call support or search in forum ?

[dMores]

Okay, this might just be the last poll from me for a while.
i'd like to know, how do you compare a company's helpdesk to an online forum such as pocketpcthoughts.com.

when you have a problem, do you call support first, or do you rather load up your browser and see if there's anything online that might help you?

thanks,
daniel

[Vulcan]

I have never called any support help for any product that I have ever owned....

[dMores]

i did it once, to get my monitor replaced after it busted.

and the only other time i do it is when i have problems with my phone provider. they don't have a forum, and sometimes they have to change settings when i switch phones (like turn gprs on, or mms etc)

[JvanEkris]

I only call them if i know for sure it is a hardware-defect or a bug in the OS. I called in about seven or eight bugs in the OS to Siemens. With my old Jornada i only called when it was a hardware-defect for sure. Otherwise it is a total @^%$*%% waste of time, because generally speaking helpdesk employees know little to nothing, until you reach the second/third line of support.

Jaap

[Jeff Rutledge]

Personally, I never call support. I find searching far better for myself.

For issues at work, however, I do often call vendors directly. But we usually have platinum service agreements (or something similar) with them so the response is usually quite fast.

[Vulcan]

Most computer companies first line of support just read off cards/screens without having any knowledge about what they are talking about.....usually some where in the conversation is the line...."OK just pop in your restore cd and reboot"

[Ripper014]

I only call support if I know what the problem is and need thier help in fixing it. Meaning a replacement or a repair issue, otherwise I rely on my own expertise and those on the net.

[ctmagnus]

If I have a nbd exchange warranty and it's a hardware defect I can't correct on my own within a reasonable time frame, I'll call. Otherwise I'll start trolling forums.

[Dave Beauvais]

I try to exhaust all online options available in an attempt to avoid having to deal with customer "support." I am always annoyed when there is no online method of completing RMA procedures, or other such things, as it pretty much guarantees I'll have to deal with at least one human -- often two or more -- over the phone. I detest touch tone menu systems that don't work. Inevitably, when I do get to speak with a human, I have to tell them things that my keyed-in responses should have already told them. I also hate being reminded how important I am to them every thirty seconds and that my patience while holding is appreciated.

Another reason I had customer service these days is that you will often get a different answer or response each time you speak with a new person. Anyone called Sprint PCS customer service recently? Sprint employees have actually told me that if the person I talk with doesn't know how to do what I want, to call back so I get someone else. 8O I'm sorry, but that's BS. They've all gone to the same training, have the same software on their computers, and the same books to reference. Why is it that if I talk to six people, I'll get six different answers? At least with online info, you have something in writing, so to speak, that comes from some presumably official source.

The state of customer service is a sad one, indeed, and is only getting worse. Many companies cut spending on support or completely outsource support to India or other countries where they can pay the employees far, far less than they could otherwise. Here in the U.S., there's a big problem with the "I don't get paid enough to care about your problem" mentality. For PC support, the knee-jerk response is to put the Recovery CD in the drive and go from there, often without even an attempt to troubleshoot the problem. Every time I have to deal with problems with my own or someone else's computers, I am grateful that I know how to fix these things; unless it's actual hardware failure, there's very little I can't fix.

The best customer service experience I've had was with Gateway's Major Accounts division about five years ago. I was a student employee working on a special project for a professor and the computer had failed one night. (The university gets about 95% of its PCs from Gateway.) After some troubleshooting on my own, I determined the motherboard had failed. I called up the Major Accounts support number, had zero hold time, and explained to the competent technician what I had done. He agreed with my diagnosis and even though the call was placed at about 4:00 PM, I had a replacement motherboard, CPU, and RAM in the office the next morning, free of charge. To say I was blown away would be an understatement.

That was five years ago, so I have no idea if their support is still at that level. I do know that no regular consumer would ever get that level of support from a company like Gateway or Dell. Customer service reps are usually judged by call volume, not call quality. Their goal is to get your off the phone as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next poor soul. Until that corporate mentality changes, I will continue to detest phone support and will try my best to solve the problem myself using online resources.

Wow, sorry about the long rant!