Quote:
El_Phil said:
Slynky if you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys. Looking at the costs involved you can't pay western workers to do phone tech support. Unless you charge premium rates for tech support numbers, which you can't as you'll be torn apart in the media. What do you expect? You're buying a cheap system, so you get bad tech support.
Besides 99% of problems can be solved with a flow sheet, for those who's problems can't.... Well peanuts and monkeys. You haven't paid for decent tech support, why should you get it?
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The problem is, El_Phil, as a consumer/customer, I generally have NO say-so in what I get. Though I used Dell as an example of a company who supplies support from inside/outside the US, in many ways, I have no choice. I buy Photoshop and make a call, I get what Adobe has put in place. Or anything else I buy for my PC that I may need to call about, as in a router (you don't want to hear that story).
As for paying for something, don't think for a minute EVERY single penny of what it takes to research, produce, distribute, and SUPPORT a product hasn't been figured into its cost. For the stupid people who run out and buy "such-and-such" brand car because it comes with free maintenance for the first 5 years, well, you're just paying up front for all of it (whether you use it or not...which is much worse than paying as you need it).
For those who can remember, cars used to contain a LOT more metal than they do now. Now, there is a lot of "plastic". Why? So the car companies can save money (and brag about how
their car didn't increase much in cost. Or, if you ever noticed, go to the store and look at all the food you can buy that is referred to on the can as a pound of "fill-in-the-blank" and look at the net weight (and scratch your head as you wonder if 12 ounces equals a pound or was it 16). Well, the missing ounces and missing metal is analagous to the "missing" tech support. It's another company cutting cost where they can and letting the customer be frustrated. Except in the case of Dell, Michael seems to have had a brain fart as he seems to have forgotten one of the reasons Dell became #1 in the first place...the many years of being rated as the best tech support hardware company (a title they haven't held now in SEVERAL years).
As a person living in the US whose job it is to supply tech support to 140 people, I can tell you 99% of the problems can't be solved with a flowsheet. While I laugh with co-workers at some of the stupid things I DO have to fix, it equates more to about 25% could be fixed. And, as far as service goes in our organization, our customers get FULL SERVICE! That means they never have to move their PC (if they move to another cubicle), that means if their mouse is not smooth, I remove the ball and clean it with alcohol. If they are having a problem lining up labels in the printer, I go ahead and print it out for them. If they order business cards, I don't just give them the 8.5 x 11 inch sheets and let them tear them out, I tear them all out and stack them and deliver them to their desk. If they need CD duplication and label for a mailout, they don't get 50 CDs, the printed labels, mailers, etc, they get 50 CDs with mounted labels, inserted into the slipcover (all facing the correct way), and inserted into the mailers and delivered to their desk for their inspection before mailing. I could go on but who needs to hear it, right?