OT: Don't bother us

[Synthoid]

I had a question for E-MU Systems and looked up their phone number. A recording informed me that all tech support is handled online.

 

This isn't the first time I've encountered this issue when it comes to tech support. More and more companies don't want to be "bothered." We are getting further away from actual human contact via the (apparently outdated) telephone.

 

Of course email tech support can take 2-3 days, and if that doesn't help or you have another question.... it's another 2-3 days.

 

 

 

[mate stubb]

Sad. The founders of that company taught me a lot of electronics over the phone when I wanted to build a synth around their potted submodules in the early 70s.

[Griffinator]

Taking it a bit further OT, for sure, but last night I called into Comcast because my internet was out of commission (after already rebooting my router and the modem three times)

 

I got an automated message after sifting through the automated phone system to get to tech support:

 

"We're sorry, but we cannot connect your call at this time. You can visit us on the web at comcast.com if you need technical help immediately...."

 

Uh, NO I F***ING CAN'T, BECAUSE IF I COULD, I WOULDN'T BE CALLING YOU RIGHT NOW!!!!

 

[Tusker]

Taking it a bit further OT, for sure, but last night I called into Comcast because my internet was out of commission (after already rebooting my router and the modem three times)

 

I got an automated message after sifting through the automated phone system to get to tech support:

 

"We're sorry, but we cannot connect your call at this time. You can visit us on the web at comcast.com if you need technical help immediately...."

 

Had the same experience with Comcast in CT. I wonder what happened?

[Mr. Nightime]

My wife lost her wallet, and I called our bank to cancel her debit card. It took me 5 minutes just to get to the selection for a lost card. What a pain that was.

 

I work at the computer service desk for the Aviation Safety division of the FAA, and there is no selection tree. Sometimes if one of us is available, the phone will not even ring on their end, and they've got a live person. I hear a good 5-6 times a day how nice it is to get a live person when they call.

[Bridog6996]

Ugh. I HATE these automated call centers with passion, and now they're used everywhere. I guess they're supposed to be saving man-hours on the company's end, but at the cost of driving their customers crazy. And email support is even worse. I can't imagine how a company can think relying on email alone is a good way to do business.

 

It used to be that you could easily bypass most automated systems by just pressing 0, which would direct you right to a live person. Doesn't seem to work as much anymore, unfortunately, but it's still the first thing I do when a robot answers the phone.

[Cygnus64]

 

This isn't the first time I've encountered this issue when it comes to tech support. More and more companies don't want to be "bothered." We are getting further away from actual human contact via the (apparently outdated) telephone.

 

 

 

 

My gal is a supervisor for the Electric Company call center. When you hear "This call may be monitored for quality etc", that's her.

 

Every night, I hear the other side of it. Civility in America is pretty much a thing of the past. People scream, lie, threaten, physically threaten, they have had death threats. Her underlings are not allowed to fight back, be rude, etc. If they are they get two warnings. The third time is termination, and they mean it.

 

I'm sure that Emu has a slightly different clientele base, but there is another side. It's expensive to run a call center. It's hard to keep good people, she's had to fire some very good ones (and hated that she had to). I don't know the answer, I've had customer support people be rude to me too, but I've learned that there is another side to it.

[Griffinator]

I've been on both sides of the fence, so I tend to be much more understanding when I call in to a call center than most.

 

However, I also know the codes we used to use to basically tell a customer to f*** off without saying it - things like "I'm sorry you feel that way".... so those things get under my skin faster than anything else, because I know what they're really saying.

[Joe Muscara]

I hate the ones that say "listen to our entire menu, as it has recently changed." I've had places leave that on for months.

 

I also hate the ones that won't let you choose options before the menu ends. If I've been through the menu before, I've written down my options and just want to punch through.

 

Ooh, I also also hate the ones that ask you for your info, and then when you speak to the person, they ask you for all of it again. I suppose there's a reason they do that, but I find that annoying.

 

OTOH, I've taken advantage of call centers. Sometimes, when I don't get what I want from the first call, I'll call back a little later and try again with another rep. I'll do this multiple times. It only works with big call centers though.

[JpScoey]

Can of worms - officially opened ! ! ! .

 

I don't know if you guys in the States have this, but from the UK a lot of calls are transferred to India.

 

This is obviously due to reasons of 'cost effectiveness'. . .

 

but the problem is (after trawling through endless menus, then waiting & waiting..... & waiting),

 

when you finally DO get through, the person you end up speaking with has -

 

(a)- an accent which is so difficult to understand, so you have to ask them to repeat everything.

 

(b)- absolutely NO knowledge of the thing they're supposed to be trying to 'help' you with.

 

My most recent encounter of this was just a few days ago, when my Cable TV went kaput.

 

The bloke I spoke with had no idea what I was trying to say, so I asked to speak with his supervisor.

 

He said "one second, sir"... 10 minutes later he came back on the phone & said "my supervisor isn't on the floor at the moment".

 

My reply - ? "if he's not 'on the floor' you should have known that within 30 seconds -

 

why has it taken 10 minutes for you to get back to me?"

 

 

The supervisor then miraculously appeared & sorted out the problem in 2 minutes.

 

 

Some of these places just drive you mad.

 

End (for now) of rant! ! !

[Mr. Nightime]

So many of the companies worldwide have "Outsourced" the call centers to other countries, like India, as a cost savings.

 

Because the call center that I work for with the FAA is in two locations, here in Melbourne Fl, and also in Denver, I joke with people that our call center has been "Insourced".

[Synthoid]

I also also hate the ones that ask you for your info, and then when you speak to the person, they ask you for all of it again.

 

That happens all the time when I call customer service regarding my credit card!

[ITGITC]

 

Here's the Comcast story... ya bunch of whiners!

 

COMCAST OUTAGE

 

 

[Cygnus64]

I don't know if you guys in the States have this, but from the UK a lot of calls are transferred to India.

 

Oh yeah, we have it. We also have high unemployment. Coincidence?

 

I know that at my Gal's employer, a job at a call center is a relatively coveted thing. They have hundreds of people applying for jobs where you make 11 bucks to have people swear at you. Overall, they are glad to have the gig.

[Ken Beaumont]

Well we outsourced manufacturing in this country during the 80's. In the 90's it worked its way to call centers. Could we possibly outsource our politicians?

[Song80s]

Well we outsourced manufacturing in this country during the 80's. In the 90's it worked its way to call centers. Could we possibly outsource our politicians?

 

as Ronald Reagan said, Americans can trust big corps to take care of them and blame Fed Gov't if anything goes wrong.

 

The country has mostly been run by corporations for at least 25 years. Follow the money is the saying.

 

I recall the good old days of visiting E-mu in ScottsValley ( near Santa Cruz).

[spacedout]

What I sometimes try when I get an automated line is simply to press nothing at all. Often, after a short wait I get transferred to a real person, which is nice - I assume that what happens is that the system thinks you're using an old-style phone without touchtone. OTOH, sometimes it just cuts off, which is even more annoying.

[Song80s]

What I sometimes try when I get an automated line is simply to press nothing at all. Often, after a short wait I get transferred to a real person, which is nice - I assume that what happens is that the system thinks you're using an old-style phone without touchtone. OTOH, sometimes it just cuts off, which is even more annoying.

 

many customer call centers are located in India. Same with customer service via email. It takes more effort for these folks to get on the same page, since many of them are reading from a script. I understand they are doing the best they can and its their job to help.

[Griffinator]

Here's the Comcast story... ya bunch of whiners!

 

COMCAST OUTAGE

 

 

I was more annoyed by the automated voice telling me to visit their website - if I could do that, I wouldn't be calling about the internet outage, would I?

[ITGITC]

Yeah Grif, they need to change that.

 

But... what are the chances?

 

This is yet another reason why God invented so many types of beer.

 

http://www.hickerphoto.com/data/media/181/beer-girls_9690.jpg

[Griffinator]

I'll drink to that!

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UpGtM3B8h1U/R725Bsio6sI/AAAAAAAAAB4/XXHvMPeiPxk/s400/mcewansAle.jpg

 

Sorry, no sexy girls in my pic.

[Synthoid]

I'll drink to that!

 

Me too... here's another one of my faves:

 

 

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff212/brewedforthought/Beers/BOTW_LSS009-1.jpg

[J. Dan]

Here's the Comcast story... ya bunch of whiners!

 

COMCAST OUTAGE

 

 

I was more annoyed by the automated voice telling me to visit their website - if I could do that, I wouldn't be calling about the internet outage, would I?

 

Yeah, kind of like the old days when you'd boot up a PC with no keyboard, and it would say "Keyboard not found, hit any key to continue"

 

With subscriptions services - cable, satellite, internet, phone, etc., I've unfortunately found that the best way to get service is not to call service. Call to cancel your service, then they'll throw everything they can at you to keep you - they'll fix the problem AND give you free this and that. Found this out by mistake after a few times of getting frustrated enough to actually want to cancel. After a while, I've decided to skip straight to the person who's going to take care of me.

 

[Outkaster]

I have worked at a few call centers and an intervention hotline and read people well over the phone. Some people are not nice and we were told it is never personal when I was training. The real trick is helping people out and trying to turn the call around. Problem is people don't have answers to questions and then lie to you about it. I tell them "hey if you don't know find someone that does, no harm done" I also tell them that I used to work in call centers so I know how it is and that usually get's a good response.

[Mr. Nightime]

I find I usually get really good service when I call a call center, once I get to a person. I understand these people have a rough job, and I speak to them very nicely, with a friendly, understanding tone. I'm polite and respectful. Since there's a chance that the last person they talked with was a real jerk, it can make their day, and get them feeling like they actually DO want to be of help.

 

From the other side, working at a computer service desk, I know that everyone that calls is going to be in some form stressed, so I get the same tone with them. I try to make them feel that their call is the most important one I've taken all day. I can take someone that was irate and extremely upset, and have them relaxed and laughing by the end of the call. Especially if their system is working agian when we're done.

 

It helps that I've had a number of people, including my father-in-law that is a reporter for NPR, tell me that with my voice I should be in radio. It seems to have a calming effect on people.

[J. Dan]

I always feel much better when the person on the other end is actually listening and not just trying to force me through their flow chart. "restart the computer" "I already did that - bypassed the router, the modem is directly connected to the computer, I restarted, and the modem is not giving my computer an IP address.". ..."ok, restart your computer" "...huh, fine". (5 minutes later) "ok it's done restarting, still doesn't work". "cycle power on the modem". "uh, did all that already"

 

But it depends on who you get - same type of scenario with someone else "oh you did all that? Ok' let me try pinging your modem... Yeah looks like there's a problem with the modem... You can run by and pick one up from our service center or buy your own and call with the MAC address". Run to store, call back, done.

 

Depends on the company and how they handle calls too. I used to hate charter and swore I'd never go back to them. But they got a new CEO and recognized their customer service issues. After similar exchanges with dish and ATT, I went back to charter and it is night and day difference. Since going back I've been completely happy.

[Synthoid]

I've unfortunately found that the best way to get service is not to call service. Call to cancel your service, then they'll throw everything they can at you to keep you - they'll fix the problem AND give you free this and that.

 

Ah, you discovered my secret.

 

[perturbo]

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems are good in theory. If they're well-designed, they can handle a high volume of the "easy" customer calls ("What's the amount of my current bill?") so that the actual humans in a call center are available to handle the more involved ones.

[Synthoid]

About the original topic... has anyone else seen the demise of telephone tech support and been diverted to asking questions via email?

[richwhite9]

Can of worms - officially opened ! ! ! .

 

I don't know if you guys in the States have this, but from the UK a lot of calls are transferred to India.

ad.

 

End (for now) of rant! ! !

 

Those were the good old days. Now they get transferred to Ireland.