Your experiences calling tech support (server, transfer, install, working)

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

My experiences with Dell and HP tech support have been very bad. We all know about the problems associated with tech support agents being located in India, so there's probably no need for me to go into details about that.

Apple consistently gets good reviews for their tech support. Can anyone here vouch for them?

I currently have a Sony Vaio. Tech support is outsourced, but it's primarily in Costa Rica and The Philippines. My experience with them has been much better than my experiences with HP and Dell.

What have your experiences calling tech support been like?

[TomSD]

Though annoying mine aren't usually too bad as I'm a tech myself so can blow through most of it.

I've had some real winners fielding calls from our installers though. I could never take calls full time. I would end up laughing out loud at too many people or just going off on them. Some people are so stupid it hurts.

[swagger]

I've got some good stories about when I was on the other end of those calls. The best are from the late '80s.

The quality of tech support has necessarily gone downhill as computers have become more ubiquitous. When it was only "geeks" and "nerds" that had one at home, quality one-on-one support could be provided by a small number of people. Now that virtually every home has at least one computer, they need armies of techs to field an ocean of calls.

[EscapeCalifornia]

I've found tech support to be almost universally horrible. There's nothing quite as fun as having to explain the basic operation of a PC before you can ask a question or bring them to the level of possibly understanding why their product isn't working. All outsourcing did was exchange script reading monkeys for script reading monkeys with foreign accents. UPS is the only place I've gotten decent tech support more often than not. They must actually teach their people how their software works.

[thecoalman]

I don't call tech support because I usually get someone on the phone that has less knowledge than me. More often than not they are sitting in front of knowledge base that is online which I've already went through. They end up wasting my time.

The only tech support I get in touch with is for my server which at that point is usually something I can't fix myself such as when I firewalled myself off accidentally . They still have some very knowledgeable people and as a bonus I can request a specific tech if it isn't an emergency.

This is some funny stuff if you never seen it:


YouTube - The Website Is Down- Sales Guy vs. Web Dude

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by AnUnidentifiedMale

My experiences with Dell and HP tech support have been very bad. We all know about the problems associated with tech support agents being located in India, so there's probably no need for me to go into details about that.

Apple consistently gets good reviews for their tech support. Can anyone here vouch for them?

I currently have a Sony Vaio. Tech support is outsourced, but it's primarily in Costa Rica and The Philippines. My experience with them has been much better than my experiences with HP and Dell.

What have your experiences calling tech support been like?

OMG don't get me started.

I have yet, in my entire life, to have a positive tech support experience with anyone. Sometimes I wonder if it is ME or if I just have incredibly bad luck.

Dell is the worst. never talked to Apple, but they certainly could not be any worse. LOL

20yrsinBranson

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

OMG don't get me started.

I have yet, in my entire life, to have a positive tech support experience with anyone. Sometimes I wonder if it is ME or if I just have incredibly bad luck.

Dell is the worst. never talked to Apple, but they certainly could not be any worse. LOL

20yrsinBranson

What gets me about Dell is that, even if you pay extra for their American tech support, you still have to get routed to an Indian tech support center first, and then they transfer you to the American tech support center. And now they're charging $239/year for this privilege. Luckily, no one's forcing anyone to buy from Dell or any other company. With that said, I really don't know why anyone would.

[stan4]

First of all, every time I have called tech support in India, I have gotten good help.

Second of all, the help wasn't always that great before they shipped it off.

So, to answer your question, I get vastly superior tech support now that it's mostly overseas.

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Originally Posted by stan4

First of all, every time I have called tech support in India, I have gotten good help.

Second of all, the help wasn't always that great before they shipped it off.

So, to answer your question, I get vastly superior tech support now that it's mostly overseas.

Lucky you. I've tried to convince myself that they're doing a good job in India, but I just can't. I've been frustrated with them far too many times. Yes, I also had some trouble when it was based in the U.S., but in my opinion, there's a communication "gap" that exists between India and the U.S., even when we're speaking the same basic language.

With Sony, they regularly use remote assistance, and that could be the biggest reason why I've been happy with them. I'm not sure if HP and Dell use remote assistance regularly for tech support. Does anyone know?

[scarmig]

I have had effective, but lengthy and expensive support from Microsoft. Nintendo has been awesome. I recently had a tech chat with Sansa that was very quick and effective.

Of course, the best way to to a positive tech support call is to have all your ducks lined up and ready, be patient, be willing to work through their script and understand they can't see what you are doing. You have to be willing to work HARD to communicate with them. If you do that, I find they can usually help you pretty effectively.

Except for AT&T. F those idiots.