Out of the Blue

[Aug 07, 2012, 10:33 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

An issue on the server end of my email popped up last night, and I got to spend 20 minutes listening to prerecorded messages from Network Solutions offering all sorts of helpful "did you know?" tidbits, none of which included the fact that the outage I was reporting was apparently system-wide (even though it was only impacting one of my email addresses). At least the woman who I finally spoke with assured me they were working on it. But as comforting as that sounded, I was met with the same outage this morning, so I dug out a "gold VIP" contact email they sent me at one point to thank me for being a loyal customer for over 15 years to try and cut through some red tape. Sure enough, this got me someone on the phone immediately, who then informed me that he was in sales, and he could transfer me to the tech support department, which now has an extended wait (since if it is still a system-wide outage they are informing customers one at a time). Apparently I'm only a VIP when I'm buying something from them: After that I'm just another blinking light looking to waste their valuable time. After an hour I finally got someone to clear up the error, but I seem to be missing emails, and was unable to phrase my question about this in a form my technical support person was able to understand with her somewhat limited grasp on English. Ever notice it's customer service experiences like this that are *never* followed by one of those brief surveys to let them know how they're doing?

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20 Replies. 1 pages. Viewing page 1.
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20.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 8, 2012, 01:04

Ant

nin wrote on Aug 7, 2012, 10:40:
but I seem to be missing emails

I wondered about that...

Blue lost my e-mails?




Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx and Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net ...

19.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 21:21

MxxCon

Blue, I don't know if this is the same phone number, but my work's "gold vip" NetSol support phone number is listed as 1-866-791-9411. Maybe once they see the amount of domains you have with them they dump you down to "peon vip" support queue?

18.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 21:14

space captain

Zarkonis wrote on Aug 7, 2012, 19:53:
Yes, Blue, you're a VIP when they want your money. Otherwise, you're scum, like everyone else.

lots of genius material around here




Go forth, and kill!

17.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 19:53

Zarkonis

Yes, Blue, you're a VIP when they want your money. Otherwise, you're scum, like everyone else.




Slow and steady might not win the race at first, until you shoot everyone ahead of you.

16.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 16:48

El Pit

Something that will make you a happy man, Blue:
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni33625150/




Consoles? I owned two: a Pong clone and an Atari 2600. And that's it.

15.

Misbegotten Moon

Aug 7, 2012, 15:45

jdreyer

Wow, that's a pretty good case that we didn't go to the moon. I think I'm convinced.

Grin




Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.

14.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 15:18

Mr. Tact




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

13.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 14:40

Beamer

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 7, 2012, 13:21:
Beamer wrote on Aug 7, 2012, 12:45:
Nordstrom is another store that has absolutely ridiculously good support and service.
Yeah, well I guess it is in part "you get what you pay for". And at Nordstrom you are definitely paying for it, with $43-$65 for t-shirts.

Often very high quality t-shirts (I recommend Alternative Apparel), but you can find many items there for the same price as any other store. Want a pair of Allen Edmonds? Same price as Zappos. A Varvatos suit? Same price as anyone else carrying it.




------------- Music for the discerning: http://www.deathwishinc.com http://www.hydrahead.com http://www.painkillerrecords.com

12.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 14:39

NegaDeath

About 5 years ago I worked in a support call centre for the old Cingular wireless in the US. The job was horrible, absolutely soul crushing. Going off script gets you in trouble. All customer questions had to be entered into their slow as molasses database, no exceptions. Even if you know the answer if they didn't see your mouse open it you got dinged marks (yes they remotely record the screen as well as the call). Training was kept minimal. I remember when the iphone first came out, the training session to explain the new systems JUST for that phone were woefully insufficient. Most of just prayed we didn't get a call from an iphone customer. Ultimately your reduced to an automaton designed to warm a chair. I try to keep that experience in mind when dealing with annoying support departments. Certainly there are bad people out there but the majority of issues are going to be the managers designing the system, not the end rep. Hell I even feel sorry for them.

11.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 14:29

nin

However, Dell completely replaced their tech support around 3 years ago, and now it's handled by scarily efficient middle Europeans (Czech/Pole/Slovak?). The last couple of times I called in, they either helped me fix the problem right there, immediately dispatched a tech, or simply RMA'd the whole unit. Very impressive.

I called in a dead drive last Thursday here at work, and the tech emailed me yesterday, asking if that fixed the problem. I was rather shocked...




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

10.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 14:20

sauron

I used to hate Dell because of their hopeless outsourced tech support. I once had a laptop from them that arrived with a faulty GPU fan, and the first gentleman in tech support I spoke to told me to flash the system BIOS. The second person, a lady, spoke no English and simply hung up on me. I replaced the fan myself and it worked just fine forever after.

However, Dell completely replaced their tech support around 3 years ago, and now it's handled by scarily efficient middle Europeans (Czech/Pole/Slovak?). The last couple of times I called in, they either helped me fix the problem right there, immediately dispatched a tech, or simply RMA'd the whole unit. Very impressive.

Plus the mobile Precision workstation I bought from them recently is an absolute monster - fantastic performance and completely stable. Nice turnaround.




Kittens!

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 14:14

Cutter

After that I'm just another blinking light looking to waste their valuable time

Hah! Great turn of phrase!




"Peter, breakfast for dinner is anarchy!" - Lois

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 13:51

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 7, 2012, 11:00: Amazing isn't it how so many companies claim to be fixated on customer satisfaction, and yet customer support is almost always annoying and frequently useless. TBF customers usually talk about the importance of service, but actually buy whatever is cheapest. Then complain about the service but either stick with it, or move to the next cheapest. People generally do not pay for service and do not like paying for a person's time either. Happens with every industry: mechanics always throw a huge premium onto parts. That optician bill saying $200 glasses + $50 eyetest is really $50 frames + $200 eye test & fitting. Time is very expensive, for whatever the wage of the person you deal with the cost is double to triple that due to supervision, training, overheads etc. (not a dig at Blue, no idea what he's buying, could well be the super premium business package before I know)

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 13:21

Mr. Tact

Beamer wrote on Aug 7, 2012, 12:45:
Nordstrom is another store that has absolutely ridiculously good support and service.

Yeah, well I guess it is in part "you get what you pay for". And at Nordstrom you are definitely paying for it, with $43-$65 for t-shirts.




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 12:45

Beamer

PHJF wrote on Aug 7, 2012, 12:05:

Amazing isn't it how so many companies claim to be fixated on customer satisfaction, and yet customer support is almost always annoying and frequently useless.

I had great service from Amazon.

I buy from them in part for this. Any issue I've had has been fixed almost instantly, and being able to do support via chat rather than taking the time to call is very time saving.

Nordstrom is another store that has absolutely ridiculously good support and service.




------------- Music for the discerning: http://www.deathwishinc.com http://www.hydrahead.com http://www.painkillerrecords.com

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 12:05

PHJF

Amazing isn't it how so many companies claim to be fixated on customer satisfaction, and yet customer support is almost always annoying and frequently useless.

I had great service from Amazon.




Steam + PSN: PHJF

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 11:58

Killer Kane

Their dog peed on the router...

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 11:38

space captain

phone support tips:

0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 00 000 0 00 000




Go forth, and kill!

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 11:00

Mr. Tact

Amazing isn't it how so many companies claim to be fixated on customer satisfaction, and yet customer support is almost always annoying and frequently useless.




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

Re: Out of the Blue

Aug 7, 2012, 10:40

nin

but I seem to be missing emails

I wondered about that...




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

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