Wireless weirdness (was: NT Stuff)

[Mark Komarinski]

Having worked support before, I can say that it is one of the few areas
that is considered a money sink.  Thus, interaction with customers always
gets the short end of the stick (think: voice mail hell).

Unfrotunately, that leads to the situation you describe - customers hate
vendor X and don't buy from them anymore.  Vendor X's sales drop as a
result, and they have to cut somewhere - customer support!  A nasty
vicious cycle.

Toss in the additional fact that the vendor doesn't know how smart you are.
I would guess a majority of their calls can be solved by having the
customer RTFM.  But when you call in knowing that the video card is toast,
they can't believe you until they go through their little script (is
it plugged in?, what OS are you using..).

NOW toss in the massive price competition between vendors.  Prices for
PCs have dropped like a rock in the past few years, dropping the margin,
and increasing the customer base that then needs help.  But vendors can't
charge what they should, or else they would be out of business.  In
addition, the vendor has to support a braindead OS in order to keep their
sales.  How many of the remaining support calls deals with an OS quirk?

How to stop it?  That's hard.  Find a vendor that is good and make sure
you tell them when things go right and when they go wrong.  My decisions on
vendors usually is a result of the quality of the hardware rather than the
quality of tech support, but that's only because I'm usually doing things
with the hardware (install Linux) that isn't supported by the vendor
in the first place.

For example, I don't like buying Dells because a laptop I had a year ago
was a piece of junk, whereas my IBM laptop still runs like a champ
two year later.  When I wanted a new laptop, I chose another IBM.

-Mark

On Wed, Jan 15, 2003 at 01:01:09PM -0500, Hewitt Tech wrote:
> I think a really sad thing about our technology is that name brands don't
> necessarily mean the system will be all that good. For every pissed off
> Compaq customer I've found a pissed off Dell customer. That goes for most of
> the vendors out there. They mostly provide support from the same third party
> call centers. I was working with a Dell box a few nights ago and tried to
> call them to ask a question. After being on hold on my cell phone for 10
> minutes I hung up and figured out a workaround on my own. I can't think of
> one brand name computer that I haven't also run into a disgruntled customer.
> A big part of the problem is that the customer's expectations are too high
> for what any company doing end-user support can afford to supply. Commercial
> customers expect a high level of service and pay for it. Retail customers
> expect that same level of service but have purchases hardware with what is
> often a 10% margin. Recently this has been less - like maybe 6-7%. The first
> support call wipes out the company's profit margin on that box. No wonder
> the companies try to off-shore their support...
> 
> -Alex
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <bscott at ntisys.com>
> To: "Greater NH Linux User Group" <discuss at gnhlug.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 12:41 PM
> Subject: Re: Wireless weirdness (was: NT Stuff)
> 
> 
> On Wed, 15 Jan 2003, at 12:16pm, hewitt_tech at attbi.com wrote:
> > Thing is though Ben, the machine I had the most trouble with was
> > manufactured by a now merged PC company called Compaq.
> 
>   That's nice.  Was it on the HCL?  :-)
> 
> > With the original factory installation the machine wouldn't run more than
> > an hour or so without crashing or blue screening.
> 
>   I would have had some strong words for the vendor in that case.
> 
>   Actually, *I* wouldn't, because I wouldn't buy a Compaq if someone else
> paid for it.  But that's another issue.  ;-)
> 
> > In fact I don't remember ever seeing a stable AMD K6 based system.
> 
>   I have.  I have also seen plenty that are *not* stable.  There is one
> infamous motherboard, the FIC VA-503, which I have *never* seen run Windows
> successfully (sample = four units, three vendors, two different sites).  It
> does run Linux well, but as near as I can tell, Windows simply will not run.
> The same processors worked fine in other motherboards, but not that one.
> 
>   Come to think of it, I have also seen motherboards for Intel chips which
> never ran right, either.
> 
>   Point being: You're quick to point the finger at the CPU, but I suspect
> the problem lies elsewhere.
> 
>   There *are* a disproportionately higher number of crap motherboards (and
> core logic chipsets) for AMD's chips, because AMD is a much bigger presence
> in the "low end" sector of the market.
> 
> --
> Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
> | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not
> |
> | necessarily represent the views or policy of any other person, entity or
> |
> | organization.  All information is provided without warranty of any kind.
> |
> 
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