Wherefore Art Thou, Tech Support?

The Grouse discovers just how hard it is to find good help these days

By Tom Conlon Posted 08.20.2008 at 1:24 pm 6 Comments

The long and short of it is this: I called, exchanged pleasant banter with the operator and was dispatched a geek, who I was promised would show up on an agreed upon day within a four-hour window. For this, I was charged $169.99 plus taxes, which totaled $184.23. What would I fetch for such a hefty sum? I was told the geek wouldn’t leave my home until the problem was fixed and that his work would be good for 30 days.

The geek arrived right in the middle of the four-hour slot dressed in the requisite white shirt and black tie. He was very nice and professional, which helped to assuage my fears of getting stuck with one of those Geek Squad perverts you might have read about in the news. Of course, with the geek present, my laptop and printer were in an amorous mood and playing nice with one another. Though I’m sure he’d heard it from a thousand poor saps before me, I said it anyway: “I swear this wasn’t working before you got here.” Though unable to duplicate my troubles on my main computer, I fortunately have an older Mac laptop that was exhibiting the same problem. The geek went to work, and I excused myself to catch up on some DVR.

An hour later, the geek emerged to tell me that the problem had been fixed, albeit via a workaround that’s not really worth explaining here. Point being: The problem was only half fixed. Before charging me full price, however, the geek offered up his professional opinion on my choice of printer, which boiled down to, “You should have gotten an HP.” An hour and 185 bucks later, that’s what I’m left with. And as a nice little prologue to the story, my computer now crashes every time I try to print. That’s new.

What I’m getting at here is the fact that even the so-called solutions in place to diagnose and fix tech problems are flawed. Not only that, they’re expensive. I paid $129.99 for this stupid printer, and nearly $200 to be told I should have bought a different one. And therein lies the problem with Geek Squad and services like it—technology has never been more disposable than it is today. When your TV used to bust, the guy down the street could do some minor surgery and have you back up and running for a reasonable price. Nowadays we throw the TV out and buy a new one. Not that we’re spoiled—manufacturers have made it more difficult and expensive to repair their gadgets, and far easier to buy the latest and greatest version. iPod anyone?

So, here’s my solution: Befriend the office IT guy. I don’t care if you have to dust off your Dungeons & Dragons skills or wear a multi-cell phone utility belt to work. A friend in the IT department is a friend indeed. The next time something electronic of yours puts up a fight, invite him over for dinner. Let it slip during casual conversation that you might possibly maybe could be having just a teeny tiny bit of tech trouble and if it’s not too much trouble maybe he could pretty please take a look.

Do you have any other choice?

Been Ping-Ponged back and forth between customer support lines? Had a tech problem that’s never been fixed? Got a better solution than mine? Share!<?i>

single page

Previous Article: Waterproof World

Next Article: Wii've Lost Control

6 Comments

Link to this comment

Solace

08/20/08 at 2:22 pm

The problem with tech support is, no matter how much you want someone to have an answer, there's just no way someone will be able to diagnose a real computer problem, especially over the phone.

First off all the parts of the computer are made to different designs and each design is made by several different manufacturers. While they all work together in theory, with a near limitless number of combinations there's just no way every little detail could possibly be tested.

On this mostly-tested piece of equipment, you're running several softwares at the same time, each of which also only runs on it in theory and may or may not be entirely compatable with each other or bug free.

You may also have any number of invisible viruses, which may do any random thing, might be only partially functional after being mostly removed by antivirus software, and certainly aren't designed to play well with anything.

And to top it off, any of this software might have gotten partially corrupted, and any of the hardware could have gotten damaged in any number of ways. There's just no way an underpayed and overworked tech support agent, who was hired on a lowest-bidder basis, is going to have the slightest clue what's going on.

Link to this comment

jeejay70

08/23/08 at 11:54 am

I'm a "self-made" IT guy in the office... the way I made myself an IT guy is by trying to figure out how to fix just about any IT problems i or my officemates encounter... and the quickest way to do just that is to search google for IT forums (you must first narrow down the problem like "lexmark wireless not communicating mac" and enter them in google) then check out the results that shows the complete sentence of your problem (i.e. My lexmark wireless printer not communicating with my ibook, things similar to that)get the forum results and see if there's any replies that might suggest solutions.

My point is...we may never be a computer expert to identify and diagnose tech problems... but there's a huge possibility that somewhere out there had the same if not exactly identical to problems you may have and had asked somebody else who know the solution. You will just have to mine the information and DIY. But beware... do it at your own risk... but most of the time, you'll get it fixed... for FREE! and the best thing about it is... it takes you 1 step closer to be an IT expert yourself.

Link to this comment

HahnsPCs

08/29/08 at 5:31 pm

While I agree that the available technologies out there form QUITE the many combos, I would strongly suggest that what is LACKING in the tech support world is a bit of patience, basic troubleshooting skills and the ability to LISTEN!!!

Funny as I type this I've been on the phone with HP for the last 90 minutes or so JUST to get some clueless individual there to realize what the simple problem is...

Here's a few "to do's" for most tech support folks...

01) LEARN basic troubleshooting skills
02) Shut up and listen!
03) Embrace the technologies you "support" and LEARN more about them and what they DO work with so you are better prepared to do so
04) STOP THE Jargon... You're certainly NOT impressing me as I know all those cool words too... Thing is, I DON'T use them when talking to end-users... I speak English, NOT Techish
05) While Google is a great reference, it TEACHES you nothing, just gives you the answer IF SOMEONE has had the same problem

20 Years in support realm

Cheers!

Erick

Link to this comment

9 Ninetails

09/09/08 at 6:11 pm

Have not had it happen to me, BUT I still know that the item works better than ever when the tech guy arrives, and on rare occasion that it does mess up when he/she gets there, the tech guy realy never can ACTUALLY fix it, but still charges you more than it costs to buy 5 of the item(or items)that are messing up.

Link to this comment

9 Ninetails

09/09/08 at 6:15 pm

I don't want to be the annoying grammer guy...... ok so I do buy anyway, Wherefore art thou actually means WHY are you, not where are you.

Gadgets

+ More Photo Galleries

July 2013: The Future Of Flight

The incredible innovations, like drone swarms and perpetual flight, bringing aviation into the world of tomorrow. Plus: today's greatest sci-fi writers predict the future, the science behind the summer's biggest blockbusters, a Doctor Who-themed DIY 'bot, the organs you can do without, and much more.