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Why Tech Support Is (Purposely) Unbearable
HughPickens.com writes: Getting caught in a tech support loop -- waiting on hold, interacting with automated systems, talking to people reading from unhelpful scripts and then finding yourself on hold yet again -- is a peculiar kind of aggravation that mental health experts say can provoke rage in even the most mild-mannered person. Now Kate Murphy writes at the NYT that just as you suspected, companies are aware of the torture they are putting you through as 92 percent of customer service managers say their agents could be more effective and 74 percent say their company procedures prevented agents from providing satisfactory experiences. "Don't think companies haven't studied how far they can take things in providing the minimal level of service," says Justin Robbins, who was once a tech support agent himself and now oversees research and editorial at ICMI. "Some organizations have even monetized it by intentionally engineering it so you have to wait an hour at least to speak to someone in support, and while you are on hold, you're hearing messages like, 'If you'd like premium support, call this number and for a fee, we will get to you immediately.'" Mental health experts say there are ways to get better tech support or maybe just make it more bearable. First, do whatever it takes to control your temper. Take a deep breath. Count to 10. Losing your stack at a consumer support agent is not going to get your problem resolved any faster and being negative in your dealings with others can quickly paint you as a complainer no one wants to work with. Don't bother demanding to speak to a supervisor, either. You're just going to get transferred to another agent who has been alerted ahead of time that you have come unhinged. To get better service by phone, dial the prompt designated for "sales" or "to place an order," which almost always gets you an onshore agent, while tech support is usually offshore with the associated language difficulties. Finally customer support experts recommended using social media, like tweeting or sending a Facebook message, to contact a company instead of calling. You are likely to get a quicker response, not only because fewer people try that channel but also because your use of social media shows that you know how to vent your frustration to a wider audience if your needs are not met.
RTFM!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
companies would rather you used cheaper online resources or online chat instead because anyone who calls support costs them money.
The outsourced tech support engineer is too busy trying to close tickets on you to issues they can't solve.
Frustrated customer tries to get them reopened.
Support engineer goes back to their boss and say "Hey, my KPIs in dealing with tickets is fantastic!", and the boss pats him on the head and says "Good job! You're doing a better job than local tech support staff... and cheaper too!"
Meanwhile, the customer is getting damn angry - but the boss isn't able to hear about it because tickets are getting closed, so his higher ups are happy with that.
Sure, there might be a customer survey after the call - but typically after having enough time wasted on the call that went nowhere, nobody is in the mood to fill these out. Angry responses are explained away as the customer was being unreasonable, etc.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Honestly, a company goes out of its way to try to induce people into a rage so they'll tell off third-part, off-shore workers who have virtually no power to do anything with the goal to push people to pay extra for prompt, actual support, and their recommendation is to "not lose your temper" and '"call the sales" or "to place an order"'? Meanwhile, customer support experts basically say to use social media so that you and others can vent your temper when customer support fucks you over so that, eventually, they'll provide better support.
Yep, nothing at all wrong with this picture. Just something you, the individual, should shrug your shoulders and not blow your top over. Because I'm sure that if we, as a society, were to use social media to start calling out specific companies pulling this shit, we'd not see an improvement in support or at least an exodus away from some* of these companies? Well, I get it, I guess.
Mental health experts think inside the box called "you can only fix your mental health by how you think" and not in the broader "you can fix your mental health issues by fixing societal issues that rightly induce mental health issues". That's still quite crazy, though. The point about speaking calmly is more about the self-delusion that one has power and control over a situation so long as one is not emotionally motivated to act a certain way. Yet it's precisely emotional motivation that spawns a willingness of people to look at more than the most base rational, economical consequences of a situation. Otherwise, we'd all have long ago given up on calling tech support in the first place**.
But, yea, whatever.
* The truth of the real world is you can't always reasonably leave one company without leaving a lot of other companies--local ISPs come to mind--, so there's a dead weight loss that goes into the whole equation. But sometimes it's worthwhile to take a loss and switch companies anyways.
** This would have been much better advice, honestly. If you're at the point where tech support is supposed to be there to help, just give up. Return the product as defective and demand a refund. Don't buy products that you can't return. This doesn't inherently mean not buying online, but it does mean often having to pay extra to work with a online company you know takes returns. And if you can't return a product, black list the company from future purchases either for a length of time or permanently. That's really all you can realistically do given the obtuse methods most companies introduce to avoid interacting with customers. And, yea, you can try to work with tech support if you think a company does a good job of it, but the best advice is to really complain to the BBB and avoid the company if they give you the run around. And if you can't really blacklist the company--because the cost of moving to someone else or lacking a service they provide is greater than the loss they induce--then calculate that as the actual cost of the product/service and let others know about it. Like the point about social media, use word of mouth to work against "caveat emptor".
Tech support is your eyes and ears to your customers; just like any helpdesk, how it's supposed to work is someone calls you, and you add their question to a FAQ, Manual, or investigate and tell a programmer to fix their code, and so forth, or you streamline and automate the common interactions so humans don't have to deal with them. When you have your company really together, things really do run nicely and everyone's happy.
The entire downfall of tech support in the IT industry really is Microsoft's Fault; nobody wants to support windows because it's mostly an undocumented system. Because the API interface to hardware remained a black box, developing a standard hardware diagnostics package or storing the diagnostics package in a way that's accessible in a standard way became impossible because the hardware manufacturers were never brought to the table, as a group, to discuss what they were seeing because Microsoft didn't want them to. PC-AT Bios was great at excluding Linux, and it wasn't until UEFI came about Linux was even able to get a chance in heck of running modern hardware reliably. UEFI should've happened 15 years ago.
So one big company generates tons of unfunded liabilities and what happens? Everyone outsources tech support because all it takes is one bad patch for all hell to break loose.
If you don't want to be a phone slave to another soul sucking corporation then before buying a product you should search the internet for something that has the most open source software and the best component documentation. This way when something goes wrong, you can diagnose and possibly fix the issue yourself. It's been my experience that buying the correct product is more important than getting a "great deal" and more likely to last significantly longer.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
At one point shortly after the dot com crash, I took a tech support job with a 3rd party company contracted by a major manufacturer. We did a good job. Well above average, in fact. Our call times were longer on average, but overall satisfaction was higher as well. So the local management started pushing for higher wages in order to reduce turnover and keep the quality people.
What happens? Head office lays off the entire building instead. We were stunned. It was the last thing we had expected after the effort we had put in.
So yeah, the next time you call tech support, just remember that solving the problem is actually a *secondary* concern to getting you off the phone as quickly as possible. If tech support companies could get away with having an array of phones, and Dippy Birds that took the call, and then hung up again, they probably would.
There are no words to describe the level of contempt I feel for outsourced support companies, They drive their people as hard as they can, for as little reward as they can, and then spit out the burned out husk without so much as a by-your-leave cause there's always some poor sap in line waiting their turn to enter the grinder.
Is why the only reasonable way to fix this problem is the permanent removal of the higher ups that develop and enforce such horrid practices.
We know that Adul in Nowhere, India, has no control over this. He wants to eat, he follows the script.
But someone, or at least a committee, came up with this crap. It was designed to enrage us.
It's time the law stop protecting them from the rage they want us to explode into.
It took me years or perhaps decades to figure all these things out, but only five minutes to read your post. Yes, I have shared it far and wide!
http://www.michaeledits.com
I had an issue with being double-charged for an app from the app store about 5 years ago. Went to Apple's support site, wrote a description of the problem, then was asked if I would like THEM to call ME. Not the other way around. Clicked yes, a calendar popped up in which I selected the time window in (IIRC) 10 minute increments when I wanted them to call me.
Within a couple minutes of the 'start' my phone rang and I was chatting with a nice guy (said his name was Daniel in Texas). He already had my records up and he called to ask me if I wanted a credit on my iTunes account or refund to my card. He then said he'd call me back when it was done. About 10 minutes later he called me back and said the credit was issued.
That is exemplary customer service and one reason their customer satisfaction is always rated so high.
Trolling is a art,
This submission has been plagiarized from an article by Kate Murphy in the New York Times, Mon.Jul.4, 2016 (National edition, Business Day section, page B1.)
Corporations are amoral, discusting sociopathic filth. Who knew.
First world problems
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Our company started making money when we realized our competitors have terrible support; we started to charge 4-5 times as much for support and that became the product. The difficult part may be continuing high quality support with all the new and return customers.
...however, speaking as a former support rep for a cable company, I'd say I disagree with at least the thrust of this story in relation to my previous job. The company I worked for shall remain nameless, however all support was done locally (during the time I worked there, approximately 8 years). During that time, I did my level best to resolve issues on the first call, and in general people I talked to understood after that call whether it was indeed a service issue, i.e. company related, or customer owned equipment issue, meaning their router/computer/phone system, etc.
In many cases, a simple settings problem could be pointed out and resolved. In some cases, customers did not want to believe it could possibly be their equipment, and insisted on blaming the company, regardless of the demonstrated service restoration once a.) the router was removed from the equation, or b.) that all (or any) of their other systems were online. When asked to be escalated, I made sure they went up the chain of command, not to a rep sitting next to me. A very few went on to become associated with the corporate complaints dept. ( in my interactions, 5 in 8 years ).
One of the biggest problems as I see it is that many customers don't seem to understand where their responsibilities end and the company providing the services begins. In the case of a service provider, as far as I see it no matter what the service is, if it is reaching your home, they are doing their job. The fact that we provided free general (but not specific) assistance for our customers equipment shouldn't mean that if we couldn't find the exact problem with their piece of equipment, but could prove it was the equipment causing the issue, that it was some how a failing on our end, but many customers see it exactly that way.
Having said all that, I would point out that not all companies are created equal, and I certainly have not worked for even a small minority of the companies out there. I am sure that not only are there companies out there that do exactly what this story is implying, but that it is seen as a major benefit to the company. I do not agree with that attitude, and would never have signed up to help perpetuate that kind of "customer service", which is no service at all.
Not all that certain it is a good concept in the long run.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
If TS is unable to fix the problem I simply file a complaint with the BBB. That results in a call fom a real live person who can actully resolve a proble; at least with reputable companies. I state my case simply with no accusations and what I'd like done and have gotten positive results.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
As long as I can use the cool Euroweenie letters with the funny hats and dots and fruity little marks, I don't really need full unicode support.
Mötley Crüe
Hüsker Dü
Amon Düül
Céline Dion
You are welcome on my lawn.
There is a balance point in any support function. If you are too helpful and too quick, the user will never learn and will call you each and every time they get in a bind, even if they've been in that bind multiple times.
We are very helpful the first time around and as part of resolving the issue, provide copious links to online training materials specific to the issue they experienced.
The next time, we simple provide citations to where they can read the solution to the problems. Eventually, they don't have to call anymore.
Yes, there are some idiots who just don't take the hint or just can't fathom the materials (often times, inept executives), but the solution there is to refer them to a peer who has been designated as an "expert".
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
The struggle is real.
The best part of modern "support" is that it is a thinly veiled front for their sales pitches. Calling in to your cable company because your modem keeps rebooting? Well that is great lets troubleshoot that and while I'm at it did you know that we have a special on our internet speed upgrade!?
I once spent no less than 20m on the phone with my then cell phone carrier trying to reduce my total phone setup down from 3 lines to 2. There was no change go anything else, even the price, because the plan provided for 2 to 4 phones with shared mins. So it was not like I was even going to be giving them less money, but I'm damn sure that poor rep knew that their real metrics (not customer satisfaction but their sales numbers) would reflect that for my call I was going down a line.
Here is a list of what a current CSR job would like you to have:
High School diploma or equivalent is required.
Experience with computers, keyboarding is required
Minimum 2 years of Customer service experience is preferred
Minimum 2 years of sales experience is preferred
Minimum 1 year of inbound call center experience is preferred
Minimum 1 year experience in the hospitality industry a plus
Demonstrated excellent verbal and written communication skills along with basic practical math, reading and comprehension abilities
Ability to work a flexible schedule, including nights and weekends
Two years of sales experience. It took me all of 5m to find a job listing like that and there are plenty of them out there. And these people are the gatekeepers and support agents that you have to get past to get any real support.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
"First world problems"
Unfortunately these days, First World Problems come with Third World Technical Support. And a generation from now, where will China and India outsource their Tech Support?
Remember the _Second_ World?
They have a guy in Minsk,
Who has a guy in Pinsk,
Whose guy in Osk
With guy in Akmolinsk.
His guy in Alexandrovsk
Has guy in Petropavlovsk,
Whose guy somehow
Is solving now
The problem in Dnepropetrovsk.
In Second Union Soviet Socialist Republics, Tech supports _you_. (And guarantees full employment again.).
Credits to T. Lehrer, and note, that especially in terms of certain current issues in Internet Security... we're already there.
a peculiar kind of aggravation that mental health experts say can provoke rage in even the most mild-mannered person
Is there a citation for that, or is this one of the 72% of statistics that are just made up? My mental health expert told me that I needed to learn how to control my anger and never lose my temper, because an angry outburst is temporary insanity and will always make my problem worse. He went on to teach me how to practice relaxation as an automatic response to frustration so that my mind would literally rewire my neurons for the new habit of problem solving rather than for the old habit of blowing my stack. I find I'm much better at dealing with the problems I face in life now, much more creative at solving those problems, and much happier as a result.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
With unicode would come emoteicons. Believe me, we don't want that.
Things are just fine the way they are.
Seriously folks - Unicode gets yer panties in a bunch? That's about at the bottom of the list of things one should give a flying fig about. And if you do, consider yourself living a blessed life. Right around making certain you eat enough kale.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I don't deal with this kind of shit any more. If I buy a product or service that doesn't work as advertised, I call up American Express (or Visa, but Amex is much better), dispute the charges, and pay $0 for the hardware or service. Sometimes the company tries to fix it and sometimes not. It really doesn't matter to me.
Most recently, I got a Cisco router that was a flaky piece of shit that only occasionally worked. Newegg wouldn't take it back. Cisco, of course, is impossible to get a hold of, so I call Amex, and get my money back. I'm not going to waste my time with "tech support" for a product that doesn't work as advertised.
I don't respond to AC's.
long story shortened. I spent nearly an hour and a half on hold waiting for Citibank's fraud department this weekend before I could cancel my card due to the number being stolen. They assured me FedEx would deliver one today (4th of July), but FedEx doesn't deliver on Independence Day. I didn't really believe that part anyway
I was quite angry when I finally got hold of someone, but I didn't take it out on her. She said they were still reeling from their CostCo Visa fiasco. I did try to politely tell her that I was very pissed off, but didn't blame her personally. She sounded very overworked. Getting angry at her would not have helped the situation. I am going to start using cash more though.....
Typically when I have to call Citibank for any reason it only takes about 2 minutes to get a human being on the phone. I'm still stunned by how badly they've screwed up. I don't have a CostCo Visa but my long hold time was a full 10 days after the first news reports of their problems with that came out and that's their excuse.
In my experience that often helps. Don't know where the advice not to do so comes from, but apparently the 'becoming unhinged' flag is actually a good way to get service. I don't know, several 'tips' here seem rather backward.
Seriously, stop letting slashdot be his personal blog with no carriage returns. Stop accepting his stupid articles that are borderline unreadable.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
You're lucky if you can get a live person anymore. I've been dealing with Amazon AWS support on a ticket that has been open for 6 weeks now. It's all being done through their web portal. They actually haven't responded to my last message for about a week now.
Tech support. Too bad it is just a dream.
That's about at the bottom of the list of things one should give a flying fig about.
It depends on who you are. If you live in the USA and ignore the rest of the world, then don't bother; otherwise just do it. Anyway: unicode is not hard to do.
On a related note - "unbearable" tech support also seems to happen in-corportation, where the financial incentives are compartmentalized (save $x in IT, but lose 5x$x when the companys other departments can't work due to IT issues) and negative when viewed at the company level.
Of course, the customer can buy a different product in the future, but since its tech support will be just as bad, he'll return eventually.
Yeah, now try doing Spinal Tap properly.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Every time support tries to get rid of me by making me jump through hoops or giving me the runaround, I make sure that dealing with my problem costs the company that does this to me more than my business is worth, literally. I make use of every contractual right or consumer protection right I have, even if objectively I don't benefit from invoking it. Give a short explanation of the alternatives, make them choose the one that's better for you.
TFA is right to point out the chat and social media alternatives. Besides quicker (and often friendlier) response, it's kind of nice to have a support tech or engineer paste a code fix or solution example straight into a chat window for instant use. This particularly works wonders with a certain German electrical, medical, and automation megalith who I will not name.
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
This is a symptom on a bigger problem. Most companies are poorly managed. Customer service is just the obvious part. The execs overpay themselves and make horrible short sighted decisions most of the time. Look at the nonexistent dividends and profits for evidence.
I write in English and I want them to bring back ye damn "thorn"!
Stop using their services. Stop buying their products. It's not yours to begin with.
After that, life becomes much simpler and better.
Céline Dion
That's unforgivable.
You forgot:
Blue Ã-yster Cult
MotÃrhead
QueensrÃche
"Losing your stack at a consumer support agent is not going to get your problem resolved any faster."
Unless they are deliberately lying to you. Multiple times with Dell I've finally gotten the warranty honored by snapping and shouting at them.
"74 percent say their company procedures prevented agents from providing satisfactory experiences."
These procedures are pushed on them by nefarious interests in the guised front of efficiency. Nobody will have sympathy for non-american H1B support workers and so when the AI steps in to replace them, more humans will have been removed from the equation as planned.
I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I hadn't thought of that.
Give us Unicode, you damn slacker Slashdot owners!
NO UNICODE...NO PEACE!
You are welcome on my lawn.
I really hate idiots that write this. What, because I don't live in a war zone and am not starving to death, I should have to sit down shut up? F*ck you! Of course I have 1st-world problems. I LIVE IN THE FIRST WORLD, 4$$ crack.
First world reaction
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
There is a much simpler answer than what was posted. It can be broken down into 3 parts:
1) Most companies outsource tech support to 3rd party companies. These companies get paid by call volume in a support contract.
2) These are generally call center mills with *high* turnover. If you've read your manual you probably have more training that the person on the phone.
3) Most now have incentives for "sales" rather than technical support. The support call is just a medium to up sell.
They are usually managed quite poorly also. Slum lord kind of mentality comes to mind. They do enough to get another contract, no more. Most even small call centers have a monthly training/hiring cycle because the don't (and don't try) retain people. They usually are poorly trained, thrust into service, paid little, and the folks that do it usually have little options due to education and lack of other work experience. I've know a lot, most of which I would say are not technically apt people. The get a script and a binder, and do the best they can until they are stressed and worn out enough that the quit and are replaced with the next cog.
So no, it is not surprising that generally speaking tech support is not great. This doesn't even include outsourcing, which adds another level of poor service usually simply to poor English language skills than anything not already mentioned. I generally never call tech support, unless I absolutely have to. That said, I've heard all sorts of crazy stories from people I've known over the years who have worked these call centers and some of the stupid things they call in for. Anyway they are poorly trained, thrown under the bus, and deal with angry people all day... I try to be nice the few times I call simply because I know it is such a soul sucking job.
I do regional tech support for a Large MultiNational. Since our support is divided into groups (network, server, Applications, Unix, Windows, etc) we just play the 'pass the ticket' game where the person stuck with the unclosable ticket is the one who gets the call from the manager.
I close about three hundred tickets a month, mostly because I game the system and take a lot of auto-generated crap, but other people get very high counts because they do file restores or telephony support, both of which are super easy.
Don't get me wrong, we all care about our users and want them to be happy and productive, but at the end of the day it's a numbers game and if the ticket looks like it will take too much time or too much effort everyone will pass it on.
NIGGERS
In Italy, you experience all of that (the hold times, lack of assistance, etc) but you're often paying around 30 cents a minute for the pleasure. So you end up spending 10-15 euros to solve any problem you may have.
On the plus side, we get minimum two year warranties by law, so if anything is ever actually wrong with your device, it gets replaced for free.
People generally look for the cheapest product, without even considering the quality of customer service offered by the manufacturer. What would motivate manufacturers to spend the money needed to provide better customer service, when people continue to buy what they are selling regardless of how bad their customer service gets?
Let's talk about on-hold music
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
> the people that can actually solve your problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_fallacy
I read someplace many companies do this strategy instead of having effective customer support. i.e. video-to-usb devices which I've dealt with a few (they either work or they don't), last one I purchased few years ago was a Dazzler I use occasionally to stream NTSC video from my Win7 laptop for various events. (no, no, no, I don't want to stream the laptop cam or cellphone cam, there's a reason for what I do). It took me awhile to get it working, however, I cannot get audio to stream. Company was zero help, so I searched the web but only find several forum entries of people having same problems I have.
I heard this is typical, let the customers fend for themselves on the forums that end up becoming the tech support and companies didn't have to spend a dime.
However for really good products ($5000 SDI network transmission gizmos) a lot of effort is put into the design so it doesn't have interfacing problems like lowcost products. Because they deal with serious users, they cannot afford to have crappy customer service. It all comes down to you get what you pay for. Another example are lowcost ADS-B receivers, lots of listings and websites that say how easy it is to get one of these $20 devices to watch the airplanes fly around. One company sells such receivers with a mention, "Why spend hours and hours on lowcost receivers that never really work?" Of course their product is a bit pricey for the hobbyist (and also requires monthly subscription).
mfwright@batnet.com
They don't give a shit about "customer service". It's all about call volume and numbers - statistics for which they're paid. It would be a different story if it was measured by customer satisfaction rather than how many people they put through the wringer.
I worked for Stream for a long time ago. Their policy was to get the customer busy doing something and have them call back when they were finished. More calls, more revenue. Total B.S. I lasted a month and finally quit because I was about helping people, not sticking it to the vendor. Absolutely no regret.
I think most of these complaints about tech support being "unbearable", while legitimate complaints, are things most of us that are fairly technologically literate don't have to deal with often. Why? Because the methods most of us geeks use to solve problems are the logical ones -- if something doesn't work as expected, as Google it and see if someone else experienced the same thing, or check the manual (gasp!). If something is defective, we RMA it back to the manufacturer and get a new one, and don't waste hours on tech support calls. If the product is something we use for business, the company will probably have a service contract and we'll talk to someone right away if needed. If, for some reason, we have to call tech support, we'll call and put the phone on speakerphone while the annoying advertising muzak plays in the background while we go about our business solving other problems, so when somebody finally picks up the phone, we start talking. 95% of the people that call the mainstream tech support lines are mainly the technologically illiterate folks that couldn't identify an SD card from an HDMI cable if it hit them in the face. The people that have the unfortunate task of having to talk with these people, realize that the process of actually educating them is futile, and make every effort to get them off the phone as quickly as possible, so that they have more time to solve the problems of the 5% of the people calling that actually know their ass from a hole in the ground.
I have found the fastest way to get the attention of somebody who can help you solve your problem is to email the CEO of the company. Just take a stab at what their email address is, based on the email addresses of other people in the company.
I had been getting the runaround from my energy company for about a week. This was a medium-sized industrial account, and we were trying to reconnect following some storm damage to the pole. Finally after somebody on the phones basically said there were no records of the other six calls I had made, I got fed up. Guessed on the CEO's address, got it right. Wrote a professional letter explaining the situation. The next day there were three trucks at my door, and two engineers on the phone.
We were introduced to this method by my electrician's wife. Any time she doesn't get love from Comcast, or Verizon, or Lennar, etc., she just emails the CEO. Works every time.
Back when I used to work customer service for Verizon everything was about pushing the customers in to using alternatives like the web site to avoid ever having to call back, with the ultimate goal of never having to pay anyone for customer service again. Now obviously that was a b.s. plan and people still call the customer service but it seems companies are still trying to move forward with that idea cause in the intervening 6 years every customer service department I've called into has been less and less resourceful and less and less competent. Meanwhile every time I have a problem with a service or a device and don't want to talk to a trained ape to fix it I just post a really really rude message about how their company is awful and they should all die in a factory fire. And I get a response back with someone promising to help within the next few hours. So it goes to show customer service won't help you with anything anymore unless you hold them accountable in front of millions of potential customers.
Good. Fuck Unicode. We don't need it on Slashdot, we don't want it on Slashdot.
The thing is, you're an apple user. So already we know right off the bat that you're likely not an idiot. I'd say probably a 80-90% chance you're not an idiot for a given Apple user. Dealing with Windows people, well that's what happens if you rape the judge's Daughter, Kill a bunch of people, Defraud rich people, things like that. I've had to deal with Windows people, briefly in the 1980s. They also used Unix machines and we had to walk them through how to use Windows. I've also had to help windows people since. Seems like it's the opposite - around a 80-90% chance the guy on the other end is an idiot. Once in a while, a complete idiot. Man, they can wear you down fast.
There should be a test to even be able to use a computer or smart phone.
"I read someplace many companies do this strategy instead of having effective customer support." Yep. and it just isn't the commercial products, but the enterprise products too. my oracle support community, I'm looking at you.
Right there in their corporate offices. They have by far the best support I've ever encountered. I have dozens of cPanel servers and if I have a problem (which is not often), I can submit a ticket and before I can close the browser, I've already gotten a response.
They really do have the best support in the industry.