Why I Hate Technical Support...

[Reephdweller]

I can honestly say that I have absolutely no good experiences with technical support. I've worked pretty hard over the years to educate myself to the point of being self sufficient in many ways and able to solve many of my own technical computer problems. With that said though. The company that I work for has the absolute most horrendous support on the planet. Every single problem requires a call to the help desk. After about 45 minutes to sometimes several hours you get someone who answers. But they're not going to help you. Instead what they're going to do is "open a ticket". I get a ticket number and a subsequent email that the problem is now in the system and will be resolved. The email will say something like....

Ticket Opened: 08/02/04
Resolution Date: 08/06/04

Of course the assumption is that you will see a resolution or someone contacting you by 8/6. Instead there is never a phone call, or email or voicemail. Nothing.

I've had this problem going on about a month now with my pc at work. But that's just my problem. There's so many different things with problems where I work, and they're all resolved by opening tickets. And if no one gets back you about your ticket, they open another ticket to have the other ticket resolved. It's insanity. It's at my company, but I also know it's not just exclusive to where I work.

I had a problem with wireless networking about two months ago and I wound up on hold with some guy in India for close to two hours. Luckily the guy in that instance was able to help me.

If you are a subscriber to Mike Steels RF group than I'm sure you've no doubt seen all the hell that AOL's technical supoort has been putting him through.

I mean I've worked very hard over the years to educate myself to not need techical support, however in some instances I'm forced into making calls...mostly for the job and they're always a disaster. I remember that one of the reasons for why I learned on my own was that I was tired of being held down by tech support and forced to wait for them to resolve things. It's like modern day technical support has somehow figured out a way to make using them far worse than ever and it's only getting worse. With all this outsourcing of technical support I can honestly say I see the results of what we're getting for all the money we're supposedly saving by hiring cheaper labor to do help desk work. We're getting nothing, and problems just continue to mount. (Sorry for the rant, but it is very frustrating to deal with technical support every single day)

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[JPMNICK]

I volounteer to be your personal tech support. i can handle it!

I used to have the same probelms at my company. That stupid ticket system sips a D because it is never in time. If you had a major system crash, you would be unable to work for a while.

Also, even though you educated yourself, sometimes the problems are on the company end and there is nothing you can do with out ADMIN priveledges.

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[Reephdweller]

Exactly. I can actually fix the problem, however that would mean formatting my pc at work and installing XP. Technically you're not supposed to do that, so I've been trying to fix the problem I've been having without going to that extreme.

Though it appears that I may just have to do that anyway.

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[JPMNICK]

do you guys have a corporate build? at my old job you used to throw in a floppy disk and 45 minutes later you had a brand new reformatted computer.

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[Mike Teacher]

As to the Stygian Depths of how bad, how Horrific, a companies Customer Support can be, I mean Hieronymous Bosch paintings Horror, I can only offer One Word, I beg forgiveness in advance, but, the Evil, it must be spoken:

eBay

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[JohnnyCash]

Im having a problem with computer that I cant fix. I called the Customer Support line last night and they wanted $40 before they even offered the help. this is after an hour on the phone with 3 different people who were all rude and spoke with such heavy accents that I could barely understand them.

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Thank You Reefdwella

[Reephdweller]

do you guys have a corporate build? at my old job you used to throw in a floppy disk and 45 minutes later you had a brand new reformatted computer.


They used to send out ghosted images that would instantly fix the problem. But they've since done away with that in favor of endless needs for support. I guess this is job security at it's worst.

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[saveopieanthony.net]

my tech support guys just say "reboot your computer"

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[Reephdweller]

Well I bitched about my endless problems with my computer to my boss and the horrible tech support. I told him that I'm tired of waiting for them to help me that I'm taking matters into my hands and reformatting the system. He said it was okay with him that I clearly know what I'm doing and how to make it work so it's fine. So that's what I'll do.

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[sr71blackbird]

My company is exactly the same way. But what my boss does when I I have a computer problem is to move me temporarily to someone elses desk and I have to sit in someones space and not have any access to the stuff I need it just heightens the anxiety and puts me in a horrible mood. So once, I couldnt take it anymore and just physically moved the bad parts of the computer from a vacant work station and assembled my own system. But the IT guys are a different union and they went bananas when they found out! I was like... I waited for you guys for a fucking week! Every day Im shuffling from desk to desk!

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[Hottub]

I volounteer to be your personal tech support. i can handle it!


Hey Nick, why don't you just go into business as a computer fix-it guy?

You could get rich just on the RF.net member problems, let alone, referals and word of mouth.

If you are that good, go for it. We Hire a dude at $65@hour, and he is really a mac guy.

Nick's PC Fix

I expect a royalty check for the name!!

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[JPMNICK]

Check is in the mail budday!!

I have done it on the side for a while, but I am too nice or not a good buisness person and usally do stuff for some dinner. I fix all of my family computers and usually just stay for dinner afterward.

I have a degree in computer engineering, and I am a programmer now while I finish my Electrical Engineering degree, so time is kind of tight.

Maybe after I am done with school in January I will concentrate on it.

And for the board, I am ALWAYS willing to help who ever needs it as best I can. Unless Reef beats me to it, which he usually does. It is VERY nice having a job where they do not monitor internet(actually they do, but I am the one in charge of it)

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[wilee]

On hold with a guy in India? Isn't your tech support at least in the same country or something?

I support over 80 users, and my responsibilities end with support. When it comes to new builds or new machines, we have 1 person that does this, and he is over-worked. I recently had a manager come and chew me out that I couldn't set up 6 workstations for him. If I had done it, I would have gotten reprimanded for doing the work of another person.

Where do you work that your support personnel can get away with this kind of stuff? I know my supervisor calls me up if a ticket sits in my queue for more than an hour (even though I'm working on other machines at the time it comes in).

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[reeshy]

they wanted $40


So...did you pay the moolah??

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[BoondockSaint]

I worked at a company where basically all I needed my computer for was email. I was a facilities manager, so when shit would break down somewhere in the building or at one of our other buuildings, I would get an email telling me about it from someone so I could fix it or get it fixed. My computer would break down and it would take days for them to fix it (even though I sat RIGHT NEXT TO the IT guy who would eventually fix my computer) It was always about "we have a ticket opened" shit. Then when it was finally fixed I'd have 30 emails about shit going wrong and my boss would be mad at me.

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[stickyfingers]

Where's Nick Burns when you need him?

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[Mike Teacher]

On hold with a guy in India? Isn't your tech support at least in the same country or something?


I mentioned this in another thread for a diff reason, but 60 Minutes did a piece on exactly this not too far back.

Not sure which companies, but there were banks, mortgage processors, credit card, and computer support companies, and it was such that when you call tech support you will get a very nice American sounding person with an American name, and you're talking with someone in India.

WCBS-AM broadcasts 60 Mins, and I was in my car so I didnt see it; but I heard as Rajeesh went from his native Hindi, to 'Bob' who sounded Very very American. Him and others showed how they switch from being themselves to being these psuedo-Yanks. They had the voices down damn good.

Next time you're on with a 'Bob' ask him who he thinks might win the Super Bowl, or the AL pennant, and you might be surprised by the non-answer.

-

Prolly a transcript somewhere.

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[JPMNICK]

There was also a big thing around April 15th with these Tax companies sending American information to Indian to be done and then sent back. They are trained on american tax code and do our taxes for way cheaper than an American would.

The problem is Indentity theft. Its un-regulated over there and you have no idea who is getting all your sensitive information.

And no one at these Tax firms is telling you that your info. may be getting sent to India.



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[wilee]

Mike-

What I mean is that if your company has enough need to have support at all (I don't mean you call Dell or HP or some other company about the system), then shouldn't it be in the same building, let alone country?

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[FIG]

this is the thread ive been waiting for!
my company guy is pretty good, he resolves your problem right there and there are a few of them so theyre not impossible to get on the phone.

so I bought a dell about 9 months ago and they have the worst support by far. you call them and they make you type in 2 diffrent number sequences each with 15 numbers and letters, then after a half hour when the guy from pakistan answers you have to repeat those 30 numbers followed by your SS#, birthday, phone number, address, email and how many dumps you took that day. after 10 minutes of that, they ask what your problem is? you tell them once, they dont fully understand so you have to explain it 2 more times before they comprehend it. so after youve explained it 3 times they give you a confirmation number and place you on hold for 10 minutes while they research the problem. if youre lucky enough not to get disconnected in that time they come back and tell you youve called the wrong department bec you have a computer made before easter and their department only offers tech support for computers made after easter so they place you back in the que. that my friends is dell tech support in a nutshell.
the funny thing is when you call dell and press 1 for sales youre immidietly transferred to an american.

i guess its obvious where theyre priorities are

[FMJeff]

if you have tech support questions and its not related to a software packagae that is unique to your company, im me or email me

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[Reephdweller]

Luckily I can solve most any problem with computers that I work with, the problem comes in when dealing with parts like hard drives that fail, or printers that need repair and trying to get tech support to have it fixed or replaced. The situation with my pc was one where I wasn't sure if the problem was related to a networking issue or something physically with my pc or within Windows. I went the traditional route because that's the way it's supposed to be done. But ultimately I took matters into my own hands and resolved the problem

We received 4 pc's in my office from another office, all of them came in set up incorrectly, and since I'm done with going the proper route I've decided I'll fix them myself. It's the only way to do things properly now.

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This message was edited by Reefdweller on 8-20-04 @ 1:28 PM