Do not hire nontechnical people for techsupport

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Do not hire nontechnical people for techsupport

8936 points posted to Service and Support by jbrogers 02/17/07

This is the main problem with the India call centers - they have no idea what they are doing. They are obviously reading a scripted diagnosing tool and have no personal knowledge of computing issues.

I have both home and business accounts with Dell. When I call in for support on my Business account, I get a good old-fashioned American geek, who instantly understands that I am fairly technical, and doesn't treat me like an idiot.

The Indian call centers, not having knowledge themselves, do not recognize that I know anything, and treat me like an idiot as they read from the diagnosis tool. Yeah, I know the computer is plugged in. Yeah I know that I have internet connectivity. Sheesh.

jaireaux 02/23/07	This is generally untrue. The tech support people in India are usually more educated than the support staff in the USA. Their mental block in providing support is usually a matter of communication skills.
twohlford 02/26/07	Any time you get newbie techs in a newbie call center, nothing good is gonna happen. The problem isn't with Indian call centers, but rather the low wages that are paid to their techs. Like Americans, the minute these techs prove themselves, they are lured away with higher pay by better call centers.
kokuryu 02/26/07	This is a real problem. You cant have idiots trying to answer technical questions.
savo 02/26/07	This is unnerving. I have been looking through this forum for the past 2 days. This seems to the the highest ranked post regarding tech support in any way. Everyone else is about OS Choice and they are REDUNDANT. Now don't get me wrong. I love the Linux Kernel and the distributions that use it. I personally run Debian testing (pre-release) and I keep up an active mirror in my home. But do we really need more then ~200 separate threads? Can some of them be combined in anyway? We get the Idea. You want a Linux Distro available as an option or NO OS as an option. So come on people vote for this post. Let the word be heard about something different. They got the Idea already. You want Linux, and I want it to. Support this person's thread. Bitch about Tech support. and Vote on others.
ronycyks 02/26/07	Even I think that it is not the location of the support center, but the info they have or the training they are given to communicate and orient with the way things work here. I hate the "is it plugged in" kinda questions, but then I wonder what they (dell) are training them! American Express has Call centers in India, and I have always had a smile when i finished talking to them.
replaysmike 02/26/07	Yes! This is super-annoying. By the time I get someone in tech support, they usually have to call someone else to answer fairly trivial questions. They seem more like well-trained call center people who can use a search button. What ever happened to tech's who were actually tech's!! "Hi I'm trying to install FreeBSD on my server and I'm wondering where I might find a driver for...." I'm sorry sir, but unix is not supported by dell.. "I know, I don't have any unix specific questions, can you tell me who makes your SATA card so I can contact the manufacturer..." Sir, we DON'T support unix customers. "Aghrgh, ok well"... click Sound Familiar???
vgoel 02/28/07	1. My experience with US based support in 2005 & 2006: 2 year old 2 GHz Dell laptop with 128MB (why?) owned by my major/prominent university is passed on to me. It still had one year left on a full support plan. I upgraded the memory to 1GB through Dell. Soon thereafter, the machine starting crashing. It took more than 4 tech support transactions to get it resolved. Some of the people that I was forced to deal with had no technical or interpersonal skills. I kept telling them that the new memory module had probably caused the laptop to crash. They kept shipping me refurbished hard drives without an OS on them. They had the laptop picked up and sent to a depot. Problem persisted. I took a different tack. I asked them replace the memory module with a refurbishes/returned part. That solved the problem. 2. My son's experience with India-based support - My son bought a very high end gaming PC from Dell and he ran into some problems with it. I butted in and unsuccessfully tried to solve it for him. He called tech support. They had a guy deliver/install a new mother board. This tech did not have software/support skills. A support fellow from India called and asked my son to perform some lengthy tasks and guided him along. Then he hung up after promising to call back in 45 minutes. He called exactly 45 minutes later. A few more steps and this series was repeated a couple of times. My son, an American born in the US to Indian parents, was impressed when the fellow called again the next day to check whether all was going well. 3. My experience with Dell support in 1997: I was living in Singapore. We purchased a Windows NT machine (price > US$4K) which was shipped from Dell factory in Penang, Malaysia. It blue-screened on arrival and kept doing so. I was livid and not getting satisfaction from local tech support, wrote an e-mail to Michael Dell by slapping his name into an e-mail address. Within hours, I was contacted by the regional VP. They flew a new computer the next day on a passenger flight with one of their employees. A Dell Singapore employee was waiting at the airport and the new PC with some extra free goodies was delivered to our office. I became a cheerleader for Dell. I think that well trained Indian tech support folks are fine. For example, some of the ones who work for Microsoft and reset your install keys are very good. I am bothered by tech support from India repeatedly apologizing and calling me "sir". I guess it is a legacy of our colonial past and may disappear some day.
maverickcruise 03/01/07	The management in Dell needs to understand that the majority of the employees themselves do not want to follow a script for diagnosis as we realize what the next step of action would be but we are forced to follow this script as the senior management in India thinks the script is better than the tech. This is coz the majority of the techs are new bees. and why do we hire new bees and pay them more coz the experienced techs are sucked into HP.
georgia_rebel 03/10/07	Dell shold employ Tech support personel regionaly......For us in the USA we should be speaking with an American, and for those in Europe they should be speaking with a person from their area........see my suggestion titled Dell and Jobs
mrlinux11 03/12/07	"why do we hire new bees and pay them more coz the experienced techs are sucked into HP", well with comments like this, it makes me think that Dell isnt interested in paying for good support, otherwise they would work on employee retention.
georgia_rebel 03/13/07	Dell techs were let gol, for cheaper techs in India...no one stole them
peyre 04/04/07	I haven't called Dell myself, so I can't speak to their phone support--it might be pretty awful. But their chat support is usually pretty good--I've used it several times and each time I get someone who seemed pretty knowledgeable and didn't treat me like a know-nothing. (btw, that should be "newbies", not "new bees")
jdcexec 04/11/07	My mother is 70+ and cannot understand the techs. She hates to call them, and her next computer will not be a Dell because of this.
richa121 04/11/07	I once called a tech in El Salvador and they were rioting in the streets and this man was hiding under his desk as he tried to give me tech support. I could hear the fear in the man's voice, so i called back the next day and then and everytime, the tech support people in El Salvadore are great.
evildonkey 04/25/07	I've never needed any technical support. Just stop using Windows.
wally 04/28/07	reply to replaysmike: I think Dell shipped you a system with Windows. Correct? You installed linux and why would you go after the technical support guys if you need a driver for linux. They are trained to deal with windows OS. so I do not think it is right to blame them for that. The techs at Dell cannot read you over the phone or over chat if you are a geek or not. so they will ofcourse ask you if the ac adapter is plugged in or if the CAT5 is plugged in because they do not want to go through an entire process of troubleshooting a "cannot get online wired" issue for an hour to find out that the customer does not have a CAT5 cable plugged in rather a 56K phone line. I have seen several people who use their DVD drive tray as a "cup holder". Now isn't that interesting. But I do agree that some techs apologize to the core that you just want to rip your hand off so that you will have something to throw at them. But we have to understand that there is a cultural difference and they are more of "submissive". and I do agree that techs do need more training so that they can atleast "get on the level" with some of the geeks.
mrlinux11 05/01/07	@Wally, I think you need to read replaysmike post again, he wasnt looking for them to supply him with a driver, he wanted to know who made the "SATA card so I can contact the manufacturer.."
peyre 05/03/07	Oh yeah, evildonkey, that's a solution--use a harder operating system. Most people, if they switched from Windows, would need more support, not less. (Not that *nix isn't a good idea; I'm just pointing out that it's a more advanced OS family than is Windows.)
delluser123 05/05/07	Agreed, the Tech people that customers contact to get their problems resolve seem to know less than the customer.
rahul 05/09/07	You must understand that majority of the guys,who call up the dell call centres are out right dump, i know this because my friend is working there,so he keeps me posted, and they have to follow a set of rules always, so they are tied down.Don't make this a platform for racial slings....please.
inoeth 05/10/07	I had some initial problems with my Dell 8300 many years ago when i bought it, and although it took a little bit of time to get through to someone who actually knew that i knew what i was talking about, they were very helpful, although, there were some annoying people who were just reading scripts essentially, but Dell support i've found to be pretty decent, but it never hurts to improve the quality of the tech support staff.
peyre 05/11/07	Rahul, I don't think (though people may need to correct me) that the comments here about techs in India are because they're Indian, but because they're not very skilled. I think that the conception is that when Dell outsourced its support, it offloaded skilled technical staff and replaced them with not-very-technical people. You're probably right about them having their hands tied, though--good support centers encourage their techs to troubleshoot, whereas support centers run by bean counters make them read a script and limit their ability to actually solve problems, partly by pushing them to take more calls regardless of the circumstances.
rahul 05/15/07	Ya, peyre,i understand that really well,but then when dell outsource their support to a third party,dell also mo niters their performance and activity.What these third party does is, they ask the people(both tech as well as non-tech) to undergo a 3-4 weeks training, and later they absorb them into their organization.You must also understand that since these technical staffs are not employed by dell directly,they get very low pay, and what do you expect!
peyre 05/16/07	You're quite right that low pay gets you low-quality tech support--and outsourcing overseas is all about getting lower-paid techs. I think that's part of people's frustration with outsourced tech support.
cubico69 05/20/07	I'm not againts indian Tech support but most of the time they are smart,,but due to this superiority complex they tend to forget that dell customers should be treated with respect. Most of the time instead of finding resolution they blame you for being.. irate..then they try to fix issues..but most probably they would hurry up finishing the call or transfer the call to the philippines, which is good since filipinos would do everything to resolve customers issues, more reason why filipinos are called Brown Americans
phobic247 05/23/07	Well, as far as I know most of the Indians are pretty good when it comes to technical stuff. Most of time, its a problem with their communication skills and their attitude, though not all of them. I'm saying that because I've had a lot of experiences dealing with Indian call center agents. Dell customers might now know it but call center agents also have their metrics to think about. And most of the time, Indian techs do not care about resolving the customer's issues but they only care about their own metrics. But, it shouldn't be a problem I guess because Dell pulled their account off a few outsourcing industries in India.
bauksitt 05/25/07	i Thought india had plenty of computer rawkzors. Hire this guy
superd 06/12/07	"Us", "Them"... Pretty harsh words? It might surprise you that not all techs with an Eastern accent are from India, and not all of them are outsourced. In fact, a lot of techs at most of the North American call centers sound like they're from across the pond. You think it's redundant to ensure that all the plugs are plugged in? You'd be surprised at how many people go "Well, I thought it was - let me double check" - and hey presto, there's the issue. What you really want is good service. Vote for Dell's Geeks to Grandmas support if you want to be treated according to your knowledge level. Stereotyping sucks. Demoted.
ottbookworm 11/17/07	Gotta agree wtih superd here. Couldn't have said it better myself in fact. Add me to the demote list.
korbendalis Jan 11	"jaireaux" has an excellent point. If the customer is patient with the India Tech Support , the level of technical competency should be more that sufficient. The problem is not usually in technical comprehension, but in communication. Not only is it difficult for the Indian Tech to mentally comprehend the American, but for the American to comprehend the Indian.
petzymathuram Jan 12	FYI/ something to think about: (Not with Dell) Our Samsung washing machine had a problem, while spinning it got stuck up and the power trips down. Earlier the servicemen from the retail stores will visit within a couple of days and get it rectified. Now with the callcenters, we have to keep on calling them and it's nearly over a week without any improvement just stranded. While lodging the complaint, the customer service rep was unable to catch up the local Indian words...I really pity the US customers...hence I promote this... I wish I call up Dell india one day..but I am uncomfortable to call them. ...;)
pxleak Jan 23	I have nothing against Indians infact they are almost hardworking as any other asian nations. But with my experience with Dell CSR, I believe this statement is true. Majority of the indians I talked with for the last 5 yrs. are not incapable of knowing what type of customer I am and what I want. Recently I bought an M1530 I was transfered to so many departments and was on hold, hang up for two hours, all indians. I was still willing to get my notebook. The last Indian I talked with was patient and friendly enough to open a conversation and transfered me to a american sales rep. The only person who was able to help me was the last sales rep I talked too. But yeah majority of indians are ill-equiped for this job. That's what everyone gets when outsourcing and low pay demands it. Better training for any CSR is one way to go. Promote more call centers in my country Philippines and expand it. We need more jobs there plus they are more willing to resolve the problem.
texas1948 May 18	My experience with Indian techs has been almost uniformly bad, in part because they often seem not to know what they are doing, but mostly because of the communication gap. I am sure they are well-intentioned and may even be capable, but the language barrier is huge. I believe that it takes me at least twice as long on the phone due to "would you please repeat that" than it does with a native English speaker. This is not a ding on Indians as Indians, but on the very real mechanical problem of pronunciation/enunciation issues. When you consider that most people are pretty frustrated by the time they call Tech Support and add to that this communication issue, it leads to unhappy Dell customers, of which I am one. I have learned to allot a minimum of one hour for each call, more often two. Someone has suggested that the techs be based in the area from which the call comes so as to minimize/eliminate the communication issue, I support that. Why? Yesterday I spent over 2 hours with India with absolutely NO progress except higher blood pressure on my part. Today, 39 minutes with TS in Canada, a native English speaker and not only was my original problem fixed, but also another. I like Dell, but will not likely buy another for this reason.

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