I am not an idiot! - Dell IdeaStorm

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1360

I am not an idiot!

1360 points posted to Service and Support by zmaz 05/06/07

I'm not an idiot, so don't treat me like one! When I call the customer support hotline, I'm tired of being told to "click twice on the that looks like the world behind a brick wall" or something like that. Customer service reps should be able to recognize that if I'm asking, say, what port I need to open to do X or Y, or something of the like, I'm probably not a user who doesn't know how to turn the computer on. Instead, how about "You need to open port *number* UDP and port *number* TCP. Do you know how to do that?

Being told to first turn on my computer, then login is annoying, time-wasting, and is offensive to me, that I'm being treated like an idiot.

supaneko 05/06/07	Are the customer service reps. based in India? I swear, when I call tech. supports located in India, that is when they treat me like an idiot.
premcv 05/06/07	huh? Strange...
badblood 05/06/07	many are in India. Most recently a guy speaking to me said his name was Arnold - he had an Indian accent. I asked him where he lived and he said Mumbai. Arnold from Mumbai. He was really strange. I hung up in the end and found the answer to my problem through a Google search or two. Don't get me wrong I've had some really good ones, but Arnold was on the strange side. I was having problems getting a drive letter assigned to my external hard drive and his first suggestion was to do a complete drive recovery. We debated for about half an hour. If I had no computer knowledge I probably would have done what he advised. He probably tells everyone to do this for every little problem.
ccanni1028 05/06/07	The problem is that the "support agents" are in India and are following flow charts. That's why if you tell them you tested something already, they want you to do it again.
theonlyho 05/06/07	I read and watched a documentary in school how they talked about most jobs go to India because they're willing to work for lower payment. And they are actually taught how to speak english in many different accents and change their real name to a fake one for customer support.
sajchurchey 05/06/07	A better solution is to just ask the user about their experience level so that they can treat them appropriately. Some people do need to be spoken to like that.
shoerob 05/07/07	You have to remember that most people probably don't know as much as you do. Making an assumption that someone knows more then they actually do can make that person feel like an idiot or bad as well. Asking experience levels before proceeding with the fixes seems like a wise decision.
yahurd 05/11/07	bangalore, 24/7 handles dell i think anyway asking user experiance would be tricky, everyone likes to think of themselves as above the actual level, a good way to circumvent this is to pop-quiz them
twocows 05/11/07	The Dell Support person should first ask the person their level of computer expertise. Most computer users won't lie about that. If a consumer is an intermediate-level user, and the tech support person asks him a question he doesn't know, the consumer will simply ask what he means. I definitely think assessment of user expertise would be a good idea in the tech support field.
expatinasia 05/18/07	"The Dell Support person should first ask the person their level of computer expertise. Most computer users won't lie about that." Baloney, they all lie. No one wants to appear as a novice, and even the least knowledgeable will claim a high level of expertise. Women lie about their weight, men lie about their age, and computer users lie about their computings skills.
jsmooth42103 05/20/07	Agreed expantiniasia, some of the tech support guys aren't the best at being customer efficient. Personally, I would rather have a geek treating me with kid gloves to fix my issue rather than have a "nice guy" that can't fix anything. They probably think that a question of "What level are you?" might be just as offensive to some as starting out with simple commands. As you know and I know other users will over state their ability. I work in the field and recently a guy ordered a part online for his company. He told his boss he could install it but ends up in my shop. There are both sides to this coin. It's like choosing the lesser of two evils. Should they ask or not ask? Should they assume you know what you are doing or not?
jorge 05/31/07	Rant, not an Idea.
aikiwolfie 09/29/07	I don't think gauging user experience is that hard if the caller has already told you they've done X, Y and Z to resolve the problem. These will either be the correct steps to take or totally irrelevant to the problem. I certainly don't think there is any need to treat callers as though they are 5 year olds. If a user doesn't know what the support person is talking about they will normally ask for more help.
jdelidc 09/29/07	i'm with jorge

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