I just spent a good hour speaking to a succession of phone-support
personnel at HP about my laptop. I had dropped it and physically broke
the DVD drive in the process. I just needed the names and locations of
authorized repair shops in my area - no technical questions at all.
Consistent with my only previous contact with HP, the support personnel
were friendly and spoke with charming, lilting accents. Unfortunately,
I couldn't understand most of what they were saying. They had to repeat
everything 2 or 3 times. Spelling out the words didn't help much ("@#$
as in ^&*"). Aside from the accents, it is obvious that they didn't get
a lot of colloquial American English.
HP's phone support, linguistically, is the worst I have encountered -
especially since I paid for a 3 year service contract. IBM's phone
support is also outsourced, but at least its personnel speak passable
English. This inability to communicate with HP is a good reason why I
will never buy from them again.
In contrast to the computer vendors, the cell-phone support guys all
seem to be based in the US. I wonder why this discrepancy exists.
My question is: for my next notebook purchase, what are the PC vendors
(if any) who keep their customer support in the US, or at least pay
enough to hire foreigners with good English skills? (I am not being
nationalistic or racialist, I just want to be able to communicate
verbally with a support person should the need arises.)
> In contrast to the computer vendors, the cell-phone support guys all
> seem to be based in the US. I wonder why this discrepancy exists.
The cell companies get recurring revenue that the computer companies don't?
By the way, there is at least one computer manufacturer (Dell) that has,
as an add-on, North American-based phone support. You do have to pay extra
for it.
> My question is: for my next notebook purchase, what are the PC vendors
> (if any) who keep their customer support in the US, or at least pay
> enough to hire foreigners with good English skills? (I am not being
> nationalistic or racialist, I just want to be able to communicate
> verbally with a support person should the need arises.)
Dell. You may have to buy from the Small Business Store to have the local
tech support option; not sure.
--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED
"Drench yourself in words unspoken / Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins / The rest is still unwritten"
- Natasha Beddingfield
Steve Sobol wrote:
> By the way, there is at least one computer manufacturer (Dell) that has,
> as an add-on, North American-based phone support. You do have to pay extra
> for it.
You've got to be joking...but I know you're not.
Pretty much forces an admission that off shore tech support is not all
effective.
>
>> My question is: for my next notebook purchase, what are the PC vendors
>> (if any) who keep their customer support in the US, or at least pay
>> enough to hire foreigners with good English skills? (I am not being
>> nationalistic or racialist, I just want to be able to communicate
>> verbally with a support person should the need arises.)
>
> Dell. You may have to buy from the Small Business Store to have the local
> tech support option; not sure.
>
Thanks. I don't much like Dell's notebooks, but I'll check them out again.
BTW, I realize that 1st-level customer support just read from a limited
script no matter where they are based. It's still a huge time-wasting
pain in the *** to have them repeat every single question and then need
to spell out S-A-N J-O-S-E for them like I had to do today.
> Pretty much forces an admission that off shore tech support is
> not all effective.
Not really, it just admits that company-provided support is more
expensive to deliver than outsourced read-from-the-script support,
(regardless of where you outsource it to- a third-party domestically
or overseas.)
My favorite support story goes back maybe 15 years- whenever "OS
Warp" was released! I bought a no-name CD-ROM ("Wernes Technology")
cheap and couldn't find a driver that would work under OS2, so I
called the company, and got an obviously Asian "support" guy who
spoke passable, but broken, English. I explained my problem, and he
admits "no, we don't have an OS2 driver yet." I asked if he knew
when they would, and he said "as soon as I finish writing it!" He
took my e-mail address and sent me the beta two or three days later,
when he finished it!
--
"I don't need my cell phone to play video games or take pictures
or double as a Walkie-Talkie; I just need it to work. Thanks for
all the bells and whistles, but I could communicate better with
ACTUAL bells and whistles." -Bill Maher 9/25/2003
On 2007-10-08, DTC <no_spam@move_along_folks.foob> wrote:
> Steve Sobol wrote:
>> By the way, there is at least one computer manufacturer (Dell) that has,
>> as an add-on, North American-based phone support. You do have to pay extra
>> for it.
>
> You've got to be joking...but I know you're not.
No, I'm not; I live on the Dell website. I work for a Dell reseller and am
often on dell.com checking prices because we will not sell a computer for
more than what Dell charges their retail customers for the same computer.
> Pretty much forces an admission that off shore tech support is not all
> effective.
Ya think?
--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED
"Drench yourself in words unspoken / Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins / The rest is still unwritten"
- Natasha Beddingfield
On 2007-10-08, Todd Allcock <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote:
> At 07 Oct 2007 22:21:14 -0500 DTC wrote:
>
>> Pretty much forces an admission that off shore tech support is
>> not all effective.
>
>
> Not really, it just admits that company-provided support is more
> expensive to deliver than outsourced read-from-the-script support,
But --
a) you can outsource to inexpensive locations in the US and still save
money (google "ruralsourcing")
b) the company wonks are often reading from scripts too...
--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED
"Drench yourself in words unspoken / Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins / The rest is still unwritten"
- Natasha Beddingfield
> Thanks. I don't much like Dell's notebooks, but I'll check them out again.
If you have questions, email me - I work for a Dell reseller and am very
likely to be able to answer them.
--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED
"Drench yourself in words unspoken / Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins / The rest is still unwritten"
- Natasha Beddingfield
> > Not really, it just admits that company-provided support is more
> > expensive to deliver than outsourced read-from-the-script support,
>
> But --
>
> a) you can outsource to inexpensive locations in the US and still
save
> money (google "ruralsourcing")
Agreed- that's certainly an option...
> b) the company wonks are often reading from scripts too...
True again, but I've had better luck escalating a problem "up the
ladder" to higher levels within a company's own support easier that
when in an outsourcing situation.
--
"I don't need my cell phone to play video games or take pictures
or double as a Walkie-Talkie; I just need it to work. Thanks for
all the bells and whistles, but I could communicate better with
ACTUAL bells and whistles." -Bill Maher 9/25/2003
> It's still a huge time-wasting pain in the *** to have them repeat
> every single question and then need to spell out S-A-N J-O-S-E for
> them like I had to do today.
I remember calling Dell Support from Kansas a while back, and the
Indian-accented fellow asked me how the weather was in "Wi-CHEET-ah"
that day... ;-)
--
"I don't need my cell phone to play video games or take pictures
or double as a Walkie-Talkie; I just need it to work. Thanks for
all the bells and whistles, but I could communicate better with
ACTUAL bells and whistles." -Bill Maher 9/25/2003
On 2007-10-08, Todd Allcock <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote:
> At 07 Oct 2007 21:45:22 -0700 Bill T wrote:
>
>> It's still a huge time-wasting pain in the *** to have them repeat
>> every single question and then need to spell out S-A-N J-O-S-E for
>> them like I had to do today.
>
> I remember calling Dell Support from Kansas a while back, and the
> Indian-accented fellow asked me how the weather was in "Wi-CHEET-ah"
> that day... ;-)
Yes. If you're a consumer, by default you'll get overseas support, and I'm
not sure if consumers have an option to buy North American support. I know
businesses do, for many of Dell's products.
--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED
"Drench yourself in words unspoken / Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins / The rest is still unwritten"
- Natasha Beddingfield
OT: English-speaking tech support 
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