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Consumer Reports Discovers Tech Support Sucks
fuzzykitty writes "CNN just posted an article about how commercial software is filled with bugs and customers are used as an army of unpaid testers. It also goes on about the lack of good technical support. Best quote: 'I'm unaware of any company that would shortchange the customer in their speed to get the software to market,' LOL"
From the article: Am I going to use this software as it's been marketed?
Not as it was designed, mind you, but as it was marketed. We all know that in the "21st Century" (TM) marketing is reality.
And tech support is always marketed as a smiling blond woman with the headset on saying, "How can I help you today?"
I get a warm numb feeling just thinking about it. Problem? I don't have a problem...
I'm much funnier now that I'm a subscriber.
i'm still waiting for the first tech support-patch
"I'm unaware of any company that would shortchange the customer in their speed to get the software to market," said Jonathan Thompson, vice president of the Washington-based trade group, which has more than 650 members.
That's great. I'd put Mr. Thompson right up there with the Iraqi Information Minister, and his "deathless quotes":
"There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!"
"God will roast their stomachs in hell at the hands of Iraqis."
"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Oh, um... scratch that last one, ok?
And he gets better and better!
Thompson said customers need to have realistic expectations. He urged buyers to ask themselves two questions before plunking down cash for software: "What is it that I want this software to do?" and "Am I going to use this software as it's been marketed?"
Well, if I were to use Microsoft software "as it's been marketed", I'd expect to be using it to magically draw pretty pictures around my everyday activities, transforming a burned-out building shell into a stage with a spotlight.
"Make sure that your expectations are appropriate to what a product is marketing," he said.
What the hell does that mean? Intel marketed its product -- a chunk of finely-etched silicon in a plastic box -- with a bunch of blue guys. What expectations are appropriate in that case?
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Thompson said customers need to have realistic expectations. He urged buyers to ask themselves two questions before plunking down cash for software: "What is it that I want this software to do?" and "Am I going to use this software as it's been marketed?"
I thought that bugs, marketing lies, crappy documentation, and clueless tech support were realistic expectations for most commercial software.
But shouldn't the topic be Consumer Reports Discovers Software Tech Support Sucks ? Can I mod the article -1, Offtopic?
FLR
Does it somehow imply open source is better? Yuk yuk MSFT is teh gay!
Yeah right. "Community support", that's where it's at. Have you been on any support channels?
s20451: I'm having trouble getting my ATI card to work under Linux. Can anyone help?
HellDog69: LOLOL u noob RTFM
31337h4x0r: u r gay
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
Depending on your propensity to wear a tin foil hat, one could say that id software delays their games to ensure higher quality.
Having done 6 years of tech support, I can conclusively agree with the contents of the article. We do suck.
I've seen so many coworkers come and go, and only a small fraction of them possessed true technical ability. And a small fraction of those were actually able to communicate effectively to pass that knowledge on when it was needed. And even fewer had the temperment to do it for years at a time.
Which is a real shame. There are a lot of people out there that need help, and by my calculations, maybe 0.1% of tech support personnel are truly able to provide the level of support needed in all cases. But remember, 87.375% of all statistics are made up on the spot too, so take it with a grain of salt.
http://thechubbyferret.net - Ferret pictures and informative links.
- fire is hot
- water is wet
- SCO is EVIL
- grass is green
sort of a revelation?There are 10 kinds of people in the world > > Those who understand binary and those who don't
I think if this were posted on fark it would have the headline "obvious"
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
-Xenocrates
try to buy only things that are made in the USA.
Doc: No wonder this circuit failed. It says "Made in Japan".
Marty McFly: What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan.
Doc: Unbelievable.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
don't buy that $30 CD burner that was made in a straw hut
I am a true geek - heck my CD burner is a straw hut! and man does it burn CD's - using XCDRoast naturally!
Yeah - you could say I'm trollin' but not nearly as bad as the parent post and a darn sight funnier too...
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
Ahh, so that's why Duke Nukem Forever is taking so long.
Back in the day (you should be able to determine timeframe soon), I had to call Gateway 2000 tech support to get some information on our spiffy new 386/16. Now, they were pretty good when you finally got them on the phone, but until then one usually had to wait for at least 30 minutes. On one occasion, I ended up having to wait over an hour, which put me in a rather hostile mood. When the support person asked me what my problem was, I asked them to hang on for a second.
I put them on hold, went downstairs, had dinner, watched some TV, and then finally moseyed back up stairs about half an hour later. To my great surprise, they were still sitting there on the line and we got my problem solved.
Now of course I only made the situation worse, wasted other people's time, etc, and that's not something I'd do today after being in a tech support-like position myself and having friends who have had similar tech support roles.
But damn it felt good to do it once, at least.
Depending on your propensity to be gullible as hell, one could say that Duke Nukem Forever will eventually be released.
>Also, your USA quote is somewhat insulting to people who (like me) lives in other countries.
You left out "you insensitive clod!"
"A 2002 study funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology estimated software errors cost the U.S. economy about $59.5 billion a year."
And politicians are worried about entertainment piracy hurting the economy. Maybe there are more important things to fix than catering to the entertainment industry...
Yes, but you must understand that entertainment piracy costs the U.S. economy more. In fact, according to the RIAA's numbers, music piracy alone costs the U.S. economy over _six quintillion_ dollars a year. If they could only convince all those 14-year-old kids to spend millions of dollars each on CDs instead of just downloading the same songs via Kazaa, the U.S. would not only be out of debt, but the average American's salary would increase to tens of thousands of dollars a day (just like the average music industry executive).
Now do you see why entertainment piracy is more important?
There's no test like production!
Computers Reports must have recently begun discovering the joys of using MS Windows.
AOL kiddie speak on the frontpage? OMG... WTF is /. coming to! I mean, uhh... wait... nevermind.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
Same with Bloomberg tech support, Dell, HP, Earthlink and Verizon, all of whom I called in the past month.
I think you need to lay off a bit on the number of calls. Instead of cold calling the tech support department of companies to make friends how about going out and meeting real people?
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Yeah, but bugs don't have lobbyists and besides...bugs are...you know...gross and stuff.
Just turn off your DSL modem for 30 seconds then turn it back on..
I found this quote from the story amazing...
"I'm unaware of any company that would shortchange the customer in their speed to get the software to market," said Jonathan Thompson, vice president of the Washington-based trade group, which has more than 650 members.
Just out of curiosity, I hit google and searched for Jonathan Thompson software washington. I wanted to start an email dialog with him. The first link returned was it (you gotta love google?) It is the SIAA. This is the best part....
In the middle of this page it says:
As a result of aggressive sniffer and collection programs, SIIA is no longer able to list the email addresses of its employees. We apologize for this inconvenience. However, you may contact the individual directly to receive their address.
Apparently they don't want people telling them how ridiculous they sound.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
"Oh yeah? Well, the quality of the customers isn't very good, either!"
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
They just needed to get tech support from me. My support doesn't suck; I'm the tech support MASTER! True, I might've been rude to them if they couldn't grasp computer basics. And I would be writing a perl script, reading slashdot and editing an XMMS playlist while helping them out with their problem. This might make me lose track of what their problem was part of the way through the call, but I would be able to get back on track by grumpily asking them to restate the problem. But at least their experience wouldn't suck...
--- Biffster.org
"Bite my shiny metal ass."
If they were, the programmer would think that it is much easier for him to reuse bulb socket for toilet water supply socket, and the customer would be trapped.
MSDOS: 20+ years without remote hole in the default install