Techdirt: The Impact Of Having Friends Never Fade Away
Social networks are really a burgeoning part of today’s world while most people over the ages of 35 tend to disregard this phenomenon, it exists, and is becoming, a standard way of learning, and communicating. It is still viewed as odd and not normal to most, again this is usually the over 35 crowd. That too however, is changing.
Apple Shoots Spitballs Back at Microsoft in New Ads | Epicenter from Wired.com
The above links to an article that is ohh so true. MS is in an arena that clearly is one they do not belong in, and are being quickly made out to be dopes, in the world of commercial product placement battles.
I have said, and commented many times in the past couple of years of DELL’S incompetent customer service and their incredible lack of appreciation for their customers enormous amounts of time wasted on DELL’s customer service reps. DELL has no understanding of or cares about their customers time spent troubleshooting DELL’s faulty peripherals, or basic hardware.I am soo sorry I ever reccomended a DELL system to my father. On two occasions now in less than 6 months ownership, my father has experienced nightmare tech support from DELL. To the degree that he wants me by his side when doing so, because they simply cannot relate to the average customer or PC savvy one for that matter either.
Today, however I am not writing much of these issues, which I have yet again witnessed my father go through another 3 days and 6-8 hours of wasted phone time with DELL reps, to get an answer I had told him within 5 minutes of the diagnosis.
Actually, this post is to the poor, and probably very beat up customer service reps at DELL. These guys do not stand a chance in hell at Success. Why?? First off DELL is putting people whom speak english in their own slang, in positions of dealing with all nationalities. Which frankly, to many american’s is difficult to understand at times. Thus the stereotypical comments that you often hear about tech support these days (hey you get what you pay for!). This is Especially difficult with the crappy mobile phone technology being hit or miss these days ( a land line is much better for these types of calls). That said, these guys must put the average Joe “Q” (the guy who paid extra for the so called warantee) through a battery of questions only to possibly/likely send him or her to another department, and another round of “HOLD” music, and the customer thus re explains their problem all over again. My thoughts here are this… Piss the customer off enough, make them jump through indefinite stupid hoops, and they simply go away mad. We keep the warantee money/pure profit , and lose a little phone support time. Whatever.
Today, in between witnessing three hold transfers, I actually experienced an incredibly polite DELL rep picking up our hold to “APOLOGIZE”., No this was no recording. This is an actual rep picking up and saying “thank you for choosing DELL, we apologize for the waits, and the change in departments, but we do appreciate your patience Mr Wilson. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? They pay a guy to do this?? My father actually had to acknowledge this person and then be put on hold for another 5 minutes until having to explain his story all over again, and provide his contact info ALL OVER AGAIN. I mean, it is insanity! NO ONE THERE WITH ALL THAT SO CALLED DELL TECHNOLOGY SEEMS TO TAKE THIS INFO DOWN AND PASS IT TO THE NEXT GUY. My father meanwhile meticulously writes down all of the details practically in triplicate and follows along this painful phone beating of utter stupidity. I give them credit for this. All of them were incredibly polite while mentally beating you into the fetal position over a problem they should simply fix, and stop wasting your time with. I mean what other choice do they have? Your going to be pissed after this experience anyways, so they have to be AT LEAST NICE. Gee thanks.
Meanwhile we know the answer to the problem. We’ve known it! So, when we finally ( 1 hour and 45 minutes in) get to the last guy that finally acknowledges what we already knew after Dad went through the issues yet again, and he practically made my father/me take apart the mother board unplug wires that were very difficult to get to because of the cramped proprietary box set up ( how the average person could do this is beyond me) we will finally see the expensive warantee replacing the DOGASS cheap ($10.00 no name value made in china) power 250w supply that probably barely powers this thing, replaced by a DELL tech hopefully this coming week.
If the DELL rep COULD HAVE simply listened to me, and what I’d explained, the problem would have been over/solved in less than 5 minutes. But since these guys are tethered to these legal scripts they MUST follow, thus making the customer feel like a fool, and exasperating the hell out of them, they cannot win. Again, the customers time spent MEANS NOTHING TO DELL! The DELL TECH SERVICE REPS are in a losing battle, and for this, I say I am sorry for the DELL tech rep guys. They are screwed, because DELL is so caught up in trying to avoid litigation, they have effectively thrown (forgotten what customer svc is)customers, and chances of any positive customer service perception and reality out the *&^%$ window! Customer beware when you call DELL with your PC problems, regarldless of how much money you gave up for a warantee, be ready for plenty of YOUR time spent.
I am so happy I went to MACs in 2005.
