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Is it "unconscionable" to not have 1-800 numbers for phone support?

V

Viper GTS

Lifer
Good Lord I've never heard someone so pissed off by long distance charges.

I support corporate level laser printers. These products are intended for businesses, not home use. We do not have a 1-800 number. Unles you live in Boise, you pay long distance fees to call us. We do not charge for support, but the call may not be free to call us.

Of the support I've done, this is one of the best call centers to call. The worst wait I've ever seen was less than 10 minutes, & 90% of all calls are answered in under two minutes. The majority of callers don't end up waiting at all, we almost always have people in available waiting for calls. Once a customer gets to us we stay with them until the issue is fixed, we do not blow customers off.

Occasionally we get customers (usually home or small business users) who are absolutely irate that we don't have a 1-800 number. "I just bought this printer, & I have to pay for support? That's not right, you just don't treat people this way! It's unconscionable."

Unconscionable? Isn't that a little extreme? From a business perspective, not having the 1-800 number eliminates a lot of calls on old, unsupported products. It also eliminates a lot of really stupid, pointless questions that people could answer in two seconds if they would RTFM. This reduction in call volume allows us to get to you faster.

Is it a moral obligation for companies to provide free technical support?

:|

Viper GTS <-- Ranting
 
It's nice to have a 800 number for support, but as long as I dont sit on hold for more than 5 minutes, I don't mind if it's a toll call.
 
I will think far less of a company if their tech support AND customer service numbers are not toll free.
 


<< I will think far less of a company if their tech support AND customer service numbers are not toll free. >>



Our customer service numbers are all toll free.

Viper GTS
 
pfft....if youre gonna spend like $1000 on a printer, whats another $5 in long distance.

those are the types if people who would suggest (stolen from dlibert)

for employees to wear shoes 2 sizes smaller than their feet. why? reduction in carpet wear.

for empolyees to write e-mails and inter-office e-mail memo's in a smaller font to reduce power consumption.

thats all the dilbertisms i can come up with
 
Your thread title and your poll question are two different questions. Which one are you really ranting over; providing free support, or having a 1-800 number? A lot of places offer free support, but do not have a 1-800 number. The opposite is true as well.
 
My view is that the company has a choice, they can have a 1-800 number and then its ok for a "brief" period spent on hold. If they want to go without a 1-800 number, no customer should ever have to wait to speak to anyone. That's the trade off, either pay for the 1-800 number or pay for extra support people to be answering the phones.

I've dealt with being on the support providing end in a few different situations and it tends to be helpful/calming to the customer if they aren't paying to be put on hold, or as long as you answer phones right away and have the answers promptly, you could be charging them $4.99/min and most people wouldn't care. They want an immediate answer if its on their $, but they tolerate slower service if its on someone elses.
 


<< Is it a moral obligation for companies to provide free technical support? >>


For any small company, it would cost too much to have an 800#. For larger companies, the potential costs incurred by the 800# would still be outrageous.
When I need phone support, I often wish there was an 800#, but I understand why there often is not.
I can often get good help through web support now and don't need to use the phone.
 
Why not say, "Sorry, sir, you're the first customer who ever mentioned that. I'll be sure to mention your concern to my manager. But since I want you to be satisfied, I'll tell you what - tell me what you pay per minute for long distance and I'll reimburse your cost by taking up a collection from the other technicians. We don't have any way to credit your charges, but the technicians here want all of our customers to be satisfied. Would it be OK if most of it was in small change?"

On second thought, you better not say that.

I sure do wish everyone had free (and toll-free) tech support, but I well understand reality is that it's not going to happen. The sad thing is that I believe if people TRIED to fix their problem by RTFM and other means (because many would be successful and no longer need to call), the companies could afford to provide it for the people who had a real problem. But because 90% of the public won't lift a finger, they can't afford it.

And some companies don't really care about the customers, so they don't have a problem putting out crap products and not supporting them at all.


 
Buying a printer like that (new toy) and demanding free support (hints and tips because they're too dumb) is like going and buying a new video game (new toy) and demanding no charges for calling the cheat-line (hints and tips because they're too stupid).

<-- does not like customers

nik
 
In my typical backwards thinking style I figure if a company does NOT have a toll free tech support number then that's a good thing for me. Assuming they have any tech support available and the direct dial number is within the lower 48 states I would use BigZoo.com to call them at 2.9 cents per minute. Let's say the call lasted 20 minutes that's a whopping 60 cents!

I figure the hold times would be significant less for a company which has NO toll free tech support number than one that does.

This happened when I had to call tech support on an HP or Epson printer I bought ages ago. I think it was HP?
 


<< Buying a printer like that (new toy) and demanding free support (hints and tips because they're too dumb) is like going and buying a new video game (new toy) and demanding no charges for calling the cheat-line (hints and tips because they're too stupid).

<-- does not like customers

nik >>



And then there's the tech support needed because said printer is directly incompatable with a certain piece of hardware or software and there is NO mention of this in the literature or outside of the box.

With the amount of bugs and incompatabilities in software and drivers today, I have a hard time buying your position. Although, I know you're jaded because you work in tech support 🙂 But I'm jaded too because a good percentage of stuff I buy today has bugs, not to mention my cable company sucks. 😛
 


<< Your thread title and your poll question are two different questions. Which one are you really ranting over; providing free support, or having a 1-800 number? A lot of places offer free support, but do not have a 1-800 number. The opposite is true as well. >>



I meant free in every way, as in they don't have to pay the phone company for the call.

My view is that the company has a choice, they can have a 1-800 number and then its ok for a "brief" period spent on hold. If they want to go without a 1-800 number, no customer should ever have to wait to speak to anyone. That's the trade off, either pay for the 1-800 number or pay for extra support people to be answering the phones.

Which is exactly the way it is here. The 10 minutes hold time was for about 3 hours the day after President's day. We were swamped for a few hours, & then it was back to normal no hold or ~1-2 minutes tops hold times.

kranky

I offered her a phone card. That calmed her down.

Viper GTS
 
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