What is Digg?254 Comments
- Sp4nk, on 10/12/2007, -21/+235I don't give a ***** if this sounds racist, but anytime an Indian picks up the phone on any support line from any company, I just hang up. I immediately know that I will get absolutely nowhere. Instead of having us deal with such incompetence, they should just make the manual they go through available online in a PDF format and just save us all the trouble.
- theblooms, on 10/12/2007, -17/+206It's actually Chrisampeethelativatimanthilon. Or, 'Chris' for short.
- coolian, on 10/12/2007, -15/+195"Chris"
Sure. - interg12, on 10/12/2007, -4/+104Wow, less than 20% of the call acutally dealt with his problem, which was never even solved!
- johnnycheeks, on 10/12/2007, -3/+84Unfortunately, I work in one of the HP "Totally Careless" call centers. And let me tell ya, this workplace is pure total *****, and it can explain why calls like these are ridiculous from (but not limited to) these factors:
1. Originally, a majority of us working in this particular department, used to work under a contract for Microsoft for Vista tech support. This was an awesome gig...while it lasted for 2 weeks. Now if you grab these tech heads such as myself, and place them into a contract for HP assuming that it's centered solely around tech support, but yet you find out on the 1st day of training that it's all solely centered on sales... You're gonna have a bunch of jaded computer geeks on your hands.
2. This particular center I work for seems like it's totally mismanaged. There's obviously alot of miscommunication going on, which attributes to more of our stress. Add on top of that a sprinkle of micro-management, and then you get a dogpile of senior leads on your ass.
3. Me, personally... I just don't care anymore. HP is run by a bunch of bean-counting-monkey-wearing-suits who care for nothing but money, and not the employee's needs.
I'm at the end of my rope, I'm about ready to quit, and I'm trying REALLY hard to not punch any of these jackholes I work with in the nose.
-From an HP Total Care representative... - shrek79, on 10/12/2007, -16/+87This is what you get when you outsource to foreign countries.
- theblooms, on 10/12/2007, -7/+76@ Sp4nk
I had a Sanyo cell phone that took a ***** 4 months after I bought it. The Indian (dot, not feather) that I spoke to handled it quickly and efficiently. I was only on the phone a total of maybe 10 minutes, and within a week turnaround time, I had my phone fixed. I couldn't have been happier.
It's all in who the company is, and whether the employee is competent or not. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+69@sp4nk: that does just what they want. you end up with a broken product and by hanging up you save them support costs. if you really want to make them feel it, escalate. escalate, escalate, escalate. go to management or ask to be transferred since escalating it costs them more. by hanging up, you're doing them a favor.
- audiowizard, on 10/12/2007, -3/+62Companies do themselves huge injustices in the longrun by offerring inefficient customer service.
- sheppoor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+59Déjà vu. I guess I'm not the only one after all.
- Zoplax, on 10/12/2007, -1/+54The guy already had a freakin' case number, that should've filled in the blanks for the service rep since presumably the case number represents that customer's information in HP's database.
Unless the call center in India or Pakistan or wherever HP sold out to doesn't have or doesn't know how to use a good CRM program, they should've been able to save the guy from going through the extra hoops and expedite a solution. - kaisa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+39except for the part where the issue wasnt resolved and he got disconnected, right?
- ZennZero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+36Don't hold back - punch them in the nose! You know you want to.
Video the punchification and post it to Digg. - MrFatalistic, on 10/12/2007, -8/+42damn straight you'll get dugg down because, surprise, YOU'RE WRONG. WRONG. WRONG WRONG WRONG.
WRONG.
got it?
and disconnections occur because
- bad voip implementation
but probably more common
- did not want to answer call
There is no accountability for these call centers, if they ditch you, nothing happens, life as usual in india. - brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -2/+33Best way to call Dell Tech support:
When an Indian comes on the line, in your best Apu from the Simpsons accent, say excitedly, "Thank GOODNESS I finally got an Indian on the phone, I've been speaking with stupid Americans all day and no one can help me!" - MrFatalistic, on 10/12/2007, -10/+37HP has the worst call centers ever, I don't know why I always end up having to call them. I associate it to the fact that most humans are dumb ***** monkeys who could not figure out how to tie their shoes much less help another human being. Was that too harsh?
I've been disconnected easily every 2/5 calls, not a good ratio.
I heavily endorse this ad, whereas there's a lot of Best Buy stuff where some manager in ucnoes, nowhere, who pisses off some guy with this HDTV installation, HP calls are like this nearly every time, the amount of redundant information you have to give to EACH LINK in the chain, the disconnects..."Chris"...it's a nightmare, if they are really saving money with this ***** that's great because they no longer get any of my money. Yes, I've been on hold for 45 minutes to HP Support once, I've been on hold for 20 minutes only to get disconnected.
Dell is pretty poor too now, but HP is the godfather of crap customer support. - madeingermany, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22Just for your general entertainment, some videos of "Chris" and his colleagues:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4633560899381444294
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1121425669680914450
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6941399248786616484
- Klinky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20I don't think it's the Indian's fault. They're probably trying to get ahead in their country the best way they can. The responsibility lands squarely on the suits in corporate who are making the decision that they want their company represented in a low-quality way. I've had decent experiences with foreign customer service before. Microsoft reactivation was pretty easy & cell phone verification. Both of those times they were basically reading a script and the problem was pretty straightforward to solve. Computer problems, even when both parties natively speak english can be hard to diagnose & fix over the phone. There have been numerous complaints before all this outsourcing started happening that company x, y & z didn't train their American support reps well enough. There's always the support staff person who's going to say "Have you run defrag?" when you're talking about not being able to browse the internet.
My point in the end is that it's up to the company to provide proper training & procedure to their support staff. If all they gave their foreign friend is a Q & A script with 6 possible outcomes, then that's probably what they would have given their American support staff as well. I've worked numerous customer service jobs in the past & pretty much every job I've worked, they do not train their staff in an efficient manner or their internal systems are so messed up that providing efficient service is impossible. I know for a fact that when I support HP products the VRU would prompt people for the Model # of product & then when they got to us, we'd have to ask again for the model # because that info wasn't forwarded on to our computer screens. When I first got there they were going to "fix it", when the contract for HP went to Canada 1.5yrs later it was still not fixed. Hey even check out the recent Microsoft commercial which extols these same facts, not that I really trust their software to fix customer service issues world wide.
If you find the company's support sucks, don't support the company with your cash. It just sucks when it's a niche product that you probably won't find anywhere else. You're stuck until something else comes along. - acdcfanbill, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22"if you really want to make them feel it"
If you really want them to feel it, learn about them yourself, and do your own tech support. Buy your own parts and assemble your own computers. :) - Teegtahn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18I recently had a negative experience with HP Tech Support... I was recieving a hardware stop message on an external DVD drive when attempting to reformat my laptop (tc4400, no internal drives and such), so I call up the guy, quote the error message, his first response is "Please let me research the problem."
Now, I'm not computer illiterate, quite the opposite, so I call Tech Support when I am looking for someone with intricate knowlege about their product for me to bounce ideas off of. Needless to say, I did my research before calling up.
First thing he quotes me is the first result that came up on google. A microsoft defination of the stop code, and possible problems + solutions. All of which I ruled out, and such I quoted my findings to the guy. Eventually, I got him to the point where he said "Please hold for a minute while I research your problem" again, at this point, I was already poking around my computer trying to get it to stop throwing the stop error... in the 20 minutes or so the line was idle while he was "researching my problem" I managed to get it solved, so I told him that I solved it and hung up, but the service itself was useless to me in terms of bouncing ideas, or getting my problem fixed.
In comparison, the best tech support I ever got was from Motion Computing. I was experiencing a problem with the fingerprint scanner, and called them up to get it troubleshooted (since it came back from the repair facility broken... please don't confuse phone tech support with the service center, the service center was aweful). In an attempt to force Windows XP to register the fingerprint scanner (rather than picking the unknown device driver) I asked him for a Device Instance ID (or something to that tune) to see if I could match up the ID I had on my computer, with the ID he provided me. The man didn't even flinch, he didn't question it, he remarked that it was a strange question and said "Let me go get one of the test models." I figured out the problem with his help. What impressed me the most was he knew what he was talking about, I didn't get a googled answer, I didn't get anything that wasn't relivant.
The difference?
HP outsources their tech support to lower the cost of the service
Motion Computing houses their tech support to increase the quality of the service.
You get what you pay for. - LakeshoreBaby, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15Welcome to Globalization.
- oesj, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13"I had a Sanyo cell phone that took a ***** 4 months after I bought it. The Indian (dot, not feather) that I spoke to handled it quickly and efficiently. I was only on the phone a total of maybe 10 minutes, and within a week turnaround time, I had my phone fixed. I couldn't have been happier."
absolutely right, but i somehow get the feeling it depends how lucky you get. if your problem is covered by the standard script these guys have in from of them, no problems! any sort of deviation from this and you're pissing up the wrong tree into the wind (to mix several metaphors).
also, linksys have excellent (indian) customer service, in my experience. (i realise this is blatant advertising here, but companies deserve to be congratulated when they get something right :) ) - dcbebop, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11I guarantee you Chris is not his real name, as most of the people on here have already guessed. First day reporting to duty in an Indian call center I'm sure you're assigned an American sounding name in order to ease the "experience" of working with customer support.
Psychology at work ... isn't it keen? - MadMaxx426, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11"The sad thing is you wouldnt be saying this if you ever worked in support.
You would be surprised how many times the response is:
"Wow, the monitor is unplugged, how did that happen!"
Dear securegeek;
I spent two years with Microsoft PSS teams. In case you are wondering, that is the highest level of Microsoft technical support which deals with Fortune 500 companies mainly (but we'll take anyone willing to pony up the dough for a premier contract). I've been in a server infrastructure development roll for some of the worlds largest companies for nearly 10 years. So yeah... I've kinda been around.
Needless to say, I have more involvement with India than you could possibly imagine. Not only did we deal with it internally as escalation points, but we also had to deal with the flak from pissed off premier customers. Lemme tell ya, you can only say "Well sir, Rajish's 2 weeks worth of diligence is what ultimately enabled me to fix your issue in 10 minutes..." so many times before you begin to hate yourself. Ah...the stories I can tell.
And you obviously didn't get the angry squirrel reference.
http://www.illwillpress.com/tech.html
Enjoy. - theblooms, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12@ polygone
Thank you.
You know, we probably aren't that different. I mean, hell, how can we be? We read and comment on digg for Chrissakes. Geeks of the World, Unite, and all that *****.
Politics and religion are oft said are the two thing you don't talk about among friends. And there is a reason: somebody is bound to get their feelings hurt. Bad. That said, I 100% guarantee, if we went out bowling one night, and the $4 pitchers were flowing frequently, we would turn out to be damn good friends.
God bless, dude. And thanks again for the compliment. - NinjaBoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10They need new CRM software so they can cut out all the ***** and get stright to the disconnect. Thank you call calling hp. *click*
Think of all the money they would save. - TheLoneWolf071, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Not really too bad, but still highlights the underlying problem that companies have with there customer service. I really hate it when I have a problem, but I got the warrenty, and they still have to send it to nowheresville, USA to have some 19Year old with a degree from Devry to say that it have to put it on hold for 3 week just to replace a broken CD-rom.
- JamesBrown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I was thinking that too. VocaLabs is an HP customer. If you're consulting for a company, it's one thing to point out mistakes to management so that they might correct them. It's a whole other thing to post it on the internet with snide commentary for the world to see.
Or maybe VocaLabs already lost their HP contract and this is some kind of revenge. - OmniMe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8This call is actually very typical. I worked help desk for a huge company and routinely made calls to HP and Dell throughout the day. HP was easier to deal with just because we had a special large business number to call where we could just ask for the parts we needed. Dell on the other hand was painful, time consuming, and rarely got the issue fixed the first time around.
Personally, Apple has been the best home customer tech support I've ever dealt with. I've gotten an english speaking person on the other end 80% of the time. - Suzilla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Over the past 20 years I've watched HP go from a company the products of which I'd recommend without hesitation, to just another corporate huckster looking to make a fast buck. Bill and Dave would be ashamed.
- exec721, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9This what happens when you outsource call centers job overseas. Did any of you notice the difference in quality between Chris (the rep from India) and the rep that did the follow up call? The rep that did the follow up call was much more professional and pleasant. She actually sounded like she knew what she was doing. The problem with a lot of these reps from India is that they don't speak English as well so they tend to be less receptive to customers as I would imagine they spend a significant amount of time trying to understand them in the first place. Chris broke a number of call center rules, including leaving dead air time. Most of the mistakes he made were pretty elementary mistakes that they teach you not to do in call centers. I've been working for call centers for 4 years now and I always keep notepad open so I can write down important information that I know the customer will not want to repeat. Another reason for this is that many people tend to be extremely rude over the phone. I hate getting into arguments with people or hearing their ***** anymore that I need to, so I try and minimize the opportunities as much as I can. The problem is that companies unfortunately do not give a ***** about either the call center rep or the customer. Their primary goal is fulfill the obligations of their terms, regardless of how ***** the experience is for the rep or the customer.
At my work, our system crashes daily due to poor coding. Its been an ongoing problem since that system was introduced (at least a few years now). Does management give a *****? Hell no! They just figure its our job to appease the customer and we can deal with it. The problem is that reps are only human. A person can only treated like ***** for so long before it reflects on the quality of the call. Most of the reason for customer agitation though is the fact that many automated systems suck balls. I've had many customers say things like, "Why do you need my account number? Didn't I just punch it in?" Normally I just politely explain that it didn't come through. Some people, however, feel the need to take it to the next level (as if anything is actually going to be done about it). One time I had a lady tell me, "Well if you don't have my account number up, transfer me to someone who does." I had to sit there and argue with her about how there was no way I could transfer her to someone who had it because she wasn't willing to give us any information to look her up. We know how much the automated system sucks, we call it everyday. If anyone wants it changed, its the rep who has to deal with all of the angry people on a daily basis.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, call centers suck. Both the reps and the customers know this. With that said, the best way to approach one is to be polite and argue the points that need to be argued. Change what you can but don't ramble on forever about how much the automated system sucks, about how companies are the devil, about how much you hate your life, or about how you want to write to the CEO of the company (cause god knows you'll never get the number). Its completely unnecessary and waste of both our time because the only person listening is the one who already knows. - mosxs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I registered just to digg this and comment.
This is honestly one of the better support experiences with HP. Mine have been far worse.
I bought an HP notebook in March of '06. Noticed the motherboard was very unstable and USB transfers were painfully slow and sometimes even failed. Notified HP tech support of this in July. My "Case manager" basically told me I was SOL. Had other problems in October. The DVD drive was scratching discs and couldn't burn a disc that any other device, including other PCs, could read. The keyboard would stick. Memory card reader corrupted memory cards. Battery was dying rapidly (lost 15% capacity in 2 months). Sent it in for repair and included a very detailed letter describing the motherboard problems. System comes back with a new keyboard, DVD drive, and battery. Everything else left un-touched.
Fast forward to March of this year, not even 2 weeks before my 1 year warranty was up, and the motherboard finally fully fails. Sent it in to HP for repair... they replace the DVD drive. Sent it back and it's now with them again. We'll see how this goes. I've made them fully aware that I know my rights under California consumer protection laws and filed complaints against them with the BBB. They're being a lot nicer now.
But as a result of this experience, and all the hours I had to spend listening to Indian accents on the phone, I will never purchase an HP product again. Not a printer, not even an ink cartridge to refill my current HP printers. HP is done in my house. I'm typing this from my very first Mac that I purchased as a result of this experience. - Wilddigi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10I order parts from Newegg, build my own PCs and buy Windows OEM and I never have to go through this crap.
- TheSeraph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Sounds like all 15 or 16 (no exaggeration) calls I'm made to Panasonic concerning an issue I had with them. I will not ever buy from Panasonic again. Ever.
- tizz66, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I realise none of you are being racist when complaining about Indian support, but understand it's not the fact it's in India that makes it suck. The problem is outsourced first-level support - it just happens that India is where most of that goes for cost reasons. These call centers aren't part of the company, and so don't have the information or expertise to assist you beyond a basic script of problems/solutions.
It's about time that companies realised that cost-savings on support really equate to lost customers and therefore lost income. I don't know about the US, but in the UK they are starting to get it - so many ads now say 'and we have technicians waiting for your call right here in the UK'. Proper, non-outsourced support is now a selling point. Which is kind of sad when you think about it; high-quality support should be the standard.
While we're chipping in with experiences... I had good experiences with Apple and Belkin (the latter having absolutely no hesitation in honouring their 'lifetime guarantee' - they didn't even ask for the old component back) - Cellophane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I supervise at an answering service, and we do first tier customer support for a cable company, so there are many similarities here... You are right in that it's a script that the operators have a script to read. What is not so obvious is that the client *requires* us to read this script to each & every call, and they listen to voice recording of *every* call we take, and if the script is not read, the client complains. It's just as frustrating for us as it is for the caller. 90% of the calls we take can be resolved by simply resetting the modem, which would take what, 20 seconds talk time and not only save both parties aggravation, but would save the client money as well, as we bill for every minute spent on the account. Instead, we have to read a 3 to 5 minute script, which as an added bonus is set up so that we *cannot* just skip questions that don't apply, it simply will not proceed until something is entered... and if wrong information is entered, then that gets counted against us as well. So: we piss off the client's customers while simultaneously burning out our own staff. And what makes it all worth it? The client does pay us very well, but of course they pass that cost on to their customers, which puts them in even worse moods when having to call and jump through hoops....
*sigh* why didn't I pursue that career in quantum mechanics.. it would all have been so much simpler.. - shrek79, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6He didn't format it. He sent it away and the Tech. formatted it. Listen before you comment.
- brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I hear ya. Several times I have solved the problem myself while on the line with tech support.
- Fragalishus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6meh...my CSR calls go like this...
"Thank you for calling the automated..."
"Operator"
"To better direct your call, please enter..."
"Operator"
"Thank you, please hold while I transfer your call to the next available representative"
If that doesn't work the pound sign or 0 key can skip them sometimes, too. - bmalam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6How long before some poor kid in Waco, TX is answering calls from New Dehli with "This here's Rah-jeev, how may I help y'all?"...
- mrmontrose, on 10/12/2007, -9/+15I have to stick up for people who work as technical support. Because I did. It is not an easy job, you are tethered to a desk all day constantly taking phone calls. This wouldn't be that bad, if people actually took time to learn about computers. You would be suprised the amount of people that lack a basic knowledge of computers, all they know is: click blue e, type in www.ebay.com. In addition often you get idiots who think they know better than you whats going on but they don't. They often are about the age of 15.
I know this was a horrible call, I would have been pissed and this guy is suprisingly calm, but next time you call have some compassion for the tech support whore. There last call was probably had was some lady yelling her computer was broken and it took 45 minutes to tell her to plug it in. - cyphin6, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6This is the exact reason why when I call customer support, when it asked for Spanish I say Espanol, and when I get to the man/women, I say do you speak English and he/she says yes and I go about my business with NO problems. Thats how you beat the system.
- Hardcase, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Interestingly, I can go back to my alma mater to get a Mechanical Engineering degree (I already have a BSEE), but it's gonna take two years. A one year DeVry degree isn't the same as a traditional university degree. No way.
- JK1150, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Don't bother watching, it's a waste of time...
- BigManOnCampus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Not that this wasn't bad, but believe me I've had far far worse customer service calls. This one is more run-of-the-mill.
My old roommate once spent nearly 2 weeks and what had to be 30-35 hours on the phone with Verizon's customer service to correct a problem that Verizon created. What's worse is they never reimbursed him for the time on the phone, or the time of lost service that was their error. - Wonderkind, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6My last call to HP about my OfficeJet not working when new. It took 45 minutes, most of which was holding while numb nuts looked up canned answers.
Each answer I gave him resulted in a few minutes wait while he did who knows what. He could not find an answer and suggested I mail it back to HP.
I hate HP. - pu-z, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Man, I actually laughed out loud at the "Thank you for calling HP * click *" thing. When my ISP had some issues with the DNS, heck; whenever they have issues, they had this nice recording: "Thank you for calling XXX. Your call is important. [5 sec wait] We are currently too busy to help you. * click *" Well, I wasn't important enough it seems.
They have changed it now, so you punch in a ZIP code and a recording will tell you if there's problems in you area, what their nature is and an ETA on the fix. A huge improvement. - puto, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6s....t.....r....e...a.....m..
- xenuxenuts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5with 300 systems, I'm willing to guess that you don't have the same support as a consumer does. I've dealt with HP's business support and that went ok, mainly because I didn't need to use the phone, it was all online. I had one user get a consumer line laptop and that thing was a major PITA when dealing with a service issue. It wasn't the people at the other end's fault, it was just set up to be a lot more difficult if you're a consumer rather than a business.
- Alphateam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I deal with HP ALL the time and this is typical. Their voice recognition system SUCKS. I'm surprised he got through to the right department. I get excited when I actually speak to an English speaking rep, but when it does happen I always was misrouted to the wrong department and get to talk to "Chris" in India. (How did his mom give him the name Chris anyway?)
20 minutes is about the minimum it takes to get something fixed from HP tech support. They are just the worst. The reps read from a script. I'll go through all the trouble shooting steps before I call and say I've done step A, Step B etc...so send me my part.....they don't understand and tell me I have to do what their script says. Just horrible. I hope this makes them change. I doubt it, it has been bad for YEARS. -
Show 51 - 100 of 245 discussions
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is