Interesting Tech Support Article on PCWorld.com

[JohnnyCNote]

Misadventures in Tech Support

As companies move service offshore and online, are you still being served? We went undercover to put major vendors to the test. Not everyone gets a passing grade.

[tekkieman]

I detect a bit of bias in these results. I can guarantee you that Dell has little more than script readers (check their user-user support pages) and while some of the SBC techs know a little bit, I spoke to 5 of them in one week, and only ONE knew what he was doing.

[JohnnyCNote]

I just sent this letter to the editor:

Having worked as in tech support for AT&T Broadband, I have some insight into the problems Mr. Desmond describes in his article, particularly those regarding ISP's. I was often hindered by arbitrary rules in place not to enhance customer service, but to create bogus numbers, aka "metrics", which are used to show corporate bean counters that a particular department is really doing its job. Add to that poorly, if at all, trained supervisors, and the result is a situation in which the subscribers' needs are a secondary issue.

Once, after having spent over an hour on a call with a subscriber, just as we were on the verge of getting him connected, I was informed that I'd been on an "outbound call" for too long and had to hang up. The supervisor trainee, who was only interested in taking advantage of the opportunity to exercise his newly found authority, never bothered to ask why I was on an "outbound call" for so long. Had he done so, he'd have learned that I called the subscriber back on his cell phone so that we could troubleshoot his one-way cable modem that used the phone line to dial to the ISP. He'd been trying to get his problems resolved for weeks and was ready to cancel his account.

I refused to end the call, and was thanked profusely by the subscriber, who stated I was the only tech who'd solved his problem. I confronted the supervisor trainee and attempted to explain my actions to him, but he wasn't the least bit interested in how the subscriber's problem was solved, or that I'd managed to prevent him from cancelling. I finally called a real supervisor over, who quickly saw that my actions were justified and told the other guy to back off.

This is far from a remote experience. If anything, it probably happens with greater frequency nowadays, as I was laid off in 2001 when AT&T Broadband outsourced our department to Canada. I should add that while we were "level 3" techs, our replacements were "level 2", meaning they had less training. So the problems people encounter may not be the fault of the support people at all, but instead be the result of user-unfriendly policies and/or the way the managers choose to implement them.

[devinemi83]

The only tech support I sometimes call is Comcast. You can EASILY tell if the tech you talk to is able to understand the issue. Most of the time before they even get started going through the "is it plugged in" phase I will tell them all the steps I already took. Good techs will then carry on to the more advanced issues while the script readers will still make you go through their stupid process. Most of the time my issue is resolved in under 30 mins. Thats pretty good, usually its on their side so they can quickly reset something that has gone crazy.

My worst experience was with ATTBI(bought out by comcast). When I first got the cable service in late 2000 they put me on the wrong node in the area and I couldnt get the internet for anything, they however were SURE my computer had a virus or demon because they couldnt fix it. I went through like 5 support folks before they realized this isnt gonna get fixed over the phone. They sent a guy out and in 10 mins he figured it out and adjusted the network settings and had me running.

[Doramius]

Here are the reasons I think people get so upset with tech support and why tech support is so bad. First off you have idiots behind computers who nothing of what they are doing. On top of that they are using softwares that aren't always compatible with other softwares used on their system. A few hardware products also have issues with certain softwares or ones that conflict or cause IRQs. This is where the time goes in for the tech to trouble shoot with the consumer, so a lot of time is taken with most calls into the tech dept. With so much time being taken up by all of the reps., your hold times are extremely long. Another major issue is that some tech supports companies charge for their help. What person wants to pay for support for an item they expected to work the first time they try it? There are tons more issues involved for why tech support is rated so low, we just don't have the time or HD space to list them all. That's why when good support is received just once, that company instantly gets recommended to 30+ people, even if it's a crappy company. In many company tech surveys, the largest amount of support calls come from women.

These are the fastest ways to relay a message:
Telegraph; Telegram; Telephone; Telenet; Tell a woman

So if a woman gets one good emotional experience with a tech rep., that company gets word of mouth praise faster than a fart spreading in a moving elevator.