Mobile Magazine's Notebook Tech Support Reviews

antdude writes "Mobile Magazine tested companies' technical support for their notebooks/laptops. Each test had three calls to each of ten major notebook manufacturers (added three additional vendors since last year). Also, called three third-party providers of PC help. On the whole, what they found was a sea of ignorance -- and annoying fixation with pinning down our name, address, and serial numbers. Things haven't gotten any better since our 2004 test -- and most of the vendors we tested have actually gotten worse..."

Comments

Re:My pet on-hold peeve

[LoraxLorax]

The absolute worst is the fake picked up phone click followed by "Thank you for continuing to hold..."

Economics of Tech Support

[mpapet]

In one company I worked, one call wiped out the profit of 5 units sold. Laptops likely make more money per unit, but same concept...

There is -no- incentive for having warm bodies intelligently support a product. An employee like that would:
1. cost too much money/hour and be hard to replace.
2. Take too long with each customer
3. Inspire more phone calls. (support is great right?)
4. Raise the price of the laptop.