Thanks to Samuel C. for donating to Daily Cup of Tech this past week via the Tip Jar. It is really appreciated.
As a bit of a reward to those who have donated to DCoT in the past and as a bit of an incentive to those who are thinking of donating to Daily Cup of Tech in the near future, I am going to be giving away a very nice piece of swag that I got last week at the Midsize Enterprise Summit. I’m not going to reveal what this swag is until later this week to coincide with another announcement. But, suffice it to say, it definitely worth having. In fact, I wouldn’t part with mine and the only reason that I am willing to give one away is that I already have one!
More details later this week. Feel free to put in your swag guesses in the comments!
We’ve all done this from time to time. You just show up to work after a two hour commute when you realize that there is a file you need at the other office two cities over. Or maybe your spouse calls and asks you for help with an Excel spreadsheet. The idea of traveling to another location or back home for a two minute solution excites you about as much as a skunk martini. But, what do you do?
The answer is to access your computer remotely so that you can complete the required task quickly and get on with your life. So, I compiled a list of ways that you can do this with minimal muss and fuss. But, beware! You need to plan ahead so that you have this ready when you need it. Also, if these solutions are not set up and configured properly, they can very quickly become a security risk to your remote systems (Just ask Jared!). Consider yourself warned!
While I was at the Midsize Enterprise Summit, one of the other attendees was telling me something interesting that he learned about the new Microsoft Office 2007 documents. It appears that the new Office document standard is really just a zip file with XML and media files! It is referred to as the Office Open XML File Format.
Let’s check out the new file format by creating a document in Word 2007. We will then take that document, open it up in using a zip archive program, and then examine the contents of that file. If my colleague is correct, this could mean that it may be very easy to open, edit, and create Microsoft Office 2007 documents without using Office at all!
With the onset of frustrations with overseas tech-support in favor of saving a buck or two, the topic of customer service has been shoved into the limelight like an kid with his fly open and a “kick me” sign on his forehead at the 6th grade talent show.
The issue of overseas support for me, has been twofold:
The support from our friends from across the world has been less than stellar.
The outsourcing of jobs overseas is leading to a dependence on foreign nations, undercutting our own workforce which contributes to America’s job rate decline.
While I would agree that I have had some bad experiences with overseas support from “Nick”, I also have had very good experiences, so my opinion is somewhat positive overall (but then again, I’m usually talking to the 2nd or 3rd level support folks) with the quality of overseas support.
Honestly, these are probably the same results as what you would get if you got support from the “real” Nick located in Austin, TX.
And so, I submit to you, ‘Exhibit A’:
I recently helped out a friend from work who had a 1 1/2 year-old eMachine which was having a lot of spyware and virus issues. Best Buy quoted him $299.00(!) to clean up the problems - at that point, you can just buy a new computer…
The beginning chapter of our little tech support nightmare was that the PC wouldn’t boot after it was sent to the Geek Squad (but I’ll file this under coincidence) for analysis.
Apparently, various eMachine desktops experience an issue where the power-supply overloads and shorts the motherboard. Knowing that eMachine is notorious for not providing support if you have a 3rd party replacement part (and also, the eMachine rebuild disc will not work if it is a 3rd party motherboard), I decided to purchase a factory-direct replacement for the board at a not-too-bad $89 from an online vendor, and use a 400-watt power supply I had on hand at home.
Upon arrival and subsequent installation, I was elated that the PC booted without issue.
Windows XP determined that there was a significant enough change in the computer hardware (this was expected) after the new mobo was installed, and prompted me to activate Windows once again. I could not activate Windows via the Internet (I would later discover there was malware preventing Internet access…yikes!)…so I had to call Microsoft to manually activate.
Or so I thought.
When I contacted Microsoft initially, the friendly Microsoft tech (who sounded like he was about 10,000 miles away from me) told me that this was a special eMachine code (denoted by a truncated number at the tail end of the activation key), and I would need to call the eMachine support number.
I dialed eMachines number, and got a technician on the line.
Call Center or Root Canal…, which would you prefer?
Me: “I need to activate Windows, and when I try to call Microsoft to perform the manual activation, they told me to contact you.
Tech: (We’ll call him ‘Doug’) After giving him the serial number of the PC…“This computer has never been registered with eMachine. Can you give me the owner information?”
Me: “Sure.” (I give him the name, phone number, and address of my friend who owns the machine)
After a few minutes of typing…
Doug: “This computer is out of warranty. You will need to pay us $39 for an out-of-warranty service call.”
Me: “But all I want to do is activate Windows (not mentioning the fact that their inferior hardware and awful QA is the reason that we are at this point in the first place). This is just a quick 5-minute thing. Can you help me with that?”
Doug puts me on hold for a few minutes.
Doug: “We cannot help you with that since Microsoft has all the possible numbers to do that.”
Me: “Uh- wait a minute…What? You should have some sort of program there that will allow you to take my activation code and it will convert it so I can activate the software manually. Its just an algorithm, not a static code.”
Doug basically doesn’t understand how this works, so we go back and forth for a few minutes, telling me that I need to call Microsoft back, etc. - and finally I ask if I can speak with someone else, anyone, a supervisor maybe?
I get put on hold. For 30 excruciating minutes.
Finally, “Mindy” comes on the line (this was the name she used, I’ll never forget it).
Mindy: “Hello Randy?” (the name of the person that I was helping, and now the registered owner of the PC - remember earlier when I gave them this information?)
Me: “Actually, my name is Rob.”
Mindy: “Who are you?”
Me: “I’m the tech-guy helping out Randy with his PC.”
Mindy: “We cannot help you because you are not the registered owner of the PC.”
Me: “I just gave you that information a few minutes ag- Look, Randy is not really able to talk to you since I have his PC at home and I am working on it for him. Nevertheless, this is just a simple Windows activation issue. Can you help me with this?”
I am told again that I will not be helped since I am not the owner.
Me: Exasperation now taking over “You don’t even know that I am not the owner…!”
Mindy: “You just gave us that information, sir, and you said your name was Rob.”
You can see how this is a little frustrating. I really should have recorded this call.
At this point, I am more than just a little agitated, and we go back and forth, with me telling “Mindy from eMachine” (yes, this is how I referred to her on the phone after awhile) that I am a network administrator, and many people come to me asking me to refer them to a good computer to buy, and not only this, but I contribute to various blogs with a decent readership, and she wouldn’t want this customer service experience to affect their bottom line, would they?
Deaf ears.
After a bit more yelling on my part (and she tried to talk over me, quite unsuccessfully, too), I told her that I am just trying to be a nice guy helping out my friend, and why do we need to make this more frustrating that it has to be…she interrupts me with this little gem:”Sir, I am flagging the computer serial number, denying support for anyone who calls in on it, unless they can provide (i.e. fax) information showing they are the registered owner.”
I ask her for her representative number, so I could call in and complain directly to eMachine customer support, to which she replied by hanging up.
Summary
So, what has happened to customer support? It used to be that the company cared about customer opinion, and held them in the highest regard. How do you make money without customers? It seems that I have had more and more experiences like this lately…it wasn’t like this in the 90’s, I’m sure of it.
I spent nearly an hour of my life yelling at the indifference that was so clearly present on the other end of the phone, only to be hung up on, and there was no effort on the part of the technician or manager to reduce my frustration or handle me in an appropriate way.
In retrospect, I’m sure these were not eMachine employees (probably outsourced to a US call center), but herein lies the problem: If you don’t work for the company directly, you will less likely have any loyalty to that company…there’s always more contracts coming in, right? What is the likelihood that the Call Center will lose their eMachine contract because of this bumbled support call? I mean really, what’s one disgruntled customer?
Maybe it should be asked from a different angle: Why should a computer manufacturer spend good money on a US Call Center for sub-par support, when they can get that overseas, right? On paper, the companies you are contracting under most likely have a similar opinion of you which you have of the people that call in for support (and hang up on).
I beg of you, managers of Call Centers, send your representatives to customer service class. If you don’t, you are just as guilty of contributing to overseas outsourcing as the major companies who have gone that route already.
Bad customer service is like a pyramid scheme. It only takes one really bad experience for one person to trickle down to their friends (potential customers) and they will tell their friends (potential customers), etc.
You should always, always, always take care of your customer.
We’ve all done this from time to time. You just show up to work after a two hour commute when you realize that there is a file you need at the other office two cities over. Or maybe your spouse calls and asks you for help with an Excel spreadsheet. The idea of traveling to another location or back home for a two minute solution excites you about as much as a skunk martini. But, what do you do?
While I was at the 
