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08/30/2007 08:25:31 AM · #1 |
*disclaimer* I have nothing against India or its inhabitants. It has just been my experience that north American tech support is more willing to skip some of the steps on that numbered trouble-shooting sheet they all so love. Also, my problems are usually more to do with line problems of the providers.
This has worked well for me far.
When calling the support line and given the option of French or English, choose French. That's all there is to it!
So that solves it for Canadians, though you will have to understand enough French to get you through the following phone menus. The tech will speak English to you (in my experiences). If not, redial, or speak French.
I suppose this will work for Americans if you have a choice between English and Spanish.
Try it out!
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08/30/2007 08:37:40 AM · #2 |
| Best of luck (you will need it) with spanish and french. ;-) |
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08/30/2007 08:44:56 AM · #3 |
Originally posted by zxaar:
Best of luck (you will need it) with spanish and french. ;-) |
Huh?
Just to ejumicate yoos. Canada is bilingual (according to the government), so when I speak to French techies, they're usually nearby, and more willing to take ownership and help out. I wouldn't expect you to know this, as you're on the other side of the world.
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08/30/2007 08:58:52 AM · #4 |
Originally posted by Strikeslip:
Originally posted by zxaar:
Best of luck (you will need it) with spanish and french. ;-) |
Huh?
Just to ejumicate yoos. Canada is bilingual (according to the government), so when I speak to French techies, they're usually nearby, and more willing to take ownership and help out. I wouldn't expect you to know this, as you're on the other side of the world. |
I am not american I know much more than you can expect.
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08/30/2007 09:05:10 AM · #5 |
Originally posted by zxaar:
I am not american I know much more than you can expect. |
Wow, I'm a stupid American, that went right over my head!
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08/30/2007 09:09:02 AM · #6 |
| It does not matter who answers the phone as long as they help solve the problem. |
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08/30/2007 09:10:07 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by fir3bird:
Originally posted by zxaar:
I am not american I know much more than you can expect. |
Wow, I'm a stupid American, that went right over my head! |
just kidding about the map thingy. (teen Ms).
Message edited by author 2007-08-30 09:10:34. |
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08/30/2007 09:27:19 AM · #8 |
Originally posted by zxaar:
Originally posted by fir3bird:
Originally posted by zxaar:
I am not american I know much more than you can expect. |
Wow, I'm a stupid American, that went right over my head! |
just kidding about the map thingy. (teen Ms). |
Ha! 2pts. |
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08/30/2007 09:34:31 AM · #9 |
| Actually many of the french call centers are being set up in Romania. But I agree if the problem gets fixed who cares if where the person is that gave you the solution? |
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08/30/2007 10:09:37 AM · #10 |
| If we want to seriously rant we could talk about buying toys from China or spinach from California. |
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08/30/2007 10:31:31 AM · #11 |
Originally posted by codfish:
But I agree if the problem gets fixed who cares if where the person is that gave you the solution? |
Mostly because outsourced/offshored tech support centers are all script-based ... the people are being paid very little to lead you through a documented set of steps, which is not usually enough to solve the problem (and is usually stuff I've already spent an hour trying myself before calling). Thus, the problem usually doesn't get solved, and people like me get extremely frustrated because I know more than the person I'm talking to (which probably wouldn't be the case if I had reached somebody that actually works at the company and knows the product or technology).
Note: I've got nothing against foreign people trying to make a dime, I blame the US companies trying to save a dime at the expense of customer satisfaction. I wouldn't feel any different if I got routed to a US-based call center full of Miss Teen South Carolinas. ;-) |
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08/30/2007 10:39:58 AM · #12 |
Originally posted by quiet_observation:
If we want to seriously rant we could talk about buying toys from China or spinach from California. |
oooo, don't start on toys from China, or I might go off and we will have to move this rant. . .:) |
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08/30/2007 10:57:25 AM · #13 |
I would have to agree with creature on this that they do tend to be very script oriented but having been in tech support myself I can tell you that you should try your luck with the person on the other end. I had faced numerous callers who would tell me exactly what all they had already tried and what results they ended up with. I actually liked such customers because it made my job a whole lot easier.
I still did run them through a few of the steps again because as a record (and I'm not trying to demean any race here) I found that most americans didnt execute the steps exactly as detailed which left out a few important corners which made all the difference. But overall the people who debriefed me over the line were the chaps who knew their stuff and even though I faced a lot of flak for skipping a few steps with them I eventually got a good customer feedback in the end. The key is to make a good briefing at the start.
Having said that some these guys can be very very painful. I face them now more than I did before being the customer and I lose my head 40% of the time and scream my head off on them. Its a part of the pact I guess but I make sure I rattle them enough. :-) Perhaps not right... but there needs to be a say in this matter and if it has to be me then so be it.
On another note I am sorry to say but a lot of Americans are also a bit slow in catching on and a bit impatient. They tend to lose their cool pretty fast. I am just talking from a year's experience of dealing with them on an avg of 25-30 customers a day. Dont go throwing brickbats at me ... just voicing my opinion. |
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08/30/2007 10:59:43 AM · #14 |
Originally posted by quiet_observation:
If we want to seriously rant we could talk about buying toys from China or spinach from California. |
YEAH!!!
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08/30/2007 11:51:46 AM · #15 |
Originally posted by zxaar:
I am not american I know much more than you can expect. |
Hmmmm... I wonder what that means.
Ray |
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08/30/2007 12:09:11 PM · #16 |
Originally posted by saurabhv:
I would have to agree with creature on this that they do tend to be very script oriented but having been in tech support myself I can tell you that you should try your luck with the person on the other end. I had faced numerous callers who would tell me exactly what all they had already tried and what results they ended up with. I actually liked such customers because it made my job a whole lot easier.
I still did run them through a few of the steps again because as a record (and I'm not trying to demean any race here) I found that most americans didnt execute the steps exactly as detailed which left out a few important corners which made all the difference. But overall the people who debriefed me over the line were the chaps who knew their stuff and even though I faced a lot of flak for skipping a few steps with them I eventually got a good customer feedback in the end. The key is to make a good briefing at the start.
Having said that some these guys can be very very painful. I face them now more than I did before being the customer and I lose my head 40% of the time and scream my head off on them. Its a part of the pact I guess but I make sure I rattle them enough. :-) Perhaps not right... but there needs to be a say in this matter and if it has to be me then so be it.
On another note I am sorry to say but a lot of Americans are also a bit slow in catching on and a bit impatient. They tend to lose their cool pretty fast. I am just talking from a year's experience of dealing with them on an avg of 25-30 customers a day. Dont go throwing brickbats at me ... just voicing my opinion. |
Thanks for your perspective, having spent some time on the other end of this. I did a few years of phone tech support too, and I do remember the people that would call with the preconception that they knew more about it than me (and I remember thinking, "then why don't you just fix it yourself?" hehe). So I've been on both sides of the fence, too, but I guess I get frustrated when they won't take into account what I've already tried, insisting instead on making me redo the steps from the beginning and coming up with the exact same results 20 minutes later that still doesn't fix the problem. Not saying that's the case with everyone -- I'm sure my technical experience with my tech support background gives me a leg up, but they don't know me from the next guy. |
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08/30/2007 12:10:33 PM · #17 |
Originally posted by quiet_observation:
It does not matter who answers the phone as long as they help solve the problem. |
Sorry, this is BS. The "support" people in India for whatever company I can can rarely help you if you have a complicated problem. I'm sure for 90% of the small issues they're fine, and have been for me. But when you call and explain the problem 5 different times and are on hold for a total of 2 hours, passes between people that can barely understand you, and you can barely understand them, this is unacceptable.
This is not a racist issue, this is a customer service issue. This is about companies outsourcing labor on the cheap, and their customers getting the shaft for it.
The same thing happens in companies that outsource to US callcenters like First Data Corp or Vesta or (insert generic callcenter here). They hire some college kid, pay them next to nothing, and never give them raises, they have pop-up screens that tell them all what to say, so they don't have to think. The person didn't even necessarily take a call from who you called the last call, the pop-up tells them what to say even when they answer.
You know when Sprint's customer service went to crap? When they killed all their in-house call centers and outsourced the labor to these moron operations. Now, they're doing one worse by switching to companies that instead of using cheap US labor, are using cheaper and less effective Indian labor.
Again, this is not about the people taking the calls, this is about companies who screw their customers by not giving them the best customer service possible.
also:
//www.hardtofind800numbers.com/
Message edited by author 2007-08-30 12:13:21. |
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08/31/2007 12:17:22 PM · #18 |
Had an issue like that. My brother in law had a gateway computer with a modem problem. I called support and tried to explain the problem, but the guy made me go through a whole script that took 45 minutes. I kept on demanding to be put through to level 2 support, and finally got there. That guy started in on a script, but I told him "I can hear the modem try to connect and send the training tone over the speaker, but when I piggyback a phone onto the line, all I hear is dial tone." He immediatly said ok, you need a new modem. Do you want me to mail it or do you want to bring the system in to a service center? But I suspect the five minutes I spent on the line with him cost Gateway more than the 45 minutes I spent with first level support.
Message edited by author 2007-08-31 12:17:46. |
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08/31/2007 12:32:51 PM · #19 |
Originally posted by karmat:
oooo, don't start on toys from China, or I might go off and we will have to move this rant. . .:) |
Lead paint is good for ya and tastier than Spinach.
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08/31/2007 12:48:53 PM · #20 |
Originally posted by wavelength:
Originally posted by quiet_observation:
It does not matter who answers the phone as long as they help solve the problem. |
Sorry, this is BS. The "support" people in India for whatever company I can can rarely help you if you have a complicated problem. I'm sure for 90% of the small issues they're fine, and have been for me. But when you call and explain the problem 5 different times and are on hold for a total of 2 hours, passes between people that can barely understand you, and you can barely understand them, this is unacceptable.
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I think its niether a question of call centre professionals nor of customers making the calls. There are many customers like  wavelength who feel this way but instead of taking out the frustation at the call centre person i think they should turn the ire towards the company. When you buy a 'Sprint' or a 'Ford' product, its the company's responsibity to satisfy the customer queries to his satisfaction. And as far as i know all call centres are script and system driven as these young call centre people are not supposed to know every detail about the product, its not about an Indian or a Romanian or an American call cantre guy, its about screaming at the wrong ear.
This is not a racist issue, this is a customer service issue. This is about companies outsourcing labor on the cheap, and their customers getting the shaft for it
If salary is the only indicator of a persons worth, i am sure a large no. of Americans earn more than George Bush?
Message edited by author 2007-08-31 13:15:55. |
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