Tech Support call

[SpuD]

I was working on my friends new computer (something with it is b0rked) so i decided to call the tech support...

I doubt the chick that answered knew anything.... she also had the mic up her nose, i could hear each breath she took, really annoying....
here was the conversation.

<ME> Yeah, so when I turn it on, after the windows loading screen, the monitor just goes black.
<HER> Well, im afraid your video card is broken.
<ME> how much will that be to repair
<HER> $102 (for a GF4 MX lol)
<ME> hrm, I noticed the drivers werent installed, do you think that could be the problem?
<HER> oh yeah, thats the problem. just install the recent drivers and that should fix it.
<ME> *mumbles* bitch
<ME> Thanks!

So, she wanted me to fork over $102 for a video card that i could get for much less, yet the problem was that they didnt install the drivers...
bleh.

 

[Shuzer]

Moral of the story: Don't call tech support. They know nothing.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Originally posted by Shuzer
Moral of the story: Don't call tech support. They know nothing.

wrong.

they do know something.. i believe its something along the lines of "tricking ur customers into spending more" marketing strategy

 

[Letters]

Haha... that's funny in a sort of sad way...

That's kinda too familiar, though... I had that exact problem (blank-out after windows loads) a couple o' days ago after I bought a new graphics card... luckily, I think it's one of those 'learning' graphics cards so I just kept re-setting until it figured out what to do. Them folks over at ATI sure do know how to make 'em!

 

[Detharin]

Originally posted by Shuzer
Moral of the story: Don't call tech support. They know nothing.

I happen to work tech and your dead wrong. You want to know why you get crappy tech support. Two years ago the most common reason was new tech, someone just got out of training and doesnt know the ropes yet. It happens, noones perfect day one.

Most common cause of problems now, all the jobs have moved to India/overseas. Your talking to someone who most likely knows the language, but with limited tech experience, comprehension, and troubleshooting skills. They are also making about 150 a month. Not alot to us, but thats damn good money out there.


http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/11/24/dell.call.centers.ap/index.html


Check this out, thats my old job they are talking about. It all moved to India, it may be moving back to the states but i doubt it will be coming back here. Even though in every performance category Dell thought up our call center buried Dells performance numbers.

 

[mrchimp]

Originally posted by SpuD
so i decided to call the tech support...

Never ever do that again... ever.


:dozey:

 

[_-_-SELAS-_-_]

Hmm I usually get OK tech support when I finally call them, and they love me. It usually goes something like this:

Hi my trouble is **** and Ive tried **** and ****

OK try ****

I already did

OK then try ****

No work tried it

and so fourth

Ofcourse this is in Denmark so... Its different probably?

 

[RoyalEF]

Dell, Gateway, Norton, and many others (including non-tech industries, such as Columbia House) are all moving any phone support/customer service to foreign countries. The cost is 1/10th of what it costs in the United States. even with the overheard of international telecom lines. It's not just India, although that is a popular one. South American and Caribbean nations are destination too.

There is a very simple rule in life. Very few people, like 10-15% are really good. 10-15% are really, really bad(dangerous bad) and the rest are incredibly mediocre. That goes for everything in life. Doctors, police, computer techs, drivers, brain surgeons, politicians, everything. When you call tech support you've got like a 1 in 8/1 in 10 chance of getting somebody good.

Computer systems are better at documenting common issues and solutions, and tech support systems are getting better at walking a mindless tech through the steps, but that doesn't make that person better. They just have a better script to read you.

 

[RoyaleWithCheese]

Sorry, had to do it:
tech support call

This redneck needs to be kicked in the nuts

 

[nw909]

She said, "gforce MX lol"

woah she must be a leet hax0r to say lol on the phone.

 

[spooky7000]

If u still have nVidia drivers installed when you put ATi card in then it will not work. (valid other way round too)

check this out: http://rinkworks.com/stupid

My faith in customer services (or lack of) will never be restored after that.

 

[theneb]

Someone I know visited a computer shop to Customer: Hi I'd like to have a 256MB strip of ram
Shop Staff: What OS are you running?
Customer: 98
Shop Staff: I'm afraid that 98 doesn't support 256MB ram and will crash.
We could sell you XP at only £60, however we'd need to install it because we don't give disks out, so our service would be £40.

 

[SpuD]

Re: Re: Tech Support call

Originally posted by mrchimp
Never ever do that again... ever.


:dozey:

lol
/me hangs head in shame....

 

[FortisVir]

I once had a 2-week long "relationship" with my internet provider's tech support a couple years ago.

When my internet started screwing up at first I tried to fix it. But after trying everything I knew, I gave in and called tech support. The first few calls were the same thing - Try some crap that didn't work, transfer me to another department, tell me I have to call back later. They send someone out after about a week and he replaces my network card but that doesn't work.

Eventually after another week of bothering tech support they send out a different guy who figures out why I can't fix the problem. Nothing is wrong with my computer, the cable line going to a nearby telephone pole is hooked up wrong or something stupid like that. I had been trying to tell them something was wrong with the cable service to my entire house, because I had noticed the TV acting weird over the last couple weeks, but they weren't listening. They would much rather like to tell me to go to start/run/ipconfig to refresh my ip for the twentieth time.

Moral of the story: The last thing tech support wants to do is send a professional to your house. Yell at them enough until they do :cheese:

 

[SilentKilla]

Originally posted by Dr. Freeman
wrong.

they do know something.. i believe its something along the lines of "tricking ur customers into spending more" marketing strategy

actually if you call up and tell them you want to talk to someone who knows how to fix your ****ing computer then they dont mess around. alienware has excellent support.

 

[Shuzer]

Detharin, I know not ALL tech support is bad. 90% of it, however, is. I'm basing this on when I used to call tech support for stuff (AOL back in the day, mainly), now of course anything AOL related is mind numbing as is, ever talk to the tech support for it?

Anyhow, I'm more so grumbling over the HORRIBLE tech support I've gotten over the past 2 years from my cable company. They said they'd fix a problem we had "right away," almost a year later, a truck stops by and does half the job with the promise of "we'll finish it up in a couple of days," that was 6 months ago. =/

 

[mrchimp]

Originally posted by theneb
Someone I know visited a computer shop to Customer: Hi I'd like to have a 256MB strip of ram
Shop Staff: What OS are you running?
Customer: 98
Shop Staff: I'm afraid that 98 doesn't support 256MB ram and will crash.
We could sell you XP at only £60, however we'd need to install it because we don't give disks out, so our service would be £40.

Should have called tradeing standards to have them investigated.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Originally posted by SilentKilla
actually if you call up and tell them you want to talk to someone who knows how to fix your ****ing computer then they dont mess around. alienware has excellent support.

i was trying to be a little sarcastic.. although after the tech support i went through recently just to get my cable tv/internet stuff settled i should be serious..

anyway generally tech support has been okay for me.. i would like to forget the recent tech support service i got.//mehhh. :x :|

 

[Detharin]

Ick Aol, id rather format that deal with removing that PoS. Didnt mean to come off as insulting just wanted to give you a probable reason for the service to suck. As it is im stuck here listening to people whos vocabulary is 60% uhh, 30% umm and 10% i dont remember the error message. Or people who want me to walk them through clicking next. Im a technician not a babysitter!

 

[AH_Viper]

Get this sh*t. My mate was having trouble with his new ADSL from virgin net. Basicaly it was cutting out every 10 seconds and his mum (dispite the fact hes does a computing degree) decideds to call Virgin Tech support.

Anyhoo this is how the conversation went.

<mates mum>Hello our internet doesnt work

<techy>Yeah, weve had alot of calls in your area, basicaly its not our fault. See BT are having troubles

<techy after a bit of coasting>Ok, see we cant acctualy find out if its us or BT's that are causing the problems

<mates mum>oh ok

<mates mum calls to mate>The techy says that they dont know whos fault it is

<mate>oooooh, ok, thats strange because roy (thats me ) that is next door is with BT and they have no problems....

<mate calls me on mobile>Roy, run traceroute and tell me if it goes through the BT routers ok...

<me>aye works fine

<mate to his mum>put me on phone with cunna techy support

<mate to techy>right, if my mate runs traceroute he says all BT connections are working fine....however if i run traceroute it cuts ok at your switch..... so effectivly ive solved your problem havent I?

<techy>what did you do? are you trying to hack us?

<mate>ehhh Yeah, why not... i dont think i want to talk to you anymore

I thought it was funny

Oh btw, traceroute is a command that you can run like ping but it will show you all the hops it takes to get there, very handy when "hacking" virgin

EDIT:: P.S. sorry if thats hard to follow, i find it hard to make sense when writing something so funny.

 

[jimbones]

That's exactly why I never even dare to think about calling the sech tupport..

I turn to competent forums on the internet.


.. like this one =)

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Originally posted by Shuzer
Moral of the story: Don't call tech support. They know nothing.

The tech support i got for my computer was great, and free. All covered by the warranty. They even gave my a new motherboard, and 3 new harddrives (1 the first time, and 2 the second time). I had them raided and it jsut didnt work out.

Anyway, i got my computer from evesham, they are pretty good and they outsell Dell, at least in this country. (Im assuming Dell is multinational)

 

[Shuzer]

Everyone needn't take my tech support bashing so seriously.. lol

As for AOL being a POS, I know this, I still have AOL mail, but I don't have AOL installed. I use webmail.aol.com if I ever feel like checking it, but for the most part I don't even use it because all I get is spam mail.

The only reason we still even have the AOL account is because my brother uses it (the insane whacko). Not to mention AOL is a huge ripoff, we don't even need their service, yet they charge $15 a month just for "Bring your own access", ridiculous. I use a cable connection, the only reason we have it is for the e-mail addresses, why should they charge us $15 what you can get for free elsewhere? Don't even tell me it's all that "AOL exclusive" crap that's Realone only =/

Anyhow, this is off-topic, seeing as this isn't an "AOL is the worst product/ISP in the world" thread

 

[A2597]

Not entirely true. SOME tech support people really do help!

I've had one when I ROYALLY messed up Win98 1st edition, talked me through formattin the drive, etc. (Hey, it was my first PC since an Apple 2e)

Also got through alot of other things, but they were great.

 

[iamironsam]

I love tech support. Their incompetence forced me to figure out things for myself and set me on the road to becomming an engineer. Thanks alot all you knuckleheads!