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Tech Support Levels Dropping
NeoPrime writes "USA Today is reporting on the growing concern of the language barrier, when it comes to tech support. It appears that each year it is becoming more compelling to companies to reconsider the use of overseas help desks. According to this story, based '[o]n a 10-point scale, the average level rated by desktop owners dropped from 7.0 in 2003 to 6.3 this year; notebooks fell from 7.2 to 6.1.'"
The curse of free markets is that things like Out sourcing can happen, taking american jobs away. However, the market has ways of resolving things it self. You take a relatively minimaly skilled job like Tech support, ship it over seas to even cheaper labor and you get your ass bitten.
What has happened here is the market provided a cheaper means, but at a cost (Customer satisfication) so hopefully, companies will fix this problem by moving these jobs back to where ever they originally were.
--------========+++Dont Feed The Lab Techs+++========--------
Well, that is the way of the capitalism.
The money goes to whoever takes the job for a lesser amount of money.
The system had the verbosity of HTML combined with all the readability of compiled assembly viewed as bitmap images
>Barr called Dell seeking help formatting, partitioning and reloading Windows XP. "I got a tech in India who spoke British English. I am 73, speak Alabama English and use two hearing aids. We both experienced some understanding problems."
>One communications snag: The rep didn't realize that when Barr said "oh" he meant the number, not the letter.
wtf is Alabama English? you can't just make up your own languange and expect it to be supported. this is just arrogance. if you don't want to speak or type properly that's fine but you live with the consequences.
it'd be like someone from London speaking cockney rhyming slang and expecting that to be understood.
you should always speak in the most clear and correct way when making a non-personal phone call, including additional redundancy e.g. "A for apple".
you can't be bothered doing this? tough.
to put some money into automation, which is probably where most tech support is going to be in 10 years anyway. Outsourcing "hid" the costs for a while, but as the service levels fall(the service was probably initially good because only the best were doing it, once everyone else jumped on the bandwagon, then it started to fall) and costs increase, companies are going to look to new ways to save money, and it probably won't be by hiring Americans.
Monstar L
Their techs are skilled, but I often call again, just so I can get a native english speaker. I don't mind working with heavily accented people, but when you have critical issues which can affect thousands of users, that small barrier becomes more than a nusance, it becomes dangerous.. /coward
You take a relatively minimaly skilled job like Tech support, ship it over seas to even cheaper labor and you get your ass bitten.
Eh, I worked in tech support. The English native speakers are equally as worthless as those that are ESL overseas workers. It's basically a trade off for the most part.
From my personal experience the ESL workers have more technical experience and end up being able to do something for you even if it takes longer for you to get your point across. The native English speakers suck at understanding your point AND they suck at the technical side of things.
$9.00/hr jobs with shitty benefits (if any at all) to put up w/raving assholes bitching at you because your Internet connection is down isn't worth it for most people that have a clue (unless they are college students that need a flexible schedule).
There's a cultural one too. Depending on the problem, users will expect empathy from the other side. With cultural differences, that gets harder. As a European, I've had to call a few US helpdesks in the past, and it's just not the same. You'd expect it to be ok, but i guess Americans just have a different method of social interaction than us Europeans.
There's really two issues here, that are both somewhat addressed in the article:
1) Americans speak their own brand of English that's incomprehensible to most of the rest of the world, and vice versa. That goes double for anybody with a regional accent. If I can't understand Mississippian, what chance does somebody from India have?
2) There's a definite technical language gap, irrespective of dialect. Trying to figure out what's actually wrong is usually 90% of handling a call. Your typical electronics consumer only knows that this doohickey isn't doing what he wants it to do.
The dialect-related problems can be solved by having regional call centers, but the technical language gap is a bigger and longer-term problem. As the article says, "We're not going to give you a crash-course in Excel over the phone"... but if the consumer won't give it to himself, he's going to blame the product, the vendor, or the support staff when it doesn't do what he thinks it should.
Consumers expect top quality products, but are not willing to pay for it. As is commonly known, the margins for computers are razor thin. On top of this, when people want top notch service, how can the companies provide it? I am sorry, but the companies are not wrong to cut some costs where they can by using offshore support for a product with very little margins.
If you want service, buy a service contract from someone local. As in come to your home and fix it.
Seriously, can all these outsourced IT'ers make a living driving around town with an AD-aware CD in their back pocket? How much is the average user prepared to pay for saving his butt?
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
Tech support is expensive.
Users are getting dumber and calling tech support for things they shouldn't.
Ever hear of someone calling their ISP to help them clear disk space to install the ISP software?
They can just hang up (frustrated customer)
Or they can help the customer, this is expensive, so get a lower level cheaper tech to do it.
That being said I rarely call tech support for anything other then my ISP is broken. Even then I've just about given up, when I telnet to the smtp port on my mailserver and it replies with an error message, they want me to reboot my computer.
Insightful? Thanks whoever did that, but it was supposed to be "Funny". :)
Pete Carr Owner Chatmag.com
People who work at User Support, and especially people writing manuals should be FORCED to use software (general) in language version they support.
I got a CAM program with translation to English. The problem is the translator apparently never used any english program himself, learnt english at school and never had to use it really before the translation. Examples? (with my translations)
Secure Tool - save the tool set to a file.
Save Under
Programme End
Displace - move
Edit Row - (the only way to enter text into project)
Demark - unselect
Adjust position - move point
Size line - measure distance
Clearance - material to be removed by the CNC
No, the program is not an after-hours shareware. It's a multi-thousand-dollar commercial software, a flagship product of the company that makes it. And no, it's not really crappy. The backend is marvelous. It's the frontend and translations that really suck.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
hmm....
...so it was impossible to even attempt to get a free month out of them."
"our DSL was down for most of the day...
so your entitled to a free month why? your DSL died because of a goddamn storm, theres not much tech support can really freaking do. do you call up and bitch at the power companies and demand free electricity when a storm nocks down powerlines and plunges you into darkness for a few minutes to a few hours?
...I got nothing.
What upsets me so much about this is not that Microsoft sucks at writing secure, reliable software but rather that there are so many people that are so willing to exploit it. Considering how many unique exploits there are on Windows XP, I feel that regardless of secure we think that Linux or BSD or Mac OS X may be, that if they had the dominant market share in their current state there would also be a large number of malware apps running wild on those platforms.
When you consider that it takes a significant amount of time to diagnose and resolve malware issues properly over the telephone, it immediately becomes impossible to offer good technical support. Sure, there are other key issues, such as outright hardware failure, but when malware is slowing down the machine average call time automatically increases. So unless your policy is to shaft users (and their data) and tell them to reformat/reinstall/use the restore CD right off the bat, or you are willing to pay what it really takes to have enough reps to help your customers, then there is absolutely no way to provide satisfactory technical support. Not in California, not in Canada, not in India.
I am feeling fat and sassy
I completely concur. Right now I do work as a hourly computer consultant (or "tech support for hire" as I like to call it) and I charge full hourly rate for all time on the phone to the useless tech support people, which only really happens with Internet stuff generally, as I generally build all the machines my clients use myself.
We do no advertising, and even then we have more work than we can handle sometimes, just through word of mouth. Personally, I hope computer stuff gets more and more compliacted and touchy, because that means more money for me. Plumbers make a damn good living, and I don't see why I don't stand to do much the same, seeing as the plumbing I work on is way more complex and far more prone to break down.
so there you were, thinking yourself really tough, making fun of some poor sod in an out-source callcenter who never quite got the training from the not-to-be-named company to really do the job well, who can do absolutely nothing but follow a couple of silly script lines and who gets paid shit to swallow yours? bravo!
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Proponents of offshoring have propped it up as the new religion of business. Like the TQM or 6-Sigma of the past. Wildly irrational business decisions are being made by the groupthinkers who are today's and tomorrow's CEOs, because everyone else is doing it.
I was more upset at the way that I had been treated - and this wasn't the first time that this had happened. I wanted a simple straight answer and had to dance on my head in order to even attempt it. The fact of the matter was that I had called three times in one day, had spoken to a couple of techs, and not one word of my conversations had been recorded.
When their tech support was still in the U.S., we had gotten compensation a couple of times before for the problems stemming from them. I'm sorry, but if there's no communication between the workers here and there, then there's a significant problem that needs to be addressed. Unless it's been down for two days or more, the techs over there aren't even aware of it.
Most of my nontechnical acquaintances are savvy enough to select "help" from a menu or read the glossy "getting started" summary card packed at the top of the box. If Clippy has the answer for them, they don't call tech support.
The problem is not whether the person on the phone has a detectable accent or a professional demeanor. The problem is that for the last five years, tech support people, foreign or domestic have been human versions of Clippy. Only with fewer preprogrammed answers. The problem is that in so many cases they appear to be reading from a top forty FAQ sheet and cannot solve any problem that the average user can't solve themselves.
I'm happy with anyone who actually solves my problem, and I'll be most other customers are, too.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
While I agree that the language barrier can only hurt tech support, I think people have forgotten how bad it was even when it was onshore. The salaries were still pretty low and the skill level of the support people reflected that. Think about it, tech support horror stories have been around much longer than the off-shoring trend. The fact that they're in India now just adds insult to injury.
"The problem with internet quotations is that many are not genuine" -Abraham Lincoln
I've called Apple tech support on three occasions and always had an extremely knowledgable...
Not to seem trollish but Apple also has a few advantages:
1. Less software means that there is less chances for a third party to screw over the PC.
2. Less virii/adware means less problems to contend with as well as a greater chance of a non-fouled system
3. Most of Apples hardware is from Apple. This also means not having to contend with third party problems
4. Most Apple owners seem to have a very specific use for the PC when they buy it. Joe Sixpack buys an E-Machine because it's cheap and it runs the best-known OS. Joe Sixpack is less likely to have as much experience as the Apple user. I doubt many people by an Apple as a first PC because most people either don't know what they want/need or they just want a general PC.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Every day I am amazed at the lack of skill and knowledge in IT personnel. 9 out of 10 of them should never have been a sys admin, programmer or support person.
I think Microsoft is largely to blame. When people leaving school suddenly awakened to the fact that you don't just get handed a well paying job, Microsoft were pushing MSCE, etc. on the technically challenged masses.
In the end only Microsoft gained. The masses eventually got paid less because of the laws of supply and demand, but still companies felt that they were bestowed with armies of skilled people certified 'smart' by Microsoft.
Actually the armies of idiots might be the one thing that gives Microsoft staying power in companies. Migrate to Linux? Unless you re-hire your whole IT department you are in big troubles.
At least your department will be much smaller.
If you cannot even manage something you are certified for, what about something that actually requires a brain. Now make that idiot a manager and it becomes impossible.
I must apologize for using 'idiot', its a relative thing. I am smart in technology, but an idiot when it comes to stuff like financial investment, legal matters, fixing cars, etc. See, no harm done.
Now helpdesk personnel need to be patient. Thats where the Filipino's shine, pleasant and patient, but not very smart on the technical stuff no matter what they tell themselves.
I guess its a catch 22, very few tech savvy people will work in a helpdesk. Maybe it will be the first true mass market for good AI?
Companies sell stock.
Stockholders expect a healthy percentage return, better than the market average.
Company must make large profit to return value to shareholders.
Consumers demand cheap cheap cheap computers.
Company does whatever it takes to show large profit while still selling computer for ridiculously low price, including sending all manufacturing and tech support and accounting and so on to low labor cost foreign country.
Company upper management/shareholders rejoice at increased profitability.
Everyone else suffers.
The company I work for is in the process of relocating IT and accounting to a lower cost IT support center in Mexico (time zone restrictions prevented using India or Manila). Their stock is kicking butt because they've demonstrated all this efficiency and profitability. I have roughly 6 months before I know I'm out of a job. It's ugly, but that's how the whole thing works.
Incidentally, incompetence is running amuck in plenty of US based IT shops, too, just because first line tech support is probably the lowest paid job in the house, and you sometimes get what you pay for.
maybe one day i'll be smart enough to come up with a cool sig, too.
The problem is not outsourcing, and the problem is not cheap overseas labor. You can force people to wait on hold without any human intervention whatsoever. The strategy is called rationing by inconvenience, and Dell was using it long before offshoring became trendy.
I'm already making plans for my girlfriend and I to move out of california now since it's just too expensive and there are increasingly less and less tech jobs here.
Believe me, you'll be happy you did, and not because there are any more tech jobs outside of California than in (though there may be because companies are leaving CA for the same reason people do). Instead, it will simply be because you can actually afford to live on the same (or lesser) pay. At least, as long as you don't move to New York or somewhere with a similarly high cost of living.
The division seems to be between people who own a home and those who don't. Everyone I see who doesn't own a home here already is struggling and the ones who do are taking vacations. I've pulled out my savings to go on 'vacation' to the east coast to look for work.
This is simply because those that own a home either bought at a lower price than is currently demanded, or can actually afford a home at current prices. Even those with homes are often taking out 2nds on their home to live their lives and take their vacations.
Before I left California the paper had a front-page story on a Habitat for Humanity house that was selling for $250K to a qualified low-income buyer, and housing prices have continued to go up since then. For $250K in some areas around here (Hampton Roads, VA) I can have a very nice house on a substantial piece of land, or a nice house on a smaller piece of land (depending on how close I want to be to work, basically; and that smaller piece of land is bigger than anything in a CA suburb).
-PainKilleR-[CE]
Dell sells clones. They aren't truly any better than any other PC out there. They make some pretty nice cases though.
That said, the ONE thing that made Dell better than the rest was their support. It did't take long before they realized that it was a BAD BUSINESS DECISION to move their corporate support overseas. They moved it back to the U.S. pretty quickly when companies started dumping Dell.
That said, it proves they are aware of the problems it causes -- this is not a surprise to them in the least. The message I get from that fast? They prefer to abuse their users when they think they can get away with it. If you're not a corporate user, they don't care about you. Simple right? They might try to deny it, but their actions speak the loudest.
Well, that might be true once the dust has settled but I'm sure that this could not be said back in the mid-90s when a lot of us had a good deal of personal computer experience, but not enough to land us in a programming or sysadmin position. Back then the techsupport wasn't that bad, and it was before the days of the scripts that they go through now to fix your problem.
Just because you can't understand someone on tech support doesn't necessarily mean they are an Indian, or other foreign-based call center. There are plenty of American Citizens with poor command of the English Language. I have had several people call me for various telemarketing reasons who could hardly read their script. I promptly laughed at them and hung up, but their accent was clearly an American one.
The problem has nothing to do with where call centers are located but rather who's doing the work on the phone with you. All good support personnel should be trained in "standard" American English to help avoid ambiguity, since everyone can understand the version of English you hear on the CNN or other standard media outlets, even if you dont' normally speak that way.
I myself work with customers on the phone and make a point of suppressing my slight New York accent and not using any slang that might not be clear.
It's difficult enough trying to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical people without a 2-way language barrier getting in the way. A support rep should be able to decipher people's accents, within reason and should be trained in speaking a relatively standard form of the language they are providing support in.
This doesn't just apply to English, but also Spanish. We have support rep where I work who is responsible for helping spanish speaking customers. When on the phone with a customer she speaks "standard" spanish that you would usually hear on Telemundo or Univision. There is a definite difference between the dialect she speaks on the phone and what she uses when she's on the phone with her husband for example.
You are mostly correct. Tech support IS, for the most part, a crappy entry level job.
Why? Because people refuse to pay for it and expect it for free.
There are plenty of tiers to choose from from companies like Dell. You can get gold or platinum support, escalations on demand, all kinds of professional support.
You just have to pay for it. But but but, it should be for freeeeeee! Well, no one ever complains that they didn't get free tech support when they go out and install a bunch of after market parts on their car. No one dreams of slapping new firmware [software] on their big screen TV to change the color programming.
For some reason computers aren't considered appliances. And everything you can dream of doing, should be supported by the manufacture. Well that's pretty dillusional and short sighted on the customers part. No one expects these things with other appliances, why computers?
I'm not saying tech support isn't bad. It is. Especially the consumer entry level portion. But there are options. I know for sure Dell offers quite a few support options for consumers. And tons more for the enterprise segment. If you pay for it, you can talk to the same american professional support staff every day. Hell, you can even outsource your own IT department and have Dell take care of everything. In todays age, you hook a computer up with a fresh install of windows XP to the internet and whammo, you're hit with a myriad of malicious software. Why is the computer company at fault for that again?
It's a trade off. You get what you pay for in most cases. I still say Dell should beef up their entry level support to how it was 3-4 years ago. But you can't say it's all gone. They just charge you for it now.
I keep on hearing about how *insert big computer company*'s customer support is crap, but this doesn't seem to be affecting their profits any. Does bad customer support really affect the bysiness they get? If say Dell's customer support is crap, don't the customers just whine until their nearest geek friend/relative do the work for them free? The average buyer of computers relies on price and big numbers on the box (the MHz myth) and the ooh-shiny factor in terms of making purchasing decisions. Customer support is hardly ever considered (ditto with things like security for software purchases...). If the consumers don't care, why should the companies? If consumers want good customer support they should be willing to pay for it by making it part of their purchasing decisions eg. two identical systems from two computers, one with good customer support, one with not-so-good but the other one is cheaper, the vast majority of people will go for the cheaper one.
If customers don't vote with their wallets then why should Dell/Sony/HP et al. care about good customer support (from the POV of a business)? The idea of good customer support is to build loyalty but the average computer buyer doesn't consider support important at all when buying stuff as they will just get their nearest geek to fix it for them and they don't want to pay the extra money for good support as they want it as cheap as possible. Then from a financial POV to the business, it's just an annoying expense they have to have that doesn't add anything to the bottom line (since customers don't seem to be deserting them in droves or making purchasing decisions based on customer support reputation) and so it makes sense (from a financial POV) to do it as cheaply as possible even if it is crap.
The language and accent related issues are really just a natural consequence of offshoring. In the beginning most of the people working the call centers in India (for example) were probably among the best educated there. As demand grew, more call centers were opened and more people in India heard that this was a good way to make some money. Well, the proportion of well educated and talented people in India is probably no different than in the U.S., so it was inevitable that many of the people working in the call centers now are not among the best educated and most talented. Not that they're morons, just average folk. I mean really, how many of us could communicate fluently in a foreign language? I could communicate very very badly in two or three others. With a predetermined script I could do better, but that's about it. And forget about casual conversation!
While companies could try to better train their workers, I think that with respect to foreign language skills a limit is being reached. That is, even if the person in the call center understands English perfectly, they may still have an accent when speaking it that a U.S. customer will have a hard time with. I personally like accents, but Indian accented English is one of the most difficult for me to understand. I usually have to know the person for a while to fully understand what they are saying. Unfortunately, an already upset customer in the U.S. is not likely to have the patience for that.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Remember back in college when you had a TA -- or worse, a prof -- who could barely speak English, trying to teach you a subject you barely understood anyway? Remember how frustrating it was to have to simultaneously learn some extremely difficult subject and learn what sounded like something halfway between English and some other language?
/bitter
Well, lo and behold, computer companies are finally realizing that it's hard for people who may or may not be good at computers, to receive Tech support from someone who barely speaks English.
You'd think that fall into the realm of common sense, but then again, most universities don't care that their TA's hardly speak English, so why should computer companies care?
Completely agree with you on both points. I've been a tech manager for over 10 years and I always tell my staff, "we support people, not computers."
I find that a lot of problems stem from the fact that they refuse to deviate from the scripts that they're given
I work for a US based call center.
Typically when we're told, "I'm a network administrator! I know what the hell media state: disconnected means! It means something's wrong on YOUR end!" the answer is "Is the PC/Link light on the modem?" followed by, "...no."
It's not that we're not willing to deviate from our pre-determined method of troubleshooting, it's that there are alot of asswads out there who work a sense of apathy towards customer "troubleshooting." Which is typically kicking the modem and wondering why it's not working.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
There are two sides to this story... It is unbeleivable what kind of shit you have to put up with in this job. People will call you up with their brand new computer that they have already managed to get chock full of spyware and god knows what else, then get royally pissed off at you for telling them that this is not a hardware problem and that we cannot send an onsite technician out there to fix it.
;) ). Customers don't want to hear this, they just want someone to come out there with new hardware. Then they turn into the 'Ugly American' and scream at you and your manager. So please be nice the next time you have to call tech support, because every day is a rough day in this job.
IMHO, spyware is the biggest reason customer satisfaction is dropping. At Dell, where I work, we are not supposed to support this. I will recommed that people download ad-aware or spybot, but even this will not get rid of some of the worst adware. We simply don't have the time to spend hours picking through a customer's registry or going over hijack-this logs. Sometimes a reinstall of Windows is all that we can recommend. Of course, almost everybody who calls in has some kind of spyware, but none of them understand what it is or how they got it. They will often blame you for it, or even accuse you of making it up to cover up a "lemon" computer. Now, I work for an elevated tech support called "Gold," for which people pay extra money to talk to someone who is qualified, not to mention a native English speaker. Everyone working here is more than qualified for this, and most of us would be working as Sys Admins and the like if the IT economy wasn't shit right now. Yet, customers who call their computer a "modem" or a "hard drive" call us incompetent. I have had people screaming at me, then they want to talk to my manager, and then they will tell the manager that I called them all kinds of bad names. Fortunately we record all of our calls so its easy to prove what a lying sack of shit this person was, but there's nothing I can do about it. Give me 5 minutes alone with some of these people who call in and I might start to know the meaning of "job satisfaction." Don't get me wrong, there are also plenty of competent people who call in, mostly people who work in IT, and they are a joy to work with. But at least 90% of the people who call in have no right to call anyone in tech support (India or ortherwise) incompetent.
Take, for example, the DVD skipping issue mentioned in this article. To most people, this might obviously be a hardware issue. wrong. 95% of the time it turns out to be roxio or some other software causing the problem. (I solved this issue on my own Dell at home by installing Linux on it
Yes, they get paid a lot less, but the cost of living there is proportionately even lower, so it's me getting a shitty wage for doing a job well vs them getting a fair wage for doing a job badly.
The least they deserve is to be mocked.
(Turned out nice in the end. People really do prefer those who can attend your computer, offer friendly advice and speak your language, and I'm now making a fair amount on local PC repair/support/etc. as a sideline to further study.)
I managed a Computer Store for 3 years, and developed a reputation of being able to solve problems. This brought the customers in and kept them coming back, and telling friends that also came in. My business was selling parts, so I gave information away for free. This produced great sales and great rapport with the clients. Not for any reason other than the solutions were explained, the language was without accent(other than a Southern Drawl), and the recommended solutions WORKED. It increased sales because the clients understood that any problems would be resolved Fairly.
I left that position to work for a Software Company as the Technical Support Manager. This is when Problems became " Issues " and my team of techs also had to make Sales Calls, and after a time were instructed to SELL more than Fix. Time on the phone was rated, solutions were dropped down to quick fixes to get them off the line and get to the next person. Towards the end of my tenure a 900 help line was implemented, and the company went to EMAIL or 900 calls ONLY. They never understood why Technical Support costs them money, and couldn't MAKE money. No matter how many times I tried to explain that SUPPORT should be given freely, as the clients have already PAID for the product (At least for the version they bought). Soon it broke down to releases being rushed (almost a year before they were even ready) because the stock holders wanted to cash out. The Product and the company later went under, in part due to the Internet boom ("Everything on the Net Should be FREE!!") and partially due to no support being given to ANY product without a signed and paid contract.
Technical Support taught me more about human nature than I cared to know. It also taught me that when someone BUYS something, they should be able to call the manufacturer and get support when the product fails. These days it seems that it is easier and cheaper to just replace the product (meaning spending money for a replacement) Rather than fight through the Technical Support nightmare (Language barriers DO affect SALES. ) or the non-solutions provided because the person on the other end of the phone has no clue what it is you are talking about.
When I buy a car or a major appliance, and there is a recall or a problem, I take it back to the dealer where I purchased it to get it repaired. If I have a question on how something on that vehicle or appliance I call that same dealer. They sold it, they shoudl REPRESENT it, at least if they want me to buy from them again. I consider any purchase over $100 a MAJOR purchase. I shouldn't have to go through a translator to get an issue resolved. I shouldn't be talking to Hamir in India when I bought the product downtown at Sears or Best Buy. I should and EXPECT to get the problem solved ASAP rather than say "Oh, thats just how it works, and I have to live with it".
Computers are the ONLY industry where being treated properly (sure, its because of my ignorance I am asking a QUESTION) and with respect to being a CUSTOMER is not required. It has been this way for Years and is only getting worse. Companies in the Industry don't feel they OWE the customer anything, because we have become a Nation/World of consumers. THX1138 anyone? Its turned into a "Brave New World".
You keep going until you die..."Me".
I don't have any problem with any person in the world providing the support. I don't care what country they're from, really. But I do expect two things from them:
1. They should be proficient in the basic responsibilities of their job.
2. They should be understandable.
Unfortunately, finding a support rep that meets even one of those qualifications seems to be quite the accomplishment for most companies.
steve
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
so there you were, thinking yourself really tough, making fun of some poor sod in an out-source callcenter who never quite got the training from the not-to-be-named company to really do the job well, who can do absolutely nothing but follow a couple of silly script lines and who gets paid shit to swallow yours? bravo!
Bravo yourself! Not in the sarcastic context either. I am so glad that someone brought this up. Call centers are crap. Tech support is hard work, espicially over the phone, and espicially considering these are entry level tech jobs. How many people have worked a Tier 1 phone support job and had a fair-good understanding of correct T-shooting techniques of computers.
Now, I am a unix admin. At one time not too many years ago, I was that asshole on Tier-1 support that knew enough about customer service to keep you from hating the company, but not nearly enough about your computer to keep you hating me. Please people, these are just people that need to keep a job, just like anyone else. Yes, you know more than them, big fucking deal. There are plenty of people out there that know more than you. That and there are plenty of people that could turn your body into pulpy mass, but hopefully they don't. There are laws against physically abusing someone, but none to protect from mental abuse. This job is hard enough, let them and thier shoddy training be, ask to be esecalated, chances are you can and will be.
just my $.02
If we don't make light of everything, we are just stumbling in the dark - Blank