new support & service delivery model to be as tedious and flawed as it is predatory and opportunitistic.

Sad, huh?

The Dell techie could be right about only being able to use Vista on the particular computer. At least one of the BIOS makers is creating Vista specific BIOS (can't remember which maker...). Not so cool IMHO.

I am a service professional and I love helping people. What I really dislike is when some techs (trained and hobbist) take advantage of the unknowing. These parasites take advantage of the seniors and the people that need their help the most.
I have supported laptops and desktops; printers, servers and PDA's. The one thing that perturbs me is that people (home users and corporations) don't realize the value of preventive maintenance. Electronics don't like three things; heat, cigarette/cigar smoke and dust. Most of the hardware failures I see come from these three sources and they are highly preventable.
Customer service is a number one goal with most good service professionals; but requiring techs to become sales people takes away from the quality of customer service, as does redunant paperwork.
People ask me what equipment I buy, as a tech I build my own this way I don't have to worry about problems. But to all those who don't build; remember you get what you pay for; and the most expensive is not always the best. So I will leave this advise for computer shopping; assess your needs: This means ask yourself what am I really using the computer for? Write down your list and go over it throughly. Example: "Do you surf the internet and send e-mails only to forget to list that you like to take pictures; download music and use a flight simulator?"
The more you refine your list the better prepared you will be when you do your informattion gathering and shopping. I know most people only want to buy a computer and have it just work in the manner they perceive it should, but if it were a car they would be more inclined to take a little time and do some research. Well, computer purchases should be handled in the same manner. Ask questions; Ask questions and then ask some more questions,
your computing experience will be a positive one. Computers are tools and the more skilled one becomes with a tool, the better their computer interactions will be.
Respectly yours in service, Midnight.

I too am sad that Dell and HP, etc are breaking their implied contracts with their customers.

The BAD SERVICE award went to Dell a few years ago so I switched to HP. BAD MOVE. HP is better at answering calls without putting callers through a wringer than Dell but after that it is also a total mess. "I cant answer that question - go to the xxx Dept" and bad advise , and "just buy this service (or software) and your problems will be all over"

HP is apparently one of the clueless who think that line items are more important than ethical behavior and dedication. As Rob said - getting a customer costs dearly. And the business school types who are running the pc companies have marginal or no training in ethics and marketing and sales! No wonder they are on their way to self-destruction

A wise man knows that if you provide a superior service the profits will roll in. A corallary is: Demand profits first and the company will die.

Sooner or later someone will found a pc company and commit to service and clean behavior - then watch out! That business will scrub the floor with the greedy big boys. For sure!

Under-promise, then over-deliver. It's that simple.

I had a wonderful wool jacket from Seattle outfitter C.C. Filson. The heavy fabric had worn and a side seam came undone. I liked the jacket a lot and even though it was 20 years old I tried to get it fixed. Local tailors didn't seem to know what to do with it, so I called the company and they told me to send it in for repair and they would see if they could do anything with it. They didn't sound very optimistic. A couple of weeks later they called and said it couldn't be repaired. I was dismayed, until he then told me they would send me a new one. Free. Gratis. No charge. This was a $200+ item that frankly had just worn out, and they replaced it without me asking for it or expecting it. I'm a customer for life, and I've told lots of people this story. You can't buy this kind of word-of-mouth, and I don't get why companies don't get this.

Apple support rocks!

Part of my job involves tech support at a good-sized hospital. If there is anything that rivals the variation in tech support quality it is the variation in the user base. I get people who know more about PCs than I do and people who are not only incredibly unknowledgeable about the computer they work with, but paranoid, hostile and dishonest as well. I don't know what possible upside there could be for lying to tech support, but obviously the downside is that your problem can never be fixed this way.

To those who wonder why tech support use scripts, it is largely to idiot proof the customer interaction to the extent possible . In my experience a slight majority of the calls we receive are either very simple (turn it on first) hardware problems or user input errors of one sort or another. Weak users probably account for 60-80% of our calls despite the fact that they probably make up only 10-20% of the user population. Most novices learn and rapidly reduce the number of support calls they make, but idiots are forever. This is why you are often treated like an idiot when you call tech support, that's who we generally deal with.

We don't use scripts where I work, but I do have my methods for figuring out whether someone is a lying hostile technophobe, a neophyte who wants to help, or an expert with a truly unique and bizarre problem. I try to do this invisibly and quickly so that I don't waste time annoying someone who actually knows what's wrong with their machine.

Scripts aren't bad in and of themselves, they represent a logical sequence of steps that should point you in the right direction. The problem comes when the person reading it is not particularly well-suited to the work, and / or not trained. The script is the only leg some of these people have to stand on and they won't let go of it for anything. You can explain all day what the exact problem is and what needs to be done about it, but it's only going to slow down their progress reading the script to you.

Try the magazine Smart Computing. If you subscribe, you get free tech support. I've had them help me out with various issues and they've been great. They actually encourage you to call them. The tech helpers are out of Lincoln, Nebraska too! Plus you get online access to several other tech magazines they put out and reference series. They actually

after repeated outages of my verizon dsl [and after finally being told by a verizon techie - do you believe this?! - that i would have to deep-6 my firewall and antivirus programs in order to achieve stable dsl service], i discontinued verizon dsl and switched to cable service. that was on 8/12/06, and i returned the modem the same day. i have documentation that the modem was delivered on 8/15/06 to the address to which i'd been instructed to send it. problems over? no way! verizon continued billing me for monthly service, even after numerous emails and calls about the service no longer being in existence. the monthly service billing finally stopped, but verizon now claimed that the modem had not been returned. informing verizon that I have proof of its being returned achieved nothing; the charge for the modem remained on my account. in october I learned that my account had been transferred to what verizon dubs its "collections affiliate" - risk management alternatives [rma], and i was told by verizon techies that i would have to deal with rma, because that was where my account now resides. the only two times i was able to reach rma i received instructions to fax the proof of return of the modem and established that my faxes had in fact been received by rma. yet my "delinquent" account was reported to the credit reporting bureaus. i sent voluminous documentation to the bureaus re no more monies being owed to verizon, but the bureaus continued to list my account as delinquent based on verizon's feedback to their inquiries. so here i am with a smudge on my credit rating, with no access to any techie either at verizon or rma to work at rectifying the situation, with verizon telling me i have to work this out with rma, and rma not answering its phones. any suggestions anyone? [yes i have reported the situation to the state attorney general's office - no response so far.]

inge

I called HP to try & get help with a nearly 4 year old pc running Windows xp & with an extended warranty.

Instead of helping me with the problem I was having,the tech was too busy trying to make the new Hp Vista sell....