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Why Tech Support Is Purposely Unbearable

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Tech Support Is Purposely Unbearable

#11

Post by Trundle »

sverige wrote: post #8
beyondcompute wrote: post #3

A solution? The good ol' government regulation. If companies 'cannot' achieve acceptable standards of customer support service, those standards should be imposed on them. This game where ordinary customers are so often the victims must be put to an end.

That's hilarious! Having run a few call centers, the costs involved in upping service levels from, say, 80% of calls answered in 20 seconds to, say, 98% in 10 seconds, grow geometrically. If regulations were passed that mandated service levels, many companies would take Google's approach and simply not offer phone support at all. And we all know how great their support is. The solution is to not use any services from…

Google offers customer support by phone.

Re: Why Tech Support Is Purposely Unbearable

#13

Post by Animats »

I like "Fast Customer", which waits on hold for you. I was thinking of something like that years ago, and was going to call it "Holdmaster". It makes sense as an app; pre-smartphone, it would have required a box attached the phone line.

Microsoft once had customer support lines where you could call in for about $195, but if it was their bug, you got a refund. Fun gamble.

Re: Why Tech Support Is Purposely Unbearable

#14

Post by sverige »

Trundle wrote: post #11
sverige wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's hilarious! Having run a few call centers, the costs involved in upping service levels from, say, 80% of calls answered in 20 seconds to, say, 98% in 10 seconds, grow geometrically. If regulations were passed that mandated service levels, many companies would take Google's approach and simply not offer phone support at all. And we all know how great their support is. The solution is to not use any services from…

Google offers customer support by phone.

Really? What's the number for help with gmail? I can't find it anywhere on their site. YouTube either, if it's different.

Also, I need a number to reach support at Facebook, if you have it.

Re: Why Tech Support Is Purposely Unbearable

#15

Post by stephengillie »

toodlebunions wrote: post #5
beyondcompute wrote: post #3

A solution? The good ol' government regulation. If companies 'cannot' achieve acceptable standards of customer support service, those standards should be imposed on them. This game where ordinary customers are so often the victims must be put to an end.

Or the "free market" solution would be to allow those calling tech support to pay an extra $50 per hour fee for priority service with a knowledgable human

This is my employer's support model, and it works pretty well - all customers get unlimited ticket/email support, and you can upgrade to phone and live chat support for a percentage of your monthly bill.

It's like the saying that 20% of your customers use 80% of your support. This way you can incentivize those customers to pay a premium for even more of the support package they obviously want. Everyone else can have the minimal support interaction they prefer.

Re: Why Tech Support Is Purposely Unbearable

#16

Post by techsupporter »

Animats wrote: post #13

I like "Fast Customer", which waits on hold for you. I was thinking of something like that years ago, and was going to call it "Holdmaster". It makes sense as an app; pre-smartphone, it would have required a box attached the phone line. Microsoft once had customer support lines where you could call in for about $195, but if it was their bug, you got a refund. Fun gamble.

Microsoft still does though it hasn't been $195 in quite some time. The offering you're thinking of is called Professional Pay-Per-Incident (instead of Premier). Current price is $499 though you're guaranteed to spend virtually the entirety of your incident on the phone with an outsourcer in India.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/gp/offerprophone

Re: Why Tech Support Is Purposely Unbearable

#17

Post by Nullabillity »

sverige wrote: post #8
beyondcompute wrote: post #3

A solution? The good ol' government regulation. If companies 'cannot' achieve acceptable standards of customer support service, those standards should be imposed on them. This game where ordinary customers are so often the victims must be put to an end.

That's hilarious! Having run a few call centers, the costs involved in upping service levels from, say, 80% of calls answered in 20 seconds to, say, 98% in 10 seconds, grow geometrically. If regulations were passed that mandated service levels, many companies would take Google's approach and simply not offer phone support at all. And we all know how great their support is. The solution is to not use any services from…

Uh, if there were mandated service levels then Google would have to live up to those too...? Presumably this would be an acceptable-or-you-get-fined deal, not an acceptable-or-nothing-at-all deal.

Re: Why Tech Support Is Purposely Unbearable

#19

Post by Trundle »

sverige wrote: post #14
Trundle wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google offers customer support by phone.

Really? What's the number for help with gmail? I can't find it anywhere on their site. YouTube either, if it's different. Also, I need a number to reach support at Facebook, if you have it.

Customer

Gmail: 1-877-355-5787 YouTube: 1-855-500-2756

Never done business with Facebook, can't help you there sorry!

Re: Why Tech Support Is Purposely Unbearable

#20

Post by douche »

beyondcompute wrote: post #3

A solution? The good ol' government regulation. If companies 'cannot' achieve acceptable standards of customer support service, those standards should be imposed on them. This game where ordinary customers are so often the victims must be put to an end.

Hah. I would give my left nut to have competent helpdesk people on the other end, and I'm a vendor who's dealing with the higher-level management and IT people in these organizations. I can't imagine how poorly trained and skilled the front-line techs are.
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