Tech support woes

Tech support woes
Scott Granneman, 2006-01-20

Technical support that's outsourced to foreign countries can cause frustration and have a negative impact on security when the problems remain unsolved.

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Support scope 2006-01-20
Anonymous (6 replies)

Personally, I think spyware and other malicious software should be considered beyond the scope of HP or Dell tech support. They make bundle hardware, software packages that are intended to operate in a specific way. I find it completely acceptable that there tech support follow a script to determine...

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Re: Support scope 2006-01-21
Anonymous

Dell, HP, et al. also inherited support responsibilities from Microsoft. It is Microsoft's buggy programs that are the cause of so many of these problems.

So Dell, HP, et al are still responsible....

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Re: Support scope 2006-01-21
Anonymous

Thats really wrong headed and a simpleton answer, true there are many people that are too stupid to own a computer, however having overseas not native english speaking tech support merely compounds the problem for all of us. ...

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Users are not stupid; they have lives outside of PCs 2006-01-23
Jeff Hotchkiss (2 replies)

With respect, I'd argue I hear this all the time from experienced PC pros (including myself in the past I'm sad to say). It misses a vital point. Users shouldn't need to be 'educated' to use a PC. What we should be searching for is a way to make the PC as easy to use as any other appliance.

Any r...

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Re: Users are not stupid; they have lives outside of PCs 2006-01-23
Anonymous (1 replies)

Again the "you don't need to know how 'xxxx' works to use it" argument. All these things have single use purposes. They are dedicated to perform set operations and have been refined to do that over many decades. To make this an apples to apples comparison, we need to give the users dedicated applica...

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Re: Re: Users are not stupid; they have lives outside of PCs 2006-01-25
Anonymous (2 replies)

I happen to have a life outside of cars too. If i want to order something to make my car perform differently I bring it to a certified technician. I don't just attach it to some random hose and get mad when it breaks everything. The problem I am seeing is that it has become so easy to do certain ...

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Re: Re: Re: Users are not stupid; they have lives outside of PCs 2006-01-27
Anonymous

Believe it or not, sometimes the problems are indeed software-based, right out of the box.

Case in point: about a year ago, I bought a pair of "identical" Dell PC's for my home. One of them had been configured, in the factory, to launch a picture viewer every time I clicked on a folder icon in ...

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Re: Re: Re: Users are not stupid; they have lives outside of PCs 2006-02-06
Jeff Hotchkiss (1 replies)

My, I'd not expected this to spark all this controversy :) Maybe I should've left the subject as 'Re: Support woes' so everyone would've ignored it ;)

I'd agree that the car comparison that everyone makes falls down in that area, that modifications are made by professionals not by inexperienced u...

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Users are not stupid; they have lives outside of PCs 2006-03-08
Anonymous

Well, Mac is trying to make OS too simple to be usefull for anybody with computer experience for years and there seems to be little interrest from "normal users" ... maybee it's simply not possible. Maybee even "normal user" NEED his computer for too many tasks ...

On the car analogy topic: remem...

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Re: Users are not stupid; they have lives outside of PCs 2006-01-25
Anonymous (1 replies)

Then, be it like cars : if you wanna drive, get a licence. To get a licence, you'll be told how to change a tire, how tu correctly use breaks, how to drive on a (information)highway ...
Stop thinking at a computer like a VCR. Else, buy a set top box, you'll get some webpages, basic e-mails ... don...

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Computers are like life... prone to error and never virus-free 2006-01-26
Anonymous (1 replies)

Your argument is flawed. Saying that computers are unlike anything else because they're expandable technology, etc., etc. doesn't make sense. For example, take life. Now when I started life, I never got a booklet, a training manual, or even a certification class. But I've managed to set a set of...

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Re: Computers are like life... prone to error and never virus-free 2006-01-30
Anonymous

"For example, take life." ... My argument is flawed?...

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Re: Support scope 2006-01-23
Lou

Funny there is an expectation someone must know how a computer works to use it. Suppose the attitude should be expanded to all the other things we use today that makes our lives easier - like cars maybe.

There shouldn't be anyone allowed to drive that doesn't know how the catalytic converter w...

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Re: Support scope 2006-01-23
Anonymous (2 replies)

This kind of comment only perpetuate the chasm between the techies and the general public. Granted that there is a need to further educate the public but it is the knowledgeable who also failed to teach. Keep in mind that you do not have to be a mechanic to drive a car....

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Re: Re: Support scope 2006-01-23
Anonymous

But you do have to know that water in the gas tank would be a bad thing....

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Re: Re: Support scope 2006-01-25
Anonymous

however, you need a licence, and you'll be tested on knowing about quite a bit about driving.
Nobody complains to a car manufacturer because he made a full stop on a highway and drove backwards creating an accident ...
The only problem, actually, is not that computers do not hide enough the 'reali...

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Re: Support scope 2006-01-25
anonym0u$

1.) Many times malware, spyware, and worms have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with knowledge. Granted, one could run multiple firewalls, A/V, browse behind an anonymous proxy, etc. and might be safe - but believe me, you lose TONS of functionality. Therefore, in order to get the full functionality we p...

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Tech support woes 2006-01-20
Anonymous

Simple lesson....buy stuff cheap, get cheap stuff/cheap service/cheap quality.

It's a simple lesson that applies to any product sectors, cars, houses, appliances, and yes, computers.

Caveat emptor....

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Tech support woes 2006-01-21
Paul Kosinski (1 replies)

Scott's experience makes me all the more determined never to buy a computer I can build.

If you buy a pre-built computer, you feel obligated to take advantage of the warranty, even if the time lost isn't worth the money saved by having the manufacturer fix it. When you build it yourself, you aren...

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Re: Tech support woes 2006-11-29
Mackenzie

There's always whitebooks from Asus if you want to build a laptop. You just get a mobo, screen, and case, then add your own RAM, HDD, etc.

I had a member of HP Tech Support tell me that formatting doesn't delete anything. I was 12 and knew they were full of it....

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Apple support 2006-01-21
Qka (1 replies)

A few months ago, I had a problem with my new Apple Macintosh, and I called their tech support. At one point in the converstion we discussed where we were. I'm in the Rochester NY area. He was in a suburb of Toronto. So we were just across Lake Ontario from each other. For me that was much closer th...

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Re: Apple support 2006-01-29
Anonymous

On the question of English, North Americans should be the last people to complain about being unable to understand the language. One look at the advanced options for configuring Windows should suffice to prove this....

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Tech support woes 2006-01-21
Ramki

I am in complete agreement with you, my observation is that Dell, HP and most of the Tech-BPO in INDIA are high-tech sweat shops that exploit people. In the past few months I have met not less than 10-15 people working for Tech-BPO's, they were all desperate for a switch to regular jobs like Desktop...

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Tech support woes 2006-01-22
Timothy from Triangle

I agree entirely, I spent the better part of five hours on the phone with Dell support going along with some mindless script that some bean counter dreamed up. I finally gave up and explained that I know what I am doing and that this part was not functioning as designed. They then agreed to overnigh...

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Tech support woes 2006-01-22
Anonymous

Sir, Would tell your mother or grandmother that they are (too) stupid to own a computer?
I think not>...

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Tech support woes 2006-01-22
Anonymous

Worse than this we are outsourcing the entry level job positions for new graduates. In a decade or maybe less this will come and haunt us a Phyrric victory indeed!...

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Tech support woes 2006-01-22
Anonymous

Wonderful insight! Haven't been a fan of all your past articles, but this is spot on and thx for the history lesson. I'll try not to repeat the lesson....

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Tech support woes 2006-01-23
Anonymous

In the last 5 years I've watched as call centers for these companies slowly die. I remember a day when if I had faulty hardware in a company machine I would call Dell/HP, give the techie a brief rundown of my troubleshooting, and 99% of the time I'd have new hardware there next business day no ques...

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Crumbling US Leadership 2006-01-23
Anonymous

Unfortunately, this is just one of the many symptoms of the overall unravelling of the US as a world leader. US companies no longer care about the future, only about the bottom line.

Ford is another prime example, they chose years ago that a 5% defect rate was more cost effective, while Toyota...

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Outsourcing or offshoring? 2006-01-25
Dragos (1 replies)

Hi Scott,
I believe you're confusing the terms here. Outsourcing is hiring a specialized subcontractor (for instance, for catering services or to fill up the printers' paper trays) and in most cases it occurs in the same location.
What you're describing falls better into the description of "offsho...

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Re: Outsourcing or offshoring? 2006-01-28
LAM

With all due respect, may I point out that "Outsorcing" is the term used by the press (and everyone else) since the '90s for what it was known in the '80s as "Offshoring". So Scott is not wrong; he is just following regular conventions.

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hit and miss is right 2006-01-25
Anonymous

I had horrible experiences with low level tech support that you would find when trying to troubleshoot DSL connectivity and email authentication problems with earthlink and SBC, but when I called Microsoft for support on MS Exchange 2003, they were very knowledgeable and sharp. I suppose this is a s...

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Tech support woes 2006-01-25
Anonymous

I dont think this is much different between countries. Personal level, we are all bothered with tech-support (not to mention the brainwave scheme of voice recognition customer help desk systems). I like and still work of open source system.. There are no bundles of joy in the real sense. You get a p...

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Tech support woes 2006-01-27
Anonymous

This article is totally right. More and more companies need to know that outsourcing call center support to non-english speaking (for english speaking customers, at least), non-technically inclined people is NEVER a good idea. I have had a few expiriences with poor customer support. Once from India,...

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Tech support woes 2006-01-30
Alfred

After spending four hours with about a dozen different tech support persons with very strange names, the problem was still not resolved.

We have a brand new system and the first time we attempt to use the DVD CD recorder with CD-RW discs, it fails. If I had discovered this 10 days earlier, I wou...

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English is their only unifying national language 2006-02-03
Anonymous (1 replies)

That shows how well read you are,india need not use english for unifying the nation. There is a national langauage for india "HINDI".

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Re: English is their only unifying national language 2006-02-03
Kelly Martin (1 replies)

Not only are you off-topic, you are also incorrect. English is the only unifying language of India. Take note of Tamil, Kerala, and Karnataka in the south - most refuse to speak Hindi. Plus, note the large Bengali population in the east. Hindi is not the national language of India, it comes in secon...

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Re: Re: English is their only unifying national language 2006-10-02
Anonymous

The following is my suggestion:

Amend the constitution and

(a) Make all Indian languages National languages as a token of acknowledgement of the rich diversity of the sub-continent and the
equality of all cultures
(b) Declare English as the recommended Official link language (But l...

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Wrong Thesis: "Foreigners" do not mean stupid 2006-09-19
A Foreigner (2 replies)

As someone who is a "foreigner" (Canadian) I take great exception to the attitude that everyone in the U.S. is more skilled at tech support than everyone else in the world. The issues you have described show that HP is no good at providing customer service -- they don't show that people working tec...

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Re: Wrong Thesis: "Foreigners" do not mean stupid 2006-09-27
JC

I don?t think he is trying to point out that foreigners are incapable of doing such jobs. The problem comes when you?re calling from the US and try to speak to tech support representative in India and the poor phone connection and the accentuated english accent makes it difficult to understand the s...

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Re: Wrong Thesis: "Foreigners" do not mean stupid 2006-11-28
Henry T

As a Canadian myself, I've experienced similar nonsense as Scott. Rogers (a Canadian cell phone provider) outsourced their Directory Assistance to India - a horrid joke. A Directory Assistance operator with no notion of the geography leads to Pythonesque conversations. They've never heard of the b...

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Tech support woes 2007-05-23
Anonymous

simply blaming the tech support for the product that really has worst quality is not acceptable

while purchasing a product do not look for price look for the quality
...

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Tech support woes 2007-07-06
Anonymous

AOL has very pathetic Indian BPO based tech support, see this to know what i mean

http://www.smart-techie.com/blog/2007/07/aol-myeaddress-comp
letely-non-functional-tech-support-completely-incompetent/..
.

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Tech support woes 2007-09-09
M@NRiQUe86

i didn't know that it would really take publicity to have your PC replaced.
we know for a fact that customer satisfaction means business, and if someone wants his system replaced after all exhausting troubleshooting was done, that would be fine. no more, no less.

HP or DELL or other computer com...

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