A number of incidents recently illustrated just how poorly trained most tech support people are.
I suspect that they have the jobs they do because they are willing to work cheap. Period. It seems that companies offer very little training to tech support personnel whose main job boils down to reading from a script and being polite.
If you are dealing with a technical problem where you understand the concepts involved, you are likely to be frustrated talking to someone who does not understand the concepts, but is mandated to do step 1, then step 2, then step 3, and not let the facts get in the way.
In this situation, is lying OK?
Hard to say. On the one hand, when script-reading support persons tell you to do x and then y, they may be lying to you. That is, they may have no clue what x or y does or how it might solve the problem. If you know that x and y won't fix the problem, is it OK to lie and say you did it?
I recently had a problem with a standalone VoIP unit the first time I plugged it into a router other than my own. The unit plugs into the Internet on one end and a normal telephone on the other end. The Internet connection was fine, the lights on the router were all normal, but there was no VoIP dial tone. So I called the vendor of the VoIP box.
The tech support person said to first turn off the router, the VoIP unit, and the cable modem and then turn them back on again. This is a reasonable starting point, assuming you have no interest in gathering any additional information about the problem. In my case, I couldn't turn everything off because the Internet connection was needed for something more important than this VoIP problem. That was the end of debugging. If I didn't do step 1, they wouldn't go to step 2 in the script. The fact that the Internet connection was fine, never made it to the radar screen.
I stewed on the problem some more and narrowed it down a bit. Then I called back to provide my additional information about the problem and another support person said the same thing: turn everything off first. Neither support person had any interest in understanding the problem beyond the simple fact that there was no dial tone.
Apparently, they can't handle a full problem description that requires understanding what's going on. For example, neither person asked about the status lights on the front of the VoIP unit.
Eventually, I figured out the VoIP problem myself (it had to do with DHCP vs. static IP address on the LAN) and fixed it without turning off the router.
Update May 23, 2008. Clarified that in the example, I was talking to the vendor of the VoIP unit, not the ISP.
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Comedian Steven Wright tells a joke about walking up to a deli that advertises they are open 24 hours and someone is locking the front door and turning off the lights. He questions this, pointing out that the sign says they're open 24 hours. The response: "Not in a row".
Lenovo also advertises that their paid technical support, which goes by the name Lenovo Experts Live, is available 24 hours. As shown below, their tag line is "The help you need When and How you want it". They're even more explicit, offering help 24x7x365. The web page says "Need help right away? Get the help you need now: Call 1-866-63-THINK".
But, like Steven Wright's deli, they don't mean it.
I called them on a Saturday. They were closed. The recording said they are open Monday through Friday from 9AM to 7PM Eastern time and are closed on Saturday and Sunday.
At least the web site was up and running so I could take the two screen shots above of their advertised availability. At least, it was for a bit. Until just now...
According to the answering machine, on the weekends, potential Lenovo customers are to go to expertslive.lenovo.com/home. But, the link for Lenovo Experts Live on the Lenovo home page, takes you to www.lenovo.com/lel which is the page the screen shots above were taken from. Why the complication?
Firefox users are greeted at expertslive.lenovo.com/home with this:
So, if your problem is with Internet Explorer . . .
Internet Explorer users have homework to do before they can get help at expertslive.lenovo.com/home:
Seems like a high hurdle when paying $69 for help with a computer problem. Not to mention, if Windows can boot up, Internet Explorer can access web sites, Windows can install the .NET framework (actually you can install the .NET framework) and you can install ActiveX controls, the computer problem isn't that severe to begin with.
Finally, a note to Lenovo. There are three versions of the .NET framework. You should say which of these three versions you require. That'll be $69.
Update. March 1, 2008. Added information about expertslive.lenovo.com.
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Last week I mentioned that Lenovo's technical support wouldn't accept a minidump to help me debug a Windows failure on a new ThinkCentre A61 tower (see Debugging Windows crashes with minidumps? Not at Lenovo). Now I know why. Lenovo does not support Windows.
Note: Normally, when a computer is purchased with Windows pre-installed, tech support for Windows is provided by the computer manufacturer, not by Microsoft. To get Microsoft support for Windows requires a retail purchase of the operating system. Someone commented below that anyone can call Microsoft for paid technical support with Windows. I haven't tried this. (added March 1, 2008)
I was told by a Lenovo technician that their software support is limited to Lenovo ThinkVantage software. If they feel like it, they may help you download a driver, but they won't stay on the phone and won't walk you through installing the driver. So who will? Lenovo Experts Live will. For a price.
As far as I know this is not a time related issue. The computer I called for help with, was new. The Lenovo Experts Live website says nothing about their taking over after an initial period where software support is free. In fact, it says nothing about the services that are provided free with a new Lenovo computer vs. the services you have to pay for.
In their own words:
"Lenovo Experts Live is designed to provide you 100% U.S. based technical service to your hardware and software issues, how-to questions, and problems. Whether you're under warranty but have questions on issues not covered, or you're out-of-warranty but still need help, Lenovo has experts to address your technical problems ... Whether you have a networking issue, a software 'how to' question, a virus or spyware problem, or need help setting up your home office peripherals, Lenovo experts can help."
Providing software technical support is expensive and time consuming. It is, perhaps, unrealistic to expect it included for free in the price of a personal computer. If low end computers don't include technical support as a way of keeping the price down, fair enough. But hardware manufacturers should be honest and up-front about it.
Finally, Lenovo Experts Live does not inspire confidence when the web page they link to, that supposedly provides a list of their services, does no such thing.
Update. February 29, 2008. Lenovo makes it difficult to reach their tech support. Could this be designed to steer people to the paid support? You decide:
If you call Lenovo for tech support, instead of getting connected or placed in a queue, you're given a different phone number to call 800-426-7378. This is an IBM phone number. Mostly. The main voice menu only has choices for IBM, nothing for Lenovo.
Getting started requires choosing between hardware support or software support. Pinpointing the source of a problem as either hardware or software can be very difficult. Unless the computer is smoking, this can be an impossible choice to make, both for techies and non-techies.
But, no matter which way a Lenovo customer starts out, there are many voice menu options standing between them and Lenovo tech support. At one point, I made a wrong choice in the maze of menus. I ended up speaking to a polite, patient man who spoke perfect English, yet we had a total disconnect. Finally, he asked if I was calling about an IBM computer. I wasn't. He worked for IBM. Oops.
Lenovo is a huge company. They can't get their own phone number?
See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.
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