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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)."
Getting Tech Support to rate the customers. Which company has the stupidest clients, and is there a relationship between quality of service and the intelligence of the people receiving it.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
When you are supporting something, you become a genre expert, and as such, have a domain of knowledge about the product that few outside of tech support could hope to attain.
Besides, when you've worked tech support, you only remember the bad calls, never the good ones.
RomSteady - I came, I saw, I tested. GamerTag: RomSteady / http://www.romsteady.net
I wonder if there is a connection there?
In amny ways tech support is a waste of money for the computer companies. Most people aren't very intelligent consumers. By intelligent i mean people who would pikc up a copy of consumer reports and closely analyze the the details of a brand of computers such as how good their tech support is. Instead most people will buy things based on the specs, the looks, and the price. So, for the msot part Compaq's crappy tech support doesn't hurt them, because the person who needs tech support has already paid for the product and therefore any time they spend on them represents a loss in money.
Dell is the top manufacturer of PCs, no doubt largely because of its good technical support, however the contrast in the number of sales for Dell vs Compaq doesn't correlate well with the tech support satisfaction numbers.
A rabbit in the hand is worth 4 in the cage
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.
I work at a university and we have a huge computer contract with Dell, so pretty much every PC we have comes from them. We don't have much trouble with them, and when we do, the service has been excellent. Of course, we don't call the home user line, either, but if you're a corporate user I'd recommend them wholeheartedly.
Now, as for Gateway... when I was in high school, I worked for a company that had an outsourced tech support contract with Gateway. I was on hand when Windows 98 rolled out and all the poor Windows 95 users screwed things up when upgrading... I can honestly say that they hired anyone that could effectively grip a mouse. It was sad, but maybe things have changed.
Duse, I work for dell, so I know first hand what us guys go through. Here are some of my favorite tales: A guy is mad because his region 4 DVD player will not play the Playboy DVDs he bought A guy tells me he will make my life hell and come after me because I would not give him a bios password for a portable. A lady blames me for having to reinstall her OS(She had every P2P program on earth, along with every spyware you can think of, plus a virus or 2) A guy asked me how to remove a picture from the desktop before his parents got home and how to remove that picture from the list of backgrounds. A lady that said she would always get porno pop ups. Only her and her husband use the system. Good times!
What, me Tweet?
I've had two Dell computers without problem. The PCs worked fine for the duration of their life with me(2-3 years) and all was good.
This past winter I was going to buy another one only I had a complete brain fart about the limit on my card since I had never used it to make a purchase over $100 online.
So they send me an e-mail back saying the bank denied my purchase but did not give them a reason and I was to call Dell back, yadda yadda. So after figuring out about the limit from my card company I call Dell back and explain. I called the number they told me to call in the e-mail but after waiting 20 minutes to talk to them they had to rout me through to someone else because it wasn't the right department. So I wait another 20 minutes and I explain the problem to the next person...oh wait, it's not their department so they route me some place else. So I wait another 20 minutes and I explain the problem to the next person...oh wait, it's not their department so they route me some place else. Only this time my connection is disconnected...
I was so irritated I just forgot about the entire thing. In 2 days they had to release my order (as said in the e-mail) and I never did get a Dell. I built my own computer (thank goodness).
This could have all been avoided had I not bought the computer on the last day of a significant sale (free shipping -$90 plus a free upgrade or two, so I was saving quite a bit). Because of that I couldn't just cancel the order and configure and buy again.
In any event, that entire ordeal soured me to Dell.
After a great experience building my own computer months later, I'd never go back unless perhaps I ever bought a laptop.
-- Scientist: You aren't going to leave me here, are you? Boagh! Thump...
250$ 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.
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).
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
A few years ago a Jaz disk would eject immediately after inserting it in the drive and I called Iomega. After going trough the automated stuff (push # for ...), I finally got a live person on the line.
After the usual (cables, drivers, etc....) stuff she exactly told me what to do to make it stay in there (easy: keep your hand the disk, until it snaps, it never had the problem after that occurence). She even was very patient with me because I had to walk to the computer each time to do something because the phone and computer were in different rooms. After being helped, I thanked her for her friendly and useful help, and she actually sounded astonished anyone would thank her for the help.
And now you say they don't remember the good calls? *snif* (Oh, and she had one kind of sexy voice with a slight Irish accent)
My Mom was proactive and bought a Mac a few months ago. She had problems with connecting to the Internet.
Since I know little about the Mac and how it accomplishes such things, and since I live about 2500 miles away from here, I said "Um, Sorry Mom, call Apple".
And so she did. And to my amazement, they solved her problem. Not only that, but she actually emailed her good experiences to me within a couple hours.
I have to admit this is the only good tech support experience I've heard from a PC company. Years ago, when I had a PC from another well known company, the tech support guys made me jump through 1000 hoops before they'd admit to a problem that could be fixed with a BIOS upgrade.
Apple didn't make my Mom do that!
[OBDisclaimer: I work for Apple, in fact the Euro support centre is next-door but right now I'm speaking just for myself.]
Yes, Apple have full-time, trained employees working on tech support. They do in both the US support site (Sacramento, CA) and in Europe (Cork, Ireland).
By the way, every new Mac sold also contains a diagnostic CD. The user can simply insert it, boot in 5 seconds and get a result back for tech support without even needing a supporting OS!! Kewl or wha' ....
Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
On Monday afternoon I called them and they said they'd send me an overnight shipping package.
Tuesday, mid-day, an Airborne Express box was sitting on my porch. I packed the machine and brought it to the Airborne office for shipping.
Wednesday, I check the website and my machine arrived in the morning, has been fixed and is being shipped out in the afternoon.
Thursday, mid-day, an Airborne Express box is on my porch with my laptop with a new hard drive.
Time from problem discovery to problem resolution: 70 hours. Cost to me: $0. (Well, I did miss out on the $200 rebate offer when I bought it by one friggin' day ... darn you Apple--why won't you be nice and give it to me anyway? why? Oh ... sorry ... )
--- Jason Olshefsky
Karma: Poser (mostly affected by adding this line long after everyone else did)
I had an odd failure on my iBook. Somehow I managed to snap off the male plug end of the battery charger INSIDE the female power connector of the iBook. The 'book was under warranty, but past the 90 days of free phone support.
This was obviously a hardware problem, but the tech was not able to even discuss it with me without a credit card number. He told me that if it was a hardware problem I would not be charged, but if it were a software problem I would.
I explained that there was no way that it could be a software problem since it was a physical plug not going into a physical hole because a physical piece broke off.
Long story short, I had to give my card number (was not charged), they sent me an Airborne box, which I filled with my iBook and gave back to the guy who was dropping it off. They had to wait for a part so it took a week to get it back, but all is well with it now.
I just thought it was funny that even Apple has some strange policies in their tech support department.
- Vincit qui patitur.
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
Though my subject is consumer vs. business, it is in regards to the type of support line you get thrown into. I have a Gateway at home, and I bought this machine back in december of 98, right when the dual 450's mother boards started shipping. I had purchased this box but, it was considered a business line workstation. Plus, it came with 3 years warranty. I have had to call them up twice regarding my SCSI CDROM dying on me. (I don't think the plextor scsi cdrom i have likes the 80min cdrs...i'm digressing) Both times, that I have called, the support has always been excellent, and the staff was highly technical (and they were females, too...kudos!) None, the less, I always explained to them what was going on, and they have never given me much trouble. They have sent me two replacement drives, and this last one is still working. (Whew!)
I think perhaps that the article is decent, but it does not paint a clear picture. Perhaps, the various vendors of computers have separate groups of customer support, and i would not be surprised if the ones for the business side of things were much more technical than the consumer side. For example, Compaq has always made great business class machines and servers. But I wouldn't put my money in their consumer side products... that's just me though.
There was a batch of Deskpros which had faulty video cards. They would work fine when new, but over time the BIOS would leak power until one day you switched on and, well, it didn't switch on. You got the beep sequence informing you, "Dude, you're getting no video!". Once that happened, you were out of luck and had to RMA the card. Eventually they came out with a "patch" -- if you can consider a small Windows program which bleeps the BIOS every 24 hours to refresh the video card information a legitimate patch -- but it was useless if your card had already died.
I had a client who'd bought a batch of 70 or so and was rolling them out in lots of five at a time. Hence, every few weeks, we'd have to call Compaq and RMA the video card. Well, naturally, we had to go through the diagnostics. Even though this was a well-known and documented issue, and even though the beep sequence said exactly what was happening, and even though you would tell Compaq you'd gone through the diagnostics, you had to do it while the Compaq tech was on the line.
So eventually I figured out how to do this.
Compaq tech: "Okay, switch out the video card with a known good card and check it boots up with that one, then replace the original and see if you still have the same problem."
Me: wait for 15 seconds doing nothing, then, "Okay, done that. The other card worked fine, but I still have the same problem with the original."
Compaq tech: "Gosh, that was quick."
Me: "Yes, well, I'm, err, used to doing this by now."
Compaq tech: "Okay. Well then...um, let's reset the motherboard BIOS by..."
Me: "...switching over Jumper A17, powering up for 20 seconds, then turning it off and switching back, yeah, I know. Hang on a minute."
Sit for another 30 seconds doing nothing.
"Okay, done that, same problem."
Compaq tech: "Wow, you're really quick on this stuff!"
Me: "Yeah, well, I play the piano, I have good dexterity."
Compaq tech: "Oh..."
Quite efficient, I think: if you just pretend to do what they're asking instead of actually doing it, it goes much more quickly. This is good, right? You cut down on the call time, save the client time and money, and don't tie up the Compaq tech line either, so they're getting better call times -- yay, everyone wins!
You just had to make sure you paused long enough to make it sound plausible. No good coming back after five seconds claiming to have replaced the video card, booted up into Windows, shut down, and switched in the original video card, as well as having done a complete NT installation on the side. But there was one tech who I spoke with quite often, and he soon figured out what was going on. Fortunately, he also figured out I had at least half a clue, and if he played along it'd cut down his call times.
They have to go through the charade, poor buggers; almost feel sorry for them sometimes.
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...
User: 5
...20 minutes later...
User: 3
User: #
User: 9
User: 9
User: 4
User: 0
Tech Support: All technicians are busy. We value your business. Please continue to wait.
Tech Support: Hello, how can I help you?
User: About a minute after booting up, my computer freezes with a blinking cursor in the corner.
Tech Support: Sir, can you check your power cord? Is it plugged into the wall?
User: Yes, as I said, when I turn it on it freezes up.
Tech Support: Is your computer turned on?
User: Yes.
Tech Support: Is your monitor plugged into both the wall and your computer?
User: Of course.
Tech Support: Is your monitor turned on?
User: Yes yes. That's not the problem.
Tech Support: I see. Do you have your support CD?
User: Yes.
Tech Support: Ok, insert your support CD and press the reset button.
User: Ok.
Tech Support: You should see our logo and several choices.
User: Alright there they are.
Tech Support: Press the one called Reformat and Reinstall Operating System.
User: Uhh...Won't that remove all of my stuff? I mean can't you help me figure the problem out?
Tech Support: Your problem can't be solved without reinitializing your system.
User: But it starts up ok and works for a while.
Tech Support: Sir, can you check your power cord? Is it plugged into the wall?
The best thing I loved about Apple's Customer Service, is that when I called, the lady asked me my name and then asked for my phone number so she could call me back just in case we got disconnected. Do you believe that? I can't remember the number of times that I've been disconnected on Customer Service lines, but for once someone got it right.
If they disconnect you, then they should call you back.
Thanks Apple!
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?