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From PC World Magazine,
available online at: Jeff Bertolucci As technical support representative for an Internet service provider, Virginia Gudgel of Sacramento, California, easily handled countless phone calls with cool, professional composure. But when her employer, MCI Internet, laid out stringent rules for handling customer support calls, even the unflappable Gudgel was taken aback. "We were supposed to get calls done in 5 minutes," she recalls. "It already takes 2 minutes for a customer to describe what's wrong. If technicians are trying to get a person off the phone so they can keep their call volume down, well, that's not doing the customer any good." (MCI's Internet business was later acquired by Cable & Wireless, which instituted a new policy on support calls: Stay on the phone until the customer's issue is resolved.) Gudgel's story may sound familiar if you've ever called tech support. Your PC, printer, or Internet connection unexpectedly goes south, and you waste half an hour listening to Barry Manilow's greatest hits, only to be rushed off the phone by a tech who hasn't solved your problem. In extreme cases, it may take hours to reach a living, breathing customer support rep. Laurie Gibb, an information technology manager from Virginia, waited on hold repeatedly, sometimes for as long as 2 hours, trying to get Dell's tech support reps to troubleshoot her PC's hard drive. She phoned Dell ten times--and spoke with a different person during each call--before her issue was resolved. Dell spokesperson Anne Miano says, "two-hour waits usually don't happen; [the average hold time is] much shorter." Service nightmares like Gibb's make it seem as if technical support is getting worse. That's not quite the case, according to historical data from our Reliability and Service surveys, based on periodic polls of approximately 10,000 PC World readers over several years. Our readers' responses to many of the questions about their tech support experiences didn't change much between 1998 and last year. Still, PC vendors' support teams are clearly slipping in some areas. The most significant is in the number of customers who never obtained a satisfactory solution to their computer problems. In 1998, 6.6 percent of home PC users said their problem was never resolved. By 2000, that figure had climbed to 8.3 percent. Among notebook users, the number jumped from 5 percent to 7.9 percent. And over the same time period, the proportion of home PC users who were very satisfied with the service they received plummeted from 62 percent in 1998 to just 49 percent in 2000. What about the support offered by other technology vendors? Since our surveys cover only PC companies, we placed three calls each to two ISPs, two printer manufacturers, and two software vendors to evaluate their services. Our best experiences were with printer makers HP and Lexmark, whose techs generally picked up the phone within 5 minutes and provided accurate answers to our questions. Our calls to ISPs EarthLink and Pacific Bell weren't as pleasing. Our shortest wait for an EarthLink representative was 12 minutes, and the longest dragged on for more than a half-hour. Pacific Bell's techs picked up sooner but weren't very helpful. When it comes to software support, you'd better have your wallet handy. Both Microsoft and Symantec, maker of the popular Norton AntiVirus program, often charge for support. For Windows and Office, for example, Microsoft allows users two free calls or e-mail inquiries (or one of each) to tech support. After that, one query costs a stiff $35. Norton AntiVirus users can choose to pay either $30 per consultation or $3 per minute. If you correspond via e-mail, there's no charge. (Symantec promises to respond by the next business day.) One of the best ways to avoid the high cost of fee-based technical support--or the long waits and occasional aggravation of free support--is to solve the problem yourself. We've assembled 50 tips, techniques, and resources that may provide solutions faster and easier than your vendor's support staff can (see "The Tech Support Survival Guide").
Photographs: Gary Campbell/Liaison Agency (Hampton); Manuello Paganelli (Bachman) The Money Pit Spectacular service remains the exception, not the rule. The biggest reason: Quality service comes at a high price. It takes money--a lot of money--to staff call centers. A vendor spends anywhere from $10 to $15 to handle a typical tech support call, according to Giga Information Group customer relationship management analyst Erin Kinikin. So from a vendor's perspective, phone support is a money pit. "It [can cost] millions of dollars to build a call center, and companies have to find people to answer the phones," says International Data Corporation software support and services analyst Ana Volpi. These days, few PC makers have money to spare. Last year, the average price for a system in the United States was $909, just over half the $1728 average in 1996, according to market research firm PC Data. Fewer consumers are buying, even at those prices. Naturally, vendors are scrambling to cut costs, including laying off their workforce, to stay competitive. "If you're not making much on the machine, every service call takes away from the profit margin," says Giga Information Group hardware analyst Rob Enderle. Customer support is tricky to manage, too, says Giga analyst Kinikin. Staff turnover is high, and telecommunications systems are expensive to set up. As a result, many high-tech companies find it cheaper and easier to hire third-party contractors to handle their support operations. But contract-based tech support can create a new set of headaches for customers. Third-party tech reps may have limited knowledge of the product brands that they field queries about. According to Kinikin, they may have minimal access to a vendor's bug fixes and advanced technical support. By the same token, a manufacturer's lack of direct involvement in the support process may slow its response to and correction of product flaws. "When something goes wrong, it often takes vendors a long time to notice and to react to it, in part because they aren't on the front line taking the [support] calls," says Kinikin. Ted Cwiok is vice president of corporate technology at Cincinnati-based Convergys, which provides customer support for AT&T Wireless, Compaq, and other companies. He observes that the quality of third-party support often depends on the service level vendors are willing to pay for. "If they want 90 percent of support calls answered within 1 minute, we'll hire the staff to make that happen," Cwiok says. High-Tech Sweatshops? "It's a high-tech sweatshop," says a former PC support employee, who asked us not to reveal his identity. "I got ten calls back-to-back as my supervisor screamed at me to take more. I had to take as many calls as possible, not necessarily solve the problem. Even a saint would crack under that kind of pressure." Do call centers really operate like sweatshops? Convergys's Cwiok says "probably in some cases and not in others. It really depends on the service level the [vendor] wants and how much they can afford." Customer support isn't the path to riches, either. A job posting for a tech support rep on the Convergys Web site indicates that starting pay is $8.50 an hour. According to Salary.com, the national median salary for an entry-level customer service representative barely exceeds $25,000. The combination of tedious work and low wages prompts high employee turnover. "A lot of companies that provide service and support are experiencing staffing problems," says Giga analyst Enderle. "There's a shortage of people who can provide adequate technical support." That observation won't surprise people who've used tech support. In our June 2000 Reliability and Service survey, fewer than 40 percent of respondents rated the knowledge of the reps who helped them as Excellent--a slight decline from the percentage in our December 1998 data. How do you get good support from an inexperienced technician? Have your PC's model number, OS, and configuration information ready. Keep detailed notes on such things as the exact wording of error messages and the applications you were using when the problem struck. Enter the Net And self-service help on a vendor's Web site, in the form of FAQs and troubleshooting tips, is even more cost-efficient for companies--a piddling $1 or less per incident. For this type of help, a company requires only enough staff to maintain its site. But while Web-based support may save PC companies money, it's been a disappointment to many users. In our Reliability and Service surveys, between 65 and 70 percent of respondents who have tried to use e-mail-based support say the answers they received didn't solve their problems. Those numbers didn't improve between our 1998 and 2000 surveys, despite PC vendors' assurances that they were pouring resources into online support. Beyond the low cost of Web support, vendors say, online help makes sense because many PC problems involve software, not hardware. Users can easily fix them by downloading and installing a new driver or software patch from the Web. IBM's customer support handles close to 5 million calls a year, 85 percent of which involve nonhardware issues, according to Dan Ransdell, IBM vice president of worldwide service and support. The Blame Game "I've talked to AOL, Gateway, Microsoft--and even once to Lucent--techs repeatedly, and they all point the finger at the other," Maris laments. After weeks of back and forth, Gateway eventually replaced his notebook. "I still don't know what caused the problem in my old laptop," says Maris. "I hope I never have to go through that again." Acknowledging this blame game, some PC makers say they encourage reps to answer any questions they can, even those involving products the company isn't obligated to support. "We now tell our techs, if you have the experience and the knowledge, share it,'' says Jim Hobby, Gateway's vice president of consumer client care. Yet in Maris's experience, that kind of service didn't happen. Anytime you encounter a Windows-related glitch, turn to your PC vendor first for assistance. If your copy of Windows came preinstalled on your machine, the PC vendor is contractually obligated to support it, according to Microsoft. But if you're running a version of Windows that you bought elsewhere (at a retail store, for instance), you'll have to contact Microsoft for technical support. Microsoft promises that it will improve the way it integrates help features into forthcoming Windows software. The latest version of Media Player, for example, features a Web Help button to clarify error messages that occur within the program. When you click the button, Windows automatically launches your default browser and loads Microsoft's Knowledge Base article about the error message you encountered. Remote Control Included More sophisticated still is the remote-control technology that Dell, Gateway, IBM and other manufacturers now use. This technology typically allows a technician to access your system over an Internet connection and obtain information about your PC such as its OS and its hardware configuration. In many cases, remote access allows a support rep to run various diagnostic tests on a PC and download patches or updated drivers that may solve a software problem. Where's the user during the whole process? Usually at the keyboard, chatting interactively with the technician. Gateway's Hobby says his company's Co-Pilot remote diagnostic tool improves on conventional phone support. "With tech support calls, you're looking for a needle in a haystack," he says. "But with Co-Pilot, the tech can look into the customer's system, check different settings, and fix the PC remotely." Similarly, IBM PCs include a remote diagnostic tool from Support.com that allows technicians (with your permission) to scan your system and find the culprit. Dell's Resolution Assistant, an online tech support tool, represents yet another approach. "We're trying to say that Web support is an option for users," says Dell electronic support group manager Romi Lessig. "Just give it a try." Dr. David Bachman of Bethesda, Maryland, did. When he couldn't use the Windows 98 image preview feature on his Dell Dimension desktop, he tried Resolution Assistant. But he came away from the experience disappointed. A Dell technician told Bachman to make several changes to his Windows configuration, reboot, and return to Resolution Assistant. He followed the instructions carefully. But when he returned to Dell's site, the tech was gone. He tried Resolution Assistant again the next morning, this time with a different support rep. After an hour online, "she couldn't resolve the problem, either," says Bachman. Finally, he phoned Microsoft tech support, which fixed the glitch. Farewell, Phone Support? Your preference for phone-based help or online assistance may depend on your level of technical expertise. If you're an experienced and tech-savvy PC user, you may be comfortable with self-help tools. "An IT manager who needs a new driver doesn't want to wait on hold for 30 minutes for something he or she could find in 5 minutes on the Web," says IDC's Volpi. "It's analogous to an ATM," says Gartner Group principal analyst Charles Smulders. "I prefer to get cash myself rather than stand in line at a bank." Sometimes, though, Web-based tools don't work. Dan Hagman, a former Gateway Country Store manager in Montclair, California, says Gateway's site often had outdated information on orders posted. "People called the store saying, 'I just checked the Web site and my order hasn't even gone to production.' But my database system in the store would show that their PC had already been shipped." Gateway spokesperson Cory Baker says the order status system at Gateway.com is updated twice daily. But if a product ships after the second daily online update, the customer's revised order status won't be updated until the following day. The bottom line? "If the Web is a more effective medium, more people will choose it," Microsoft support technology director Kurt Samuelson says. Of course, some people will always prefer to talk. And some problems prevent users from accessing the Internet. After all, if you can't get online, Web tools are worthless. Oh, there's one other reason some vendors aren't rushing to do away with phone support: Once they get you on the phone, they can take the opportunity to sell you something. "If a user calls tech support because they need more RAM to run a game, [the vendor] can sell it on the spot," says IBM's Ransdell. Ah, capitalism! The Tech Support Survival
Guide 10 Things to Do Before, During, and After a Tech Support Call Double-check the obvious stuff: The computer is plugged in, right? And all its cables are firmly connected? (Don't laugh. Many technical support calls result from problems as elementary as these.)
Survival Guide: Desktops and Notebooks 5 Quick Fixes
5 Quick Fixes
5 Quick Fixes
5 Quick Fixes
We evaluated five such Web sites--Askdrtech.com, AskMe.com, Exp.com, Expertcity.com, and PCsupport.com. Each offers a quick, efficient alternative to lousy vendor support. But nearly all will cost you. Fees vary from site to site--some experts charge for each problem; others charge by the hour. Sound technical advice, an easy-to-use chat tool, and reasonable fees make Expertcity our top choice. If you use tech support frequently, a site such as Askdrtech.com or PCsupport.com that charges a yearly membership fee may suit you. It may also be a good choice for a small business that doesn't have an IS department yet requires regular technical assistance. On the other hand, if you need only occasional tech advice, choose a site whose experts charge per problem. If the matter isn't urgent, AskMe.com is a good option because advice there is free. How do these sites work exactly? At Askdrtech, AskMe, and Exp, you simply register, specify your topic, and find a list of experts. Read the experts' profiles, their ratings from users, and their answers to past questions. Choose an expert, and ask that person your question. You can get your answer via e-mail or (in some cases) by phone. At both Expertcity and PCsupport, you sign up, post your query, and then talk to a technician through live chat, e-mail, or phone. Expertcity and PCsupport also offer remote diagnosis, where users allow technicians to access their PC remotely to troubleshoot and, with luck, fix the problem. I visited each site several times, asking for advice on three problems related to printers, viruses, and Windows. Most of the tips were helpful; only a couple didn't work out. Response time depended on the site's communication method. Live chat gets you instant help: You can read the step-by-step instructions immediately rather than waiting for e-mail or a phone call. Responses via phone usually came within an hour. E-mail replies took anywhere from 3 to 24 hours, though some experts say that they may take up to four days to answer. The value of these sites depends on the user and the problem. If your issue is unresolved after a response, you can at least try to get a refund. Site Reviews One year of support costs $79. The $99 Premier membership adds insurance coverage on your PC. As a member, you have access to technicians by phone and e-mail and to the site's self-help tools, which include maintenance and troubleshooting tips. If you aren't satisfied with Askdrtech's service, you can cancel your membership within 30 days of registration and request a refund. AskMe.com: Free advice is the best thing about this site. Unfortunately, you may not get the in-depth information you need to solve a PC glitch. During my informal tests, I received an answer to my Windows and printer questions within a few hours; it took more than a day for someone to reply to my virus question. The tips were relatively useful, but I usually needed more guidance than they provided. Asking follow-up questions meant waiting hours for another reply that didn't necessarily solve my impasse. Unlike most expert sites, AskMe doesn't screen its experts, so the advice and the response time can be spotty. The site, which covers more than PC issues, falls short in the area of quick, easy-to-find computer advice. Exp.com: This site covers technology topics capably and lists numerous experts in nearly every area. But sifting through a long list of potential advisers gets tedious, especially if you check each person's credentials and fees. Fees vary from a few cents per minute for phone consultations to several dollars per hour. Fortunately, you can sort your search results based on an expert's price, availability, and customer rating. If you need help right away, look for an expert who's available over the phone or by live chat (not all experts offer those services). Most advisers, however, offer help only through e-mail, and some may take a couple of days to respond. Before paying for advice, search the site's Advice Files, where you may find the answer to your question for free. The listings are sorted by date, subject, and expert, and contained information that helped me find an answer to my virus question within minutes. Paying for tech advice at Exp.com is generally worthwhile only if the experts can solve your problem quickly (their profiles usually indicate how long they take). Expertcity.com: You get computer advice at this site quickly, and it's often on the mark. Some advice is free, some costs as much as $20 per question. The ChatLink instant messaging feature (which all the site's experts use) is handy for interactive help sessions. A window pops up on your screen to activate your live chat with an expert, who stays online with you until your problem is resolved. My overall experience was positive. I asked experts my virus question, and one of them offered free advice. Through the instant messenger, he asked relevant troubleshooting questions and provided adequate tips. On step-by-step instructions, the live-chat feature shines. If, for example, an expert advises you to type c:\*.dll in a particular field, seeing the characters on screen is a lot easier than comprehending them over the phone. If you prefer a phone conversation, you have that option as well. For really complex problems, you can give your expert permission to control your PC remotely. (You must first download an .exe file from Expertcity.) If your issue goes unresolved, you can request a refund. Before logging out, you're asked to rate the expert and to submit your opinions about the experience and the quality of the advice you received. PCsupport.com: For $150 a year, PCsupport provides chat-based assistance, e-mail and phone support, and remote-control diagnosis. The fee is steep, especially since you can get equally good support from competitors for less money. On one occasion, a live-chat technician took more than 30 seconds to respond to my query; I thought he had hung up. The site's instant messenger conducted the interaction much more quickly than the live chat did. You can give PCsupport technicians remote access to your machine to diagnose the problem. If you're not ready to drop $150 for support, you can sign up for PCsupport's free services, which include software updates, disk maintenance tips, and virus scans. You also get access to the site's learning center, which offers tips, tricks, and tutorials on various computing topics.
Expert site Cost Support
via e-mail/phone/live chat/remote diagnosis Users rate experts Comments
1Membership $79; $99
Premier membership includes PC insurance.
When repeated phone contact with a vendor doesn't resolve your gripe, send a letter--by snail mail, not e-mail--to the company's CEO. True, the big boss may not read it, but an assistant probably will. Outline your case succinctly and politely, and you just might get results.
--Jeff Bertolucci
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