Techs Discover End Users Aren't So Bright

[LordRaiden]

Quoted from Slashdot:

"In response to a CNN story slamming tech support, a former tech fired back. He correctly points out that much of the trouble end users have with their PCs can be traced to their skillset, which in many if not most cases would make them more qualified to operate an Etch-A-Sketch." Not everyone who calls support is clueless though. How many of us have had to sit on hold for hours and reformat a hard drive as DOS just to convince the tech support lackey on the other end that a hard drive really is bad? The article also covers other factors like scripted support, and per-customer time limits, which can make for a poor tech support experience.

Well, above and beyond the blatently obvious, this is kinda funny, and regreatably true.

 

[Lonyo]

Some of the techs are as bad as the end users (uneducated about computers, they don't know what the problem is either )

I say that companies should trawl the Anandtech forums and make job offers to anyone they see

 

[KingNothing]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Some of the techs are as bad as the end users

That was mentioned in the article. The enlightened computer user views tech supports as a means to an RMA, not a solution.

 

[T3C]

it is very true, to bad he didnt go into more detail with that.

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: KingNothing

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Some of the techs are as bad as the end users

That was mentioned in the article. The enlightened computer user views tech supports as a means to an RMA, not a solution.

As a tech support person, this post offends me.

Yes, there is lousy tech support out there.

Some of us, however, are damned good at what we do.

 

[DrPizza]

I always figured it would cost the companies too much to hire qualified tech support people, so they just train whoever they can get for the wages they'll pay...
There's definitely a problem on both sides though..... I just had a relative call and ask for help with editing out headers in forwarded email... "well, first, open the email" "what do you mean, 'open it'?"

 

[KokomoGST]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink

Originally posted by: KingNothing

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Some of the techs are as bad as the end users

That was mentioned in the article. The enlightened computer user views tech supports as a means to an RMA, not a solution.

As a tech support person, this post offends me.

Yes, there is lousy tech support out there.

Some of us, however, are damned good at what we do.

And couple that with a surly attitude and that's the reason why some "end users" who know nearly as much if not more than some techs do get PO'ed with that.

Just because some people aren't hired into support doesn't mean they can't have the skill set nor the working knowledge of it...

So... job offer??

 

[wyvrn]

Customers need to understand that they are responsible for learning how to use the computer. At every company I have been at, people blow off computer training because they think they can figure it out on their own. Those same people are the ones that call with silly questions like "How do I access my email in Lotus Notes". Companies spend millions every year on training and you would think people would take advantage of it instead of shifting the burden of training to tech support!

As far as home customers go, it should go without saying that most of them can spend money on technology, but have below average skills in using it. Again, many of them call tech support trying to shift the burden of training to the agent on the phone, and in all fairness that is not their job responsibility. It just raises costs, which consumers like to complain about also. Having been on both sides, I think tech support agents get much more sh!t than do customers.

 

[zCypher]

I love how they always say "blah blah blah, experts say..." who are all these "experts" of theirs??

malfunctioning glitches have become harder to escape? wtf? first of all how do glitches malfunction? the glitch is a malfunction in the first place..

""Consumers are unpaid conscripts in an unpaid army of product testers who go and find the problems and alert the manufacturers," Blyskal said."

WTF? You're a freaking person, a user... and no sh1t you're going to complain if there's a problem. So now you should be paid to complain? What a retarded point.

"Almost one in five computer users surveyed by Consumer Reports encountered software problems serious enough to contact technical support in the past 12 months. The high number of pleas for help, suggests the magazine, may be caused by frequent and persistent software glitches." Ummm I don't think so. The high number of pleas for help may be caused by frequent and persistent stupidity. Software is "riddled with errors"? Come on. Let's see you write something CNN! People have unrealistic expectations. Nobody can write a perfect program. That is how it works. You write, you revise, you bug-fix, you edit, you improve.. whatever. Obviously there will be fixes, updates, patches and so on. How is any of that different than the car industry?

"E-mail requests don't fare much better. Fifty percent of survey respondents who sent tech support e-mails said replies took longer than two days, didn't help or were not answered." Let's see how fast you answer 50 million emails from seemingly retarded people. Sure not everyone is stupid, but most of those people looking for tech support are.. so even if there are even a MILLION smart people seeking tech support, that still leaves 49 million retards

so yeah i started writing this reply like an hour ago and forget where i was going..

 

[ElFenix]

I've sometimes felt like a mechanic who's teaching someone how to drive while trying to fix their engine at the same time.

thats sooo true

 

[BillyGoat]

Haben Sie die E-mail noch gefunden?

 

[ElFenix]

anyone ever try to play tricks on users? one day i was bored and called it the intarweb all day... man that was fun

 

[prontospyder]

I rather deal with 100 straight clueless but nice users than 1 mean and "thinks they know everything" user.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

/fires up the Flame-O-Matic and puts the CNN correspondence in the "To" box

- M4H

 

[BillyGoat]

Beule ^

 

[PlatinumGold]

how do these techs know that end users aren't so bright? wouldn't that require that the so called "tech" knows what he / she is doing in the first place?

i do support over the phone for my clients, when that doesn't work, i drive out to their location.

here's the thing, most of the time, when i fail on the phone, it was because of MY inability to communicate? because I forgot to ask certain questions.

most of the time, the tech DOESN'T Take the time to find out WHERE the user is coming from. he assumes too much about what the user SHOULD or SHOULD not know.

 

[wyvrn]

If they don't know what a mouse is, I am pretty sure of the technical sophistication

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
how do these techs know that end users aren't so bright? wouldn't that require that the so called "tech" knows what he / she is doing in the first place?

i do support over the phone for my clients, when that doesn't work, i drive out to their location.

here's the thing, most of the time, when i fail on the phone, it was because of MY inability to communicate? because I forgot to ask certain questions.

most of the time, the tech DOESN'T Take the time to find out WHERE the user is coming from. he assumes too much about what the user SHOULD or SHOULD not know.

 

[Tom]

I always thought etch-a-sketch was pretty hard.

Where do the pictures go when you shake it ?

 

[PoPPeR]

I've seen both sides of the story. As someone who's had problems with hardware before, I've experienced bad techs who either didn't know what they were doing or weren't authorized or allowed to help me solve that particular problem. Case in point, my comcast internet is really bad. I know someone here is a senior whatever at ATT, and when I described the problem to him on this forum he said of course ATT couldn't help you, the problem probably lies in the cables or there's something broken or whatever. Well that's great, even if I have a broken wire in the ground somewhere, my cable still doesn't work. That's what I'm calling about, I dont' care what the problem is, I just want it fixed.

On the other hand, as someone who builds and helps a lot of people with their PC's, I understand that there are a lot of people out there who are clueless/think they know what they are doing but really don't.

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: BillyGoat0
Haben Sie die E-mail noch gefunden?

 

[BurnItDwn]

wow ... I've bought hundreds of pieces of hardware and software titles and I don't think I've ever called tech support. IClosest thing to that would be Emailing Newegg to RMA a bad board or filling out forms on IBM, WD, and Maxtors sites to RMA dead drives. Well, come to think of it, My brother did call AMD for a bad retail CPU once (pins were bent, tried to unbend ... got worse) .. though that wasnt for tech support, it was just to get an RMA.

 

[cavemanmoron]

i have used tech support from Verizon/Bell Atlantic
when the retards thought that my area was ready for dsl.
It was not,and it took over 100 hours of phone time,for a tech in Texas,and I to figure out,
that the local central office,really was not setup for the dsl to work.

I do admit i cursed at a couple of the techs,but,most of the time i was polite,and tried the stuff they
suggested to me.

I insisted that they send me an external dsl modem,as i was sent an internal one,and had specifically asked for an External modem.

Most of the techs i talked to after the 3rd person were of very little help."Gee i am sorry,but ,let me upgrade you to someone with more experience.

I have also used RoadRunner tech support to help me to get my outlook express email to work,
after i had formatted the hard drive.
They were very helpful,both times i called,about a year apart.