Customer Service = Hell?

[Yusshin]

I got two.

1)

My brother had an issue with his Sharp HD television. He had just bought it, and about a month later, it refused to turn on. He called the support, and they redirected him to the US. He then was mocked because Americans assume we say "aboot." They would say "What is your problem aboot?" and laugh, while my brother responded with: "wtf did you just say?" That went on for about ten minutes. My brother got hold of the guy's supervisor and reported him for misconduct.

2)

My dad's credit card. He didn't know the security settings for it when trying to purchase Skype credits, so he called the company. They put him on hold for 30min and told him that he should know it. He said he never actually did this password thing, and the guy told him to go on the website and set one up. He tried, but apparently he really did have one, he just didn't know what it was. He called back, another 30min on hold, was transferred to the supervisor, and then was transferred to some guy in Texas with a hideous accent. He inevitably hung up. We managed to solve the problem by ourselves, but MasterCard was surely no help.

 

[Dawn]

Actually no. o.O My customer service is usually top notch, except the occasional person that doesn't speak English.

But I do have this one story.

One day I tried dual booting Linux. I got it up and running fine. Then I decided I wanted to use "Extra" on the Visual Effects section. Basically, it told me I didn't have the driver or something to be able to do that, which was weird on it's own. So I went and installed the Linux driver for my graphics card. Next thing I know... BOOM, Linux equivelentof a Blue Screen Of Death.

I spent the next few hours on Microsoft support, and contrary to what most people would say, the guy on the phone figured out exactly what was wrong and told me how to fix it pretty quickly. How he knew, I don't know. Normally, I get treated like an idiot, but this guy obviously had a very in-depth knowledge of how Windows (At the time, Vista.) worked. See, I would've NEVER guessed the solution. Even after I reinstalled my Windows driver, my Vista gui was still royally screwed. Turned out that somehow creating a new account fixed the severe graphic issues. All I had to do then was transfer all my files over from my old account.

Neat, huh? Took 5 hours though. I did get to browse and stuff while I waited of course.

It was just a REALLY long file transfer and installing my old programs.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

Customer service is reaallllly frustrating. Unless you're calling Apple. They're great. Its like visiting a top hotel over the phone. XD

Always get a chuckle though when the overseas support gives an American name like Dan or Abraham or Pepsi.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

I recently made a blog entry about this equating it to an un-winnable Pokemon battle. Put simply, my bank used a combination of automated messages, crappy voice-recognition, putting me on hold for 25 minutes, then transferring my call which resulted in another 20 minute wait, after which I gave up in disgust and hung up.

 

[Reginaldvonburger]

My boyfriend got taxed recently (3 months tax, he's under 18 and doesn't earn enough to be taxed). Whenever he tried to call the tax office they put him on hold until he got angry and hung up.

 

[RTHookers]

Whenever I call my internet support it's reallllllly crappy.
I also hate it when they talk to me like a PC noob.
Can't they provide you with a book how to fix crap like that? I'm usually on hold halfa hour because of that crap service. Luckily it doesn't happen often.

 

[twocows]

Interesting. It could be either a hardware or software issue, it's hard to tell. If something got bumped on the motherboard, it's possible it could result in those sort of symptoms. It could just as easily be a software issue though.

Don't ever bother with their tech support, though; they're incompetent and just read lines out of a book. Sometimes you get lucky and they'll know how to fix it, but the second they start jerking you around, hang up because you'll get nowhere. Geek Squad is even worse; they sometimes know what they're doing when it comes to hardware, but they're paid to rip you off and tend to know nothing about software.

Your best bet is taking it to a few small computer shops and seeing how much they'll charge you to fix it. Some of them will try to rip you off, too, so it's important to take it to a few different ones unless you get something you think is reasonable right away. However, you're far more likely to get results that way.

As always, if anybody has issues with their computer, feel free to contact me, as I might be able to help (especially if you're willing to let me do remote assistance).