Normally, i deal with customers too stupid and/or lazy to RTFM on the software they’re trying to install, let alone hardware, and considering the average (lack of) technical skill of my customers, that’s actually a good thing that they don’t try, still, just once, i’d like to see a customer have the cojones to try a hardware install themselves, it’s really not that hard when you come down to it
today, i met that customer, he needed to install an optical drive in his 12" PowerBook G4, even though he’d never taken apart a powerbook in his life, he wanted to try to do the install himself (yes, his machine is out of warranty), he’s still in the process now, and seems to be doing okay, the 12" AlBook isn’t the easiest thing to dissasemble, but given his lack of experience, it’s not affecting him too badly
oh, and did i mention the customer has a mild case of cerebral palsy? doesn’t seem to be slowing him down one bit
i just wish more people would try the simple hardware repairs themselves and not be afraid that their machines will explode if they touch the wrong button…
I replaced the hard drive in my old 12" iBook. As you know, not the easiest process, but I only ended up breaking one little tab that holds the case together (damn those things are buggers if you don’t know exactly how to apply pressure).
Anyway, the whole time I was doing it, I envisioned taking a bag of parts to the local repair shop, looking very sheepish. I imagined the tech’s response would be “dumbass”, not admiration for at least trying.
It’s all in the attitude of the customer, if you brought the aforementioned bag o’ parts to the service counter and were honest “i tried replacing the hard drive and i think i damaged something, could you take a look at it please”, we may snicker a bit, but we’d appreciate your honesty, and heck, if you were reasonable, would probably show you where you went wrong and how not to do it again
however, if you came up to the counter with a “you will fix this NOW and i don’t care what you need to drop to fix it, i need it YESTERDAY!” or other confrontational attitude, you’d get the expected scorn, in other words, if we percieve you as being a jerk, especially if you caused the problem we’re trying to fix, you’ll get the bare minimum service, and we will NOT show you what you did wrong or show you how to prevent it from happening again
it’s all in the way you approach the service techs, we’re trained professionals, if you treat us as such, you’ll get exceptional customer service, treat us like your servants and you’ll get the absolute bare minimum required by store policy
the customer in my OP approached us with respect for our knowledge, and got exceptional service
For every caller that I get who says “I can’t get the FunkyBanking application to work. I tried logging in on a co-worker’s PC and it worked there just fine, but on my PC, half of the menus are for Thai take-out instead of loan processing, so it looks like there’s a problem with the startup script. I know you don’t normally handle this, but the guy in our office that does is on holiday, so I was wondering if you might be able to assist me with it?” I get far too many “I need a password” callers.
Literally, that’s all they say when I answer the phone. “I need a password!” For what, I’ll enquire. Half the time, the response is “The system.” Ooh, that narrows it down to about a dozen primary systems we support, some of which contain thirty or so separate applications. Ya better believe I try to get these jokers off my line just as fast as humanly possible.
I want to take this opportunity to pat myself on the back. I have zero training on the guts of a hard drive.
A few months ago I, by myself, installed a dvd player/burner in my computer.
The guy at Best Buy said I probably couldn’t do it by myself. So I read the instructions about 15 times and took it step by step.
It was intimidating, but I did it! I even had to go buy some power extension sort of thing at Radio Shack. Fun buying the right thing when I really didn’t know what I was doing.
Go me! I think most people are just in too much of a hurry. The trick is to take it slow and read the instructions several times until it begins to make sense.
I’ve never taken a computer to a store to be fixed - actually, I’ve never broken one! But I’d never used one before 1999, and although it was a steep learning curve, I’ve figured out enough about them on my own and with some help from friends that I can do anything necessary without tech support. I remember how terrified I was when I upgraded from Win95 to Win98, but when it worked and the motherboard didn’t emit sparks, I figured it couldn’t be too bad. I moved up to Win2K. I’ve replaced hard drives, installed second hard drives, CD and DVD drives, replaced power supplies, configured the cable modem, put in new memory, installed network and sound and video cards, all without incident. The only time we needed outside help was to configure our home network and router. One of my wife’s co-workers and his friend in the IT department at their company came over and did it for us. If not for them, it wouldn’t have worked, because I couldn’t make heads or tails of it, and even they had some difficulty. I could not imagine spending hours on hold with some tech support place, with some kid talking down to me like I was a moron.
There are millions of things I don’t know about computers. But stuff like installing drives and PCI cards and RAM is dead easy. After you’ve read the instructions, well, I won’t say you can’t screw it up, but if you did, you weren’t paying attention.
It is, afterall, just a machine with parts. I have no formal training but have replaced a a couple of power supplies, a cd drive, installed a DSL modem, and a floppy disk drive. Have also, with the help of some good Dopers, brought a dead machine back to life. Several times. (My Dad, the engineer, never quite mastered the art of computing without killing your computer.)
On the other hand, I’ve called tech support at my ISP several times only to realize as I’m on the phone with them that I wasn’t typing out my full user name or that my DSL line was unplugged. :o
But as I stumbled through my caffeine-deprived apologies, they were good sports about it. "Really, I’m not usually this stupid. I swear I’ve never once used my cd drive as a cup holder…"
Be polite to the person you are asking for help. Duh.
Computers are just hunks of metal and plastic. What’s the worst that can happen? (Hmm, let’s see, I fried one processor when I installed it backwards. Not to bad for 10 years of fiddling with no training)
Ohh, a third one.
Back it up BEFORE you try and remove the guts from your computer.
MacTech, where are you? I have an iBook that needs help, and the “geniuses” at the Apple Store in NYC peeved me so greatly with their smug little attitudes that I loathe the idea of giving my baby to them. I will come to you, honestly, because I like the way that you think.
Dear gawd I love you guys. As a former A.A.S.P. tech, (and owner of dozens of small plastic canines) I agree with ya. I think the folks who dare to take their stuff apart also are more willing to learn, which also makes for a good customer.
I miss those days in the trenches, but admin is kinda nice too.
The only time I’ve ever called tech support was when the power supply went in my Dell. I had assumed that that was the problem before I called, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to try. Now, I’m pretty computer savvy, but I had never stripped a motherboard before. It went fine, but that was because the only new part to me was being able to remove the heatsink and CPU (boards and RAM I’m more familiar with, as well as disconnecting drives.) Why the hell would Dell try to make a customer strip his computer with advice over the phone? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
I’ll tell you what I hate when I call tech support. When the person at the other end refuses to go off script. Look, I’ve been using computers since I was four, starting with a 286 running MS-DOS 3.3 or 4 and Windows 3.0. I’m not a power user by any means, but I’m not a newbie either. So please, if you start telling me to go into the Control Panel and start giving click-by-click instructions, and I tell you that sort of detail is not needed, listen! If I need help with something, I’ll ask. I’ll confirm what you want me to do. I’ll do my best to not be mad after being put on hold for the last hour and will be as unfailing polite as possible. But I don’t need my hand held, slowing the process down.
Talking as the other person on the other end of the phone… I love to get customers like you. I can easily go off script, and do so whenever possible, but, some of my co workers can only think in one path, so they have to follow it to make sure they did all the troubleshooting right. Needless to say I have been doing this for several years and average lifespan is about 5 months. Honestly the only customer I dread getting is the one that refuses to reboot, and hasn’t rebooted in the last 3 weeks, then wonders why nothing works. :smack:
