I'm usually a very patient and calm person, but there are moment of late that I haven't been. These moments usually start with a phone call to Hewlett-Packard's customer service line, ending a hour later with me cussing at the dead phone like it just insulted my entire family including my dog and my hamster.
Why?
It's a long story, but the gist of it is that my laptop has been in service for 2 months and I still haven't gotten it back. Plus it would seem all the case managers in HP seem to be too busy to deal with me, despite me calling in the morning, the evening, the afternoon, the beginning of their shift, the middle or the end. They're so diligent in fact, that of the 8 times their technicians say they'll call me back, they have called me zero times.
I was reading the other day about network theories and I was thinking why are there even a field of study there? It seems like things everyone should know, things like how people connect to each another and how to make that connection better comes naturally. You don't need lines and diagrams to tell you why A and B connects and why C is left out, its human nature to know how social network works. Even a socially inept person knows the rules of social network, they're just people that aren't motivated or is afraid to change what's making them inept.
However after speaking (or not speaking) to HP customer service, I understand why there's a need for network theories. Because BIG COMPANIES apparently loses sight of how to maintain good relationships with their customers. If they can't even do that, how do they manage their own employees?
I'm not sure where I'm going with this but I'm gonna be back later and elaborate after I marinate on this thought a little.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Theories For Dummies: Things everyone know, but apparently there's a need for doctors to explain it to you.
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3 comments:
I know EXACTLY what you mean. I called HP tech support two days ago (Saturday), and went through all the motions and gyrations to actually speak to someone. Once I was talking to him, I told him that I needed a printer power cable for a Photosmart 7660. He took down my information, and said "hang on a minute while I put your information into the system." I waited on hold (dead silence) for 6 minutes, 11 seconds, before the line suddenly went dead.
So, I called back, and went through the touch-tone menus and whatnot, and once the idiot-machine finally said, "Hang on while I connect you," a voicemail came on saying "We're sorry but our office is closed." So this leaves me sitting there, like "what the hell is going on?!"
Needless to say, I understand your frustration. As a computer technician I also have to call Dell and HP for my customers, and I have become quite familiar with how obnoxious the system is. Awesome post!
I can feel your pain. We have taken so many steps to improve communication, and this can be seen in tech support. I can email, im, and call someone to help me with just about any gadget I buy whenever I want. But of course, this communication that we so proudly have been able to create is only as good as the end users.
Are we really connecting better with each other or are we bogging ourselves down? Think of how many people are in the same situation as you. We have to know our limits, and this includes all of those tech supporters out there too. I think it's possible that we have made ourselves so accessible that we don't even know who to get back to first.
e chow!
with j. wilson, I know exactly what you are talking about. It is interesting to notice the differences in how certain companies deal with tech support issues - full automation, mr "george" in india or my favorite, obviously,straight to a domestic operator (you can pay extra with DELL to get this amazing service).
The core of our society, as with others, is based on communication... so why have we limited our alphabet to numbers... 1's and 0's. The ability to communicate efficiently and effectively is replaced with machines which seem to do the opposite.
That is why I love Apple so much. You talk to somebody who actually lives in America. I am from California, and one day I called Apple about some extended warranty I had. This was during the time of large fires in Cali. Well, the guy on the other end of the line was also based in Cali and we were both talking about how we could see the fires from where we were sitting. That definitely help make the experience more enjoyable - not the millions of dollars in damages to peoples homes, but the connection we instantly had.
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