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Customers Rate PC Vendors' Tech Support
VorfeedTech writes "News.com has a story on consumers' satisfaction with tech support. The article goes on to mention ConsumerReports' survey results comparing a few of the major PC vendors. Apple rated the best for tech support. I guess this is where they think different (TM)."
First line tech support are mostly fools in call centres, so you'd expect those with the worst customer service to have the lowest opinion of their customers. Possibly the higher the training and morale level the less the customers are seen as, and treated like, idiots.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
5 percent bought a computer that was completely inoperable within the first month; another 11 percent said they had problems in the first month but the computer was usable.
This seems ridiculously high to me. 5% of computers are unusable in the first month? No explanation is give of what constitutes "unusable". Does it mean the hard drive is physically crapped out or something like "the Internet is broken again"?
Furthermore, Apple is a terrible company to include in this kind of survey. A very large percentage of their customers are Mac enthusiasts. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that comparing an Apple customer's perception of Apple support with a Dell customer's perception of Dell support is hardly an accurate picture - the Dell customer has no particular love for the company.
250$ for the extra 2 years of no-questions-asked tech support is exactly what you want if you're a college student. Do you really think your laptop is going to make it through college in one piece?
As a comparison, try checking the prices of in-store maintenance contracts for the same hardware. You'll find Apple is more than reasonable.
On the flip side, consider that any hardware repair at all after the first year will run you at least 350$ for parts and labor. You're foolish not the get the applecare warranty.
Remember that apple systems have a longer lifetime than typical PC counterparts. You're going to be using that ibook for a long time to come, you might as well take care of it.
Combine this with the fact that people are usually pissed off for the wrong reasons, and you can see they the techs are worn out and don't perform as well as they could if people actually had a brain.
Clever signature text goes here.
I don't think we slashdot readers can say much about the quality of customer service for a simple reason: the average slashdot reader probably has a larger understanding of computers than the average customer service employee.
Point in case: I mailed compaq a few weeks ago, after I installed SuSE 8.0, because my computer was freezing, and the caps and scroll lock lights were blinking when this happened. I hoped the people at compaq could tell me if this was a diagnostic code.
The support was pretty good; I got a response to my email in less than 15 minutes. I find that excellent. However, the poor guy at the support centre couldn't get a grip on what I was saying, because he consequently underestimated my knowledge of computers. His first response was to make me use the quick restore cd's, which would erase my hard disk and repartition it and reinstall the win98 se that originally came with the computer.
My point is that if you're a professional yourself, your either better than the support guy or the support guy is not going to take you serious enough. Either way you won't be helped properly. That's why slashdot readers can't really have a representative opinion on help desks; help desks are aimed at nitwits (as far as their computer use goes anyhow).
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"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
...you better get damn good tech support. I don't expect the same support from a comparable PC at half the cost.
Dirk
Users:
98% of all users believe technical support representatives can read their minds.
45% of all users do not listen.
Support:
75% of all technical support representatives don't want to help you for good reason.
90% of all technical support representatives with over 1 year of service are there for the money and don't care in the least.
You know why tech support sucks?
Because people will not pay for it. Margins are too low for companies to give good tech support. Consumers are only looking at prices/features not how good their tech support is. Who here is going to pay an extra $100 to $200 a year just for good tech support? Not many. Businesses are different, but most consumers are not going to pay the money to get good tech support.
For example, when I purchased my Dell system, I purchased it through my university (works if you buy through your business too), and as such, I was given the option of having 5yr premium tech support (5yr full, 24/7).. I can't remember what the exact service agreement stated, but at the time, Dell used a 3rd party company for its high-end support contracts named "Wang" (.. there's probably more to that name, but that's all i can remember right now).
Bottom line: If I had any problem whatsoever (or even *think* I was having a prob w/ the system), I'd call up the 800 number -- forwarding me to the Tier 3 tech support guy -- and say "look, component X has just failed, I want a replacement here in 24 hrs." Sure enough, the part would arrive; I'd send to defective part back to them in the same box -- no cost to me.
Lesson: Don't just roll over and save the extra $25 if you're concerned about support to begin with... Oh, and buying it through a large organization helps. ;)
SELECT * FROM USERS WHERE A_WINNER = "YUO";
Customers Unhappy with PC Support
And this is new... how?
Here's some more good headlines for CNet
Grass is coloured Green
Sky is blue
Microsoft earns another billion dollars
CNet runs out of good stories
(I have been on computers since 1987, customers have always been unhappy with customer support.)
~ kjrose
What one needs to be careful about is using a single (or even several) anecdotal experience(s) to judge the quality of anything, including a company's customer service or related aspects of the business.
Replace "Dell" in your story with "Sony" and you've got the next guy's experience. Do it again with "Gateway" and so on.
In addition, for each story you have like this, there is a story about how a phone call to Dell resulted in a replacement hard drive showing up a mere 2 hours later, no hassle, no problem.
The issue is, after surveying users and aggregating the statistics, etc... where do the companies rank? Dell doesn't rank bad because of one person's experience and Apple doesn't rank well because of one person's experience.
Your experience was unfortunate and I know you are not doing this, but I wouldn't jump from your situation to "everyone who buys a computer from Dell will experience a similar hassle."
Ah, yes, Consumer Reports. Quite the oracle of knowledge on computers. For example, in their latest issue they thought the iMac was "annoying" because it didn't come with a built-in floppy drive. What in the world would they do with a floppy drive, anyway? Oh, and Macs are too expensive, too. I like how they thought the "control buttons" on the Apple Studio Display were hard to use. I suppose that's true, especially since it doesn't have any--it's software controlled.
But in the same issue they think the Chevy Avalanche is a better "truck" then the base model Ford and Dodge pickups they tested it against. Of course, this time the nearly $8k price difference didn't seem to bother them much...
Tech support operators are rewarded not for how well they solve a problem but for how quickly they clear the phone line (he with the most calls per hour wins). Beyond that, more and more PC companies practically hide their support phone number, instead trying to herd their customers into e-mailing over-generalized bots that pay almost as little attention to their customers as their phone support techies. And woe to the person who actually knows more than the average phone techie who has to call tech support.
Customer satisfaction doesn't do much for profits one way or the other. Maintaining support facilities costs money, but the most money can be saved by getting people in and out as quickly as possible (satisfaction be damned). In the continuing quest of investors for the quick buck, is anybody really surprised by the amount of disdain the average computer manufacturer shows their customers?
This isn't just for phone service. For instance, I just replaced my battery at Sears (at Vallco in Cupertino). A guy named Frank provided superior service and proved himself an all around decent human being. I wrote a letter to the manager and would recommend anyone to him and to that Sears.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan