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The Phone Support Oxymoron
R. Alex Whitlock
Dell has announced that it's re-relocating its technical support for corporate customers from India back to the US.
Chuck and
Byron are all over it, as are their respective commenters.
I don't have anything to say about outsourcing at the moment, but I do have something to say about technical support, Dell and otherwise.
I hear a lot of complaints about Dell's technical support. I've heard complaints about the India branch's work and more people saying that it sucks over here, too. Some blame the corporations for going cheap on it and they're right. The blame lies not with the computer companies, but the end users.
To use the cliche, you get what you pay for.
I build my own desktops, but when it comes to laptops, I am a loyal IBM customer. Why? Because IBM takes care of me. My IBM customer service agent calls me every three months to make sure that my computer is still working okay. At one point, when I reported a problem with the mouse, they had a tech support person
call me the next day with the solution in hand. I didn't know that customer service like that still existed. When I had to buy my last laptop, IBMs cost a couple hundred more than its Dell and Gateway counterpart, but it's worth it to me.
When pushed against a wall, most people disagree.
It used to be that the price difference between a company stock PC and a home-built one was huge, sometimes as much as 2-1. Over the years, stock PC prices have fallen considerably and today the difference in price is negligable. Not only that, but stock machines today are better computers with better parts (even adjusted for Moore's Law). I still build my own because I like the flexibility of interchangable parts, but others would rather have the convenience of a restore CD.
Regardless, the money saved to consumers had to come from somewhere and can anyone be surprised it came from something intangible like customer support? Packard Bell and Compaq tried to skimp on parts and they were called on it: Packard Bell is out of business and Compaq was consumed by higher grade Hewlett Packard. Customer service, on the other hand, seems to be negligable.
On top of that, trying to fix a computer over the phone is like trying to fix a car on the phone. To say the least, it's not the ideal venue. No matter how skilled the person on the other side of the line is, they're not there to look at the machine and things it would take then two minutes to check out themselves it takes ten to do over the phone. It's frustrating for both involved and believe me I've heard as many complaints about tech support callers as I have agents. With costs being cut to make the PC cheaper (since prices are all that's important to a lot of consumers), even the best technician has to read from the same automated system, dumbed down to the dumbest tech support person there.
If you want good customer service, you're going to have to pay for it. I've been more than pleased with IBM's service, but there are other options available. Gateway has a Gold Service Plan where all you have to do is take the computer in and they'll repair it for you with a pretty fast turnaround. Easy, simple, and expensive.
Or you can do what I do: build your own. It's cheap, but when there's a problem you know better how to fix it because you're dealing with parts that you bought and installed. This only works if you know what you're doing, but in my (biased) view even if you're not a professional, the more you know about computers the less frustrated and expensive maintenance will be.
If you're not willing to learn more about computers and you're not willing to pay higher prices for someone who knows more (and/or can communicate it effectively), I lack sympathy.
Observations
The most common complaints I've heard of were related to the accent of the person on the tech support line. Have these complainers never called phone lines staffed by Americans? I've had to ask to be switched to another employee several times when the person I was talking to (likely from inner-city Atlanta, Queens, or some other strong-accent location) was entirely incomprehensible. If my father (computer major, from Granite Quarry, NC) answered tech support lines, nobody would be able to understand him either.
But that was off-topic; on-topic, I agree with you! And I'm all for build-your-own.
For those of us who have difficulty changing the batteries on our remote control, building your own is not really a viable option, unfortunately.
I bet it is b/c it is second-nature to you, Alex, but the ability to put together a complicated machine like a computer is not a skill that everyone can just pick up and learn very easily.
Could I learn how to do it? probably, given enough time and effort. But is it worth the aggravation, frustration, and (likely) less-than-superior workmanship? Not to me.
Adrienne, I've actually had good luck with accents of American tech support (have never called an India outservice, though). The problem is not how they're saying it, but what they're saying and the fact that they're not there.
Daniel, not knowing (or wanting to learn) about computers is fine. My advice though is to spend extra money on a high-service plan like Gateway has (and others do) where all you have to do is take the sucker in.
India outservice...BLOWS. Been there, done that, spent the 30 minutes to figure out what the hell they were trying to get across in their broken english with thick accents.
Second worst outservice... inner city America. Specifically, someone who never got the memo that Ebonics is not an actual language.
And as far as support goes... the more you know about ANYTHING, the less you wind up paying in support. I can fix my own VCR, I can repair my own computer, when pressed I can fix my own car (though I tend to call on a friend who's more experienced in that regard if the possibility exists).
The trick is all knowing what's fixable and not.
Mike, I agree with you. I think it's particularly true of essentials, namely computers and cars. Unfortunately, I don't know very much about fixing cars, but it's certainly something I need to learn.
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