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Hardware Technology

Tech Support - To Phone or Not To Phone? 66

Posted by Cliff from the which-method-do-you-prefer dept.
flyingember asks: "With years of experience with tech support I have yet to come to a conclusion as to which form of support to use. Phone, or not phone. For some companies their online chat is great, I used it often with HP since you were much more likely to get through fast during a peak time of the day and the support was high quality. I recently used Philip's online chat to ask about a product feature (or lack of) and they demanded a name, zip and phone number, then claimed the product wasn't supported through chat and that I had to call when I refused to give this. I've had mixed luck with phone support. From half-hour hold times and little knowledge with some companies to well-staffed techs such as with installing a DSL account or getting the Internet on my phone. I have used email chat with some companies, and it does the job as well as email does allowing lots of detail but has lag sometimes. Which do you think is better, support over the phone or support another way?"
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Tech Support - To Phone or Not To Phone? More

Tech Support - To Phone or Not To Phone?

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  • If you would like support by phone, press 1.

    If you would not like support by phone, press 2.

    While you wait for someone to tell you to reboot your computer, please hold and listen to some muzak.

  • It depends... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    On which one you can get access to the shortest amount of time. If you don't have net access or can't get to a place with it, you won't be able to get much useful help from a chat room. If you CAN get online and get help in a chat room, that would seem to be an easier and faster than meddling around waiting for phone support.
    • I agree with this post. I prefer to use online support or any other type of support with a quick resolution other then phone support. Most of my phone support inquiries end up with "Sir, we are going to have to call you back while I do research on the subject" *sigh*
    • It also depends on what you are doing, and more importantly, how good their techs are. Companies like Cisco do a good job of phone support (but you will be bounced around the world as shifts change), and have experienced techs who seem to be interested in helping. Companies like (insert local/cell phone company here), on the other hand, usually have techs who don't know what they're doing, don't understand spoken english well, and don't care about your problem, since you're locked into a contract that gua
      • A couple of weeks after an air conditioning failure we had something fry on the local fileserver. Hmmmm. Coulda been worse, although the next time someone tries to save $2k by not repairing the backup compressor THEY get to stay up all night.

        Which I did. I got paged in at 8:30. HPaq dispatched a tech at 11:30. He got there at 3:30 with parts. The server was online at 6:30. You MUST have 24/7 onsite support for any server that *could* cost you money if it's not available.

  • Other (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Which do you think is better, support over the phone or support another way?

    Definitely "another way".

    However, I'm not telling you what other way I would choose. You'll have to submit a new Ask Slashdot to find the answer.

    • > > Which do you think is better, support over the phone or support another way?
      >
      >Definitely "another way".
      >
      > However, I'm not telling you what other way I would choose. You'll have to submit a new Ask Slashdot to find the answer.

      Incorrect. The correct answer was:

      "Hello! This is Tackhead in answer to your Ask Slashdot posting. I understand that you are having a problem about which do you think is better, whether to choose support over the phone or support another way.

      Please ex

  • It depends (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Bryant ( 25344 ) on Friday January 02, 2004 @08:19PM (#7864371) Homepage
    Some places, chat will be better; some places, phone will be better. It all depends on where the company puts its resources and its best people.

    In general, bear in mind that phone support is more expensive; many companies will be trying to move away from phone support and towards chat/email support. It's easier for a single support person to handle multiple concurrent incidents that way, plus you can outsource without worrying about accents and so on. You also don't have to make sure your support people have decent phone voices.

    Also, phone support costs more money. You have to get the call center hardware and software in, you need a bunch of phone lines, and so on. Chat support is relatively inexpensive, infrastructure-wise.

    So I'd expect that as time goes by, chat support will be better. It's just more cost-effective and it makes sense for a company to focus on the cheaper, more efficient method of supporting people. Right now, though? It still depends on the company.

    • Re:It depends (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Captain Pedantic ( 531610 ) on Friday January 02, 2004 @08:29PM (#7864427) Homepage
      Support over chat works better as someone can deal with multiple "calls" at once. Let's face it.. if you are waiting on the phone for someone to reboot, your productivity is zero. It also makes it easier to copy and paste error messages (if you're not using an OS or software which prevents copying and pasting error messages.

      The downside is, it can take longer to get to the bottom of a problem. If you have someone who knows what they are talking about then you will be able to sort it out quicker over the phone. Of course, when you have to pass things like URLs or file paths, it is easier to send them over on chat.

      In my job, I use both, as they both have advantages... but I would give up the phone before I would give up chat.

      (and personally, I find crap english easier to deal with on chat than on the phone)
      • >>if you are waiting on the phone for someone to reboot, your productivity is zero I used to work in PSS at Microsoft support MSMQ on pretty big systems. When you hit a total wall you'd ask for a reboot and make up some total BS answer as to why. With most of the big Compaq clusters at the time this would buy you 5 to 10 minutes where you could try and research like all hell while the customer was occupied. Yep, we used it to buy time.
    • well, if your computer is non-operational, chat isn't an option. I know this is stating the obvious, but it's true. There always has to be some form of phone support. And dead hardware is a fairly common problem.

      What would be really cool is if there was a good way of profiling users to see their technical competancy. Perhaps by a few simple questions or commands like "Okay pull up a command prompt", or "what Bios version do you have?", stuff like that. The times I've had to contact support I already

      • The company's "real" experts write the scripts which the support people execute. If you bottom out of the script, then the support goes freeform.

        If you fight with the support person and they haven't executed their script, then their ass is on the line if you get to senior support people... who write the scripts... and it turns out you didn't have it plugged in.

        When I did tech support I used to gauge people's knowledge by telling them what I'm going to have them do, before I tell them how to do it.

        e.g

        • I really like that method of telling them first what you're doing and then saying how to do it. The only downside to that is again those semi-knowlegable people who wig out when you tell them what you're trying, and refuse to even look at it.

          "Okay now let's look at your network properties to make sure everythings alright. click start..."
          "It's not that! I know what i'm doing! blah blah blah"
          "Please just humor me and double check"
          "blah blah blah. This is a peice of junk, you know how much I paid for it?

    • A better question (Score:3, Interesting)

      by turg ( 19864 ) *
      Exactly. It depends.

      There is, however, a hint of a better question in flyingember's post when he talks about how he's got good response out of HP's online chat. What I'd like to hear from slashdotters is what type of response you get from specific companies in different mediums.

      e.g. when you contact eBay through their webforms/email, they first respond with a form letter that doesn't answer your question and then you reply explaining why it doesn't answer your question and then on the second (or third) re
    • The only problem with online chat support is that I often have to download a buggy java client in order to chat. This can cause trauma in non-techiies. Chat support should be only for experienced computer users.

      Also, some technicians type slow or have terrible spelling and writing skills (enough to screw up their intended meaning). And the ones from India come across as condescending when they try to be polite.

      I'd rather chat with an experienced tech on the phone than deal with a buggy chat client an

  • is in fact answered by the person asking the question: it depends. Sometimes you better phone, sometimes you better mail.

  • Option 3 (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    RTFM
    • "Option 3: RTFM"

      This is not insightful. I spent many years doing tech support, and I've only been able to use this line once:

      "Here is the answer as it is printed in the manual..."

      Once. Our manual isn't the best ever written, but it wasn't bad. A lot of the problems that came up were a combination of unusual circumstances and the occasional defect in our software. It cannot be expected for the manual to cover interaction with products that didn't exist at the time of writing. Our software used VFW
    • And never do it. If we all actually read the manual, they might become respected as sources of information (which they once were) rather than welcomings to a product.

      Seriously, if you want real troubleshooting, start with your brain, the manual, and google. You will probably end up back with just your brain and maybe the manual. Maybe a fellow geek too.

      Good documentation is the best kind of tech support - the information is distributed to those who need it. And who says the manual is the only form
  • I think it is all about the company. If it is a large sized company, where youll spend more time listening to Elevator music waiting to talk to some half wit reading out of a book, then you are wasting your time on the phone. But I have always preffered phone, something about talking to the person real time is better in my opinion. Who knows, to each his own.

  • Not even close... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by reaper20 ( 23396 ) on Friday January 02, 2004 @08:24PM (#7864398) Homepage
    Support by google.

    The last thing you need when crap gets broke is some phone jockey talking you through the elementary steps you tried 3 hours before.

    "Yes I restarted the service."
    "I can mail you the apache config ... what? What do you mean you can't accept my mail?"
    "Monday? It's 6pm on a Thursday!"

    Sure lots of companies have great service contracts that will have people on site quickly, but whose company pays for that kind of support? Certainly not too many in today's cost concious environment.

    Or worse yet, the boss chooses an expensive support option at the cost of an experienced admin who would have never let the thing break to begin with.

    You can find most of the fixes to common problems on a usenet usegroup or one of the tons of mailing lists in about half the time it takes you to wait for someone on the phone. Sure it's not perfect, but if all else fails you can always fall back on the phone support if need be.

  • tech support...mmm, I remember it well (Score:3)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Friday January 02, 2004 @08:27PM (#7864416)
    Tech support question #1: Have you called the right company?
    Tech support question #2: Have they called the right department?
    Tech support question #3: Is it plugged in?
    Tech support question #4: Are you SURE?
    Tech support question #5: Is it turned on?
    Tech support question #6: Are you SURE?
    (educate user about having to turn on the monitor separately from the CPU box)
    Tech support question #7: Have they rebooted?
    (educate caller about what 'reboot' means & instruct user to call back after machine has rebooted)

    Average Call Time: 1.4 minutes = Tech Support Rep of the Month again, booya! :)

    Laughing when one of Jerry Pournelle's lackeys calls for help AGAIN = priceless.

    ("No, sir, being one of "Jerry's kids" doesn't get you a special tech support number to call." Ugh.)

  • My Experience With Gateway (Score:3, Interesting)

    by routerwhore ( 552333 ) * on Friday January 02, 2004 @08:36PM (#7864457) Homepage
    After I purchased my Gateway laptop, I went to them for support after blowing off XP and dual-booting 2000 and slackware. I couldn't get my NIC driver to work under 2000 and contacted them for support via online chat. After 35 minutes of me repeating the question "Can you please just tell me the model of my NIC or not", I finally said, you obviously don't know the question and have wasted my time. I'm going to call now and tell them about my experience. He promptly REBOOTED my machine remotely in the hopes that I wouldn't capture the session. Little did he know I had been saving it every couple of minutes anyway. I called in afterwards relayed the conversation and asked the same question. It took about as long on the phone, but the guy was quick to say that they changed out the models of parts all the time and the info didn't get distributed to the techs. We figured it out via trial and error.

    By the way, after several other phone calls for other issues that ended with supervisors actually swearing at me or hanging up on me, I decided Gateway as a company really sucks and it must be their company culture that drives everyone to be so generally bitter and evil. I had much better experiences with Dell.

    • It's sad that Gateway support went from amazingly good in the early-mid 90s (personal anecdote: they upgraded me from 486/33 to 486/50 for free when they were out of stock, came with complete manuals, etc) to their current position, which seems to be the absolute worst in the industry. I know of at least one large company who used to deal with them almost exclusively, and now won't touch them at all.
    • try booting into slackware and typing: lspci that will show you what your network card is (along with your other pci cards)
      1. I decided Gateway as a company really sucks and it must be their company culture that drives everyone to be so generally bitter and evil.

      This is the right attitude. In the moment, I'll get pi$$ed, though my anger is focused up the management chain; they have failed. It's the responsibility of the CEO to hire and support his upper managers...and for them to support those who report to them...and so on. If anyone snaps at me. I blaim the manager not the person in front of me.

      • Uh, well if it were one rude tech, blame the tech. If you have constant experiences of rudeness then its managements fault for hiring such people. Screw me once, its your fault, screw me twice its my fault.
          1. Uh, well if it were one rude tech, blame the tech.

          I used to blaim the person, now I put most of the blaim where it belongs on the manager (and the manager's manager...).

          Someone wasn't watching that one tech, or encouraged them to act that way (either through example or by not supporting or overburdening the tech). Most nasty people can be nice if the environment is right...and those who can't shouldn't be talking to the public and (preferred) employed where they can influence others to do the wrong

    • He promptly REBOOTED my machine remotely in the hopes that I wouldn't capture the session.

      How did he manage this? Did you actually install some sort of remote administration software for them to use? It couldn't be something they pre-installed since you say you contacted them after replacing the OEM XP install with Win2k.

      You are far more trusting than I, especially when it comes to dealing with front-line tech support.
      • The reboot (and complete remote control functionality) is part of their chat program. When you click "I Trust Gateway", it loads everything. It was a new system without anything interesting on it, and I wanted an answer. I didn't much care at that point.
    • After 35 minutes of me repeating the question "Can you please just tell me the model of my NIC or not"

      Is there a reason you couldn't just boot into Slackware and get the results of lspci -vv?
      • It was more tedious then that. There were about 8 drivers for variations of the NIC that differed by a plus at the end or by a single number. And none of them seem to work. It seems the drivers for the NIC I had didn't actually make it onto the CD, but did make it into the install. And the website was useless.
    • I work at a college which primarily uses Gateway laptops and I own one myself. Havent had a problem with it and we dont get more problems with them than any other brand. You are correct about the service though...it sucks, hard. After dealing directly with them for a few months we found a 3rd party service rep who does the work on them now.

  • The internet (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Trixxter ( 166 )
    Here's the thing: unless you are doing something such as groundbreaking research, almost every problem or incident has happened before and has been logged somewhere on the internet. It's actually hard for some people to accept that they are just a drone in society, doing the same thing over and over and think they have unique problems.

    I personally always search google, and then go to google groups for more obscure dilemmas. Tech support has always been a last option to me and i've really only used it a f

  • Both-saves time, and mitigates the risk of a moron (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If you're at work (tech support for work software), you almost certainly have both broadband/network internet and a phone, or dial-up and another landline (PBX) or a cell.

    If you're at home, you probably have broadband (given that this is /.) or dial-up and a cell or a second line.

    So ... do both. Send an email with your question, call tech support, and get "in line" for online chat support. Be sure, if you get an emailed reply, that you mention that email and its code #, ref. #, whatever they call it, wh

  • support? (Score:2, Funny)

    by holzp ( 87423 )
    this is slashdot, we use open source software, what is this "support" you speak of? Is that like editing the code?
  • Poster, it seems in asking your question that you've already considered the pros and cons of all of the options and answered it for yourself.
    With each company, try to call first. It you wait for more than 5 minutes or get an incompetent tech, hang up and try chat/email/web forms.

  • Geeks + Dell = E-mail. Definitely. (Score:3, Informative)

    by BRTB ( 30272 ) <slashdot@NOSpam.brtb.org> on Friday January 02, 2004 @09:00PM (#7864590) Homepage
    Lesson I recently learned from Dell... their e-mail tech support is a lot less hassle than the phone version. Both are still mostly based overseas, judging from the names on the e-mails, but the techs that handle the e-mail support seem to be a bit more knowledgeable than their phone counterparts. Of course, for all I know, it's the same people.

    Anecdotal evidence, sure, but it's worked on personal and work laptops about 8-9 times in the past month or two so far... Use the PremierSupport [dell.com] website, click the link on the left navbar called "Request Support," explain in normal terms what the problem is and the standard procedure you used to diagnose it, and you'll get a response back, generally within a couple hours, saying which parts will be replaced and to expect a technician to call you about the best time to come and fix it. As long as you use the usual magic words: "problem follows part", you escape 99% of the useless scripted "reboot and call us back" diagnosis.

    One time when I said "Battery will not hold a charge" in somewhat vague terms, it wasn't a part replacement right away but they e-mailed back with a full and nicely detailed procedure of things to check, some of which I hadn't thought of.

    Of course, most of this probably wouldn't work for the usual clueless user, but for us geeks here who know what we're doing, it'll save a lot of time.

    [Yes, I am aware Premier Support is for the business/edu/govt customers, but they replaced most of the internals and the screen hinges on my personal Inspiron 4100 without a problem. Last time I checked, it didn't check any personal info when you registered.]
    • I had the exact opposite experience with Dell. I had a problem with my CPU overheating. I contacted Dell email support with a very detailed letter of what I had tried and the results I had. Every response felt like a canned answer. I couldn't figure out if I was writing to a human or an auto-reply. We concluded that I needed to send my machine in for repair and that someone would contact me with the info. Several days later, no contact. I then called in to a tech who was very helpful, he saw no prior infor

  • Google (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Geno Z Heinlein ( 659438 ) on Friday January 02, 2004 @09:15PM (#7864653)
    Which do you think is better, support over the phone or support another way?

    Another way: Google.

    Seriously, since Google, I haven't needed to call tech support numbers. Whatever problem I'm having generally falls into one of two categories: other people have had that problem, solved it and posted the solution to the web somewhere, or no one has ever had that problem, and in that case tech support is useless.

    The only value of tech support is to the product vendor, who can then advertise that they have tech support.

    Hell, I look things up on Google before I crack the manual. Google is faster, I can narrow down the search to exactly what I'm looking for, and I often come across a cool and informative website on the topic at hand.

    Plus, using Google requires that you think about how to describe the problem, which can often solve it before you even need to follow a link. Tech support is kind of like "natural language" programming nonsense. Programming isn't hard because the language is hard, programming is hard because you have to specify your desires precisely. You do that without realizing it as you refine your search; the search process is educational.
    • Plus, using Google requires that you think about how to describe the problem

      I'd have to agree with this. The casual user has to move away from the "it's broke" helpless cry. My mother (who is in her sixties) is finally starting to figure out computer stuff for herself after a lot of patient tutoring.

      Unfortunately, now I get a lot of email like, "Did you make your bed this morning", "There's a good sale on tomatoes at Mourelatos this week" and "I hate to tell you this, but your father was actually Satan
      • I'd have to agree with this. The casual user has to move away from the "it's broke" helpless cry. My mother (who is in her sixties) is finally starting to figure out computer stuff for herself after a lot of patient tutoring.

        I'd always encourage people to learn more about the computer/system they are using, but really they shouldn't have to. Why should anyone's parents, grannys or whatever have to move away from the cries from help ? It's incumbent on the developers of hardware and software to strive to ma

    • Google is a great place to start before you buy a product. I usually research in advance what kind of problems I can expect with a certain part by looking what kind of complaints there are on google groups. I recently broke my own rule and bought a Trust tablet thingy. I still regret it (in short, it is absolute crap and there's not much that can be done to fix it).

  • Research before you buy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Txiasaeia ( 581598 ) on Friday January 02, 2004 @09:37PM (#7864734)
    Disclaimer: I'm talking about a single customer for a home-based office, not medium-large businesses.

    I research every tiny freaking little thing before I buy it. This nit-picking includes cat5 cables and different types of USB cables, and especially includes software. The result? I haven't had to contact customer support for a computer part/peripheral in five or six years.

    This probably doesn't help if you're in IT for a huge company where you're pretty much given the hardware and said, "Here, make this work," but it's better than nothing. For what it's worth, if I do have any problems with features, incompatibilities or whatever, I find that the most valuable place to look is in the company's user support forums. There might be a ton of people saying that this particular laptop has dead pixels, or that a certain function in a piece of software doesn't work with a certain sound card, etc. etc. Real people with real problems is better than tech support any day. YMMV.

  • It's probably trial and error. It depends on the individual company. Take ISPs for example. I could never get through to Earthlink on the phone, but I had decent luck with chat. My current ISP, however, is excellent in all areas of support. Email questions answered (not auto-replied) within an hour, a real person the phone immediately who was friendly AND knowledgable. They don't have chat support, but if they did, I'm sure it would be good

  • Phone, if you can work it... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mercuryresearch ( 680293 ) * on Saturday January 03, 2004 @12:42AM (#7865450) Journal
    With the few tech support disasters I've had to deal with, by phone usually has worked best -- but there are tricks to getting it to work, like making sure you take notes of who you talk to so you can reach them again. With some companies there's a decided change in quality of tech support depending on the time of day. (Strangely enough for me, it worked out that calling from 2am-4am has netted the best tech support.)

    I strong concur with the recommendation to Google first. I've also found that email tech support pretty much sucks -- I've had an email request to download updated firmware for a 3Com wireless router that's on week 3 of waiting for approval at the moment, and all too many similar experiences.

    Like it or not, self-help (google, mailing lists) is pretty much the way to go these days.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • the less people that call me, the better! Actually I like email for a few issues. It's great even if a company has different people replying because you (and they should) have a good record of what has been said, and when they start to not understand, you can just copy and paste what was said/done earlier. Calling is more for quick questions, product replacements, or when your current and only internet connection isn't working.
  • I tried HP's online support once, it sucked. The poor helpdesk guy was completely clueless, I managed to solve the problem before he even suggested something useful and he was asking questions like "Can you re-install XP again?". No I bloody can't you stupid idiot.

    I think they select the helpdesk people from a special pool of low IQ in-duh-viduals or these people really don't care if the problem gets solved or not because they are not paid on that basis.

    Typically, if I can't solve a problem, I'm 99% sure a

  • A techinician will answer your call. Please try our internet service at www.service.mog.

    PLEASE HOLD
    PLEASE HOLD
    PLEASE HOLD
    PLEASE HOLD
    PLEASE HOLD

  • Expert systems... (Score:2, Informative)

    by PzyCrow ( 560903 )
    I just have to tell this, rather eberassing, story.
    Once I needed to know what hardware was supported by an old 486 compaq computer. So I found this online support chat on their site and spent the better part of an hour trying to explain what information I needed. After a while the answers became very repetetive and I realized, I was chatting with an expert sytem, an AI...
    I must admit that keeping me fooled for an hour was a feat, but they could have saved me the embarrasment by actually telling me the truth
  • Most of my experience has shown the amount of good tech support given is in direct relationship to either a) how much I'm paying for it, or b) how easy it is for me to drop their product and go to a competitor in the marketplace.

    In other words, if you have them by the wallet, you have their attention. Most tech support organizations are ultimately motivated by the company's success/failure (i.e. when the company is struggling and they're working lots of long hours with no reward for it, or times are good
  • If you can't find the problem on-line. Use the phone.

    With HP, they have a WEALTH of online informaiton PLUS user forums organized by product. I found solutions to numerous Compaq/HP issues from the User Foums and never had to consult support professionals.

    Another example is Roxio. Many moons ago, I had purchased Easy CD Creator 5 to use on my XP system. At the time, XP had just been released to the masses. I had so many issues with the installation it drove me nuts. I consulted Roxio technical suppo
  • As far as I am concerned, the best way to deal with a computer problem is chat combined with a message board (for log files, or in case the people in chat don't have a clue). This assumes the problem hasn't escalated to the point that the PC can't get online.

    My message board helps hundreds of people remove advertising parasites every day. They post, someone strolls by and answers the question, and generally the problem is cleared up pretty quickly. If they want help immediately, they can come into the chat

  • The view from the support person (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I am a senior support person for BEA Weblogic products. We can take cases over the web, phone and (to some degree) via email.

    In my experience, it is better open/create the cases with email/web, send all your information and then (if the problem is urgent) call. That way everything is in writing for future analysis by the support person, senior support person (on escalation) and/or supervisor on review. You can also guarantee that the important keywords are not misheard/misentered.

    The phone conversation is
    • My experience with many companies is that e-mails to support or even sometimes sales accounts just go unanswered for days if at all, whereas a phone call gets a quicker response. I wouldn't mind if they just didn't offer e-mail service, but to post an address on their website that appears to go to /dev/null is very irritating not to mention unprofessional. My guess is that is that they might not have any oversight of the e-mail channel so they just get behind or deluged in spam...

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