Brain Dead Tech Support (This one's a good laugh)

[Tom]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

I got this off a computer forum. A lady sent an email to what GW
calls their "Tech Support" asking them if the results she got from
doing a recalibration on her battery was "acceptable" results or if
she needed to purchase a new battery.

The Brilliant GW Techie replied telling her to do a recalibration on
her battery and then gave her detailed instructions on how to do that
even after putting a quote of her original message in his reply where
she already told the Idiot that she did the recalibration and what the
results were.

I now understand why GW is going belly up. With brain dead techies
like this Aaron (Badge GWPE123), I can see why. Actually, I had to
read the message two times because first time through I couldn't
believe a company tech could be so brain dead and that I must have
missed something in my reading what happened. But second & third time
through showed that what I had read was right… GW has brain dead
zombies impersonating what the industry would normally call a support
tech.

I copied the message from the forum for your amusement:

[Snip beginning of Forum Message]

*********************************************************
Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Message Body: We have noticed that this system is starting to get less
than 1/2 hour's normal usage on battery (normal meaning running office
applications only, NO hardware such as disk drive usage). As suggested
per our last chat with GW tech support for Business Systems, we
recalibrated the battery by doing the "Learning" maintenance routine
in the BIOS Setup.

The results were:

Capacity Before Learning: 3325 mAH
Capacity After Learning: 2204 mAH

Looks like a pretty good drop to me.
What is your assessment?
Do I need a New Battery?

Thanks Xxxxx Xxxxx



Brain Dead GW Tech Reply:
-------------------------

Hello Xxxxx,

Thank you for using Gateway's Online E-mail Support. Xxxxx, I see
that you have some issue with your portable battery.

I suggest you recalibrate you battery to determine its condition.

How do you recalibrate the battery?

[Snip instructions]

Thank you.

Aaron
Badge GWPE123
Online Customer Support Team
Gateway
*********************************************************

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

> just sending out canned computer generated responses without the need
> to tap any mental resources in the process, then why not just staff a
> support center with monkeys which can be taught to send out canned
> computer generated responses and they work for bananas instead of
> whatever they pay in India.

It's interesting that you said this. I also provided tech support for a
"major" Internet provider (not AOL) whose customer service seemed to me to
be much worse than that of Gateway. I quit (after securing another job
first, of course) because I couldn't stand the company's approach to
customer service. After doing so, I sent a five page rant to their company
headquarters concerning their customer service, closing with something like
"If it's trained monkeys you would like manning your phones, then maybe you
should think about outsourcing to the San Diego Zoo..." Never got a reply

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 23:58:49 -0600, "pengulin" <apes@nd.edu> wrote:

>> just sending out canned computer generated responses without the need
>> to tap any mental resources in the process, then why not just staff a
>> support center with monkeys which can be taught to send out canned
>> computer generated responses and they work for bananas instead of
>> whatever they pay in India.
>
>It's interesting that you said this. I also provided tech support for a
>"major" Internet provider (not AOL) whose customer service seemed to me to
>be much worse than that of Gateway. I quit (after securing another job
>first, of course) because I couldn't stand the company's approach to
>customer service. After doing so, I sent a five page rant to their company
>headquarters concerning their customer service, closing with something like
>"If it's trained monkeys you would like manning your phones, then maybe you
>should think about outsourcing to the San Diego Zoo..." Never got a reply
>

I just had my first dealing with Gateway email support. I have a bad
DVD I discovered Friday. It looks ok in Windows, and if you do a
right click and eject, that works. But if you put media in it, it
doesn't see it. When I wrote them, and told them what I did like try
different media, check cables, etc, the tech, Gabe wrote back saying
to send shipping info, and submit credit card data via a web page.
That was in a matter of a hour.

Great right???

That was Saturday. I responded on Monday with the info. Of course
another tech, Gerald writes back and wants me to run PC Doctor on the
drive. I had already took it out, so I put it back in. Of course it
didn't see the media. I wrote a again with the results and told them
I was upset about what started out as great service is now turing
into a run around.

Then I get a third tech, Nikii saying she would replace my Hard Drive
and wanted to know what part number I had. Of course I had to write a
bit stern message back asking if they read the info in the service
request record. The issue was the DVD.....HELLOOOO!

How I got such a great tech the first time, and went down hill from
there, is beyond me. Now supposedly I do have a DVD on the way per a
second email from Nikii. Time will tell

I did do the user survey for each one and told them the first guy
should get a raise. He got high marks and the others very low. I bet
"Gabe" the good guy gets fired for making it to easy.



--

You know what to do: shdb at slip dot net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

I had a bad DVD/CD writer which failed after warmup and went thru the email
support routine with totally unsatisfactory results. Finally called in on a
Sunday evening to their 800 telephone number (completely frustrated) and
explained the situation to a real person - they took my information and had
a new drive shipped and it arrived 3 days later (Wednesday).

When my video card failed I called immediately to the 800 number and had the
same results. In my opinion the email routine is a farce, if you want
service call direct (don't know what to tell you if you get a foreign accent
though)!

Tom
"See signature below" <fake_address@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e7l1415hsklgo8cmv5cedd5dgsamg1ib5q@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 23:58:49 -0600, "pengulin" <apes@nd.edu> wrote:
>
>>> just sending out canned computer generated responses without the need
>>> to tap any mental resources in the process, then why not just staff a
>>> support center with monkeys which can be taught to send out canned
>>> computer generated responses and they work for bananas instead of
>>> whatever they pay in India.
>>
>>It's interesting that you said this. I also provided tech support for a
>>"major" Internet provider (not AOL) whose customer service seemed to me to
>>be much worse than that of Gateway. I quit (after securing another job
>>first, of course) because I couldn't stand the company's approach to
>>customer service. After doing so, I sent a five page rant to their
>>company
>>headquarters concerning their customer service, closing with something
>>like
>>"If it's trained monkeys you would like manning your phones, then maybe
>>you
>>should think about outsourcing to the San Diego Zoo..." Never got a reply
>>
>
> I just had my first dealing with Gateway email support. I have a bad
> DVD I discovered Friday. It looks ok in Windows, and if you do a
> right click and eject, that works. But if you put media in it, it
> doesn't see it. When I wrote them, and told them what I did like try
> different media, check cables, etc, the tech, Gabe wrote back saying
> to send shipping info, and submit credit card data via a web page.
> That was in a matter of a hour.
>
> Great right???
>
> That was Saturday. I responded on Monday with the info. Of course
> another tech, Gerald writes back and wants me to run PC Doctor on the
> drive. I had already took it out, so I put it back in. Of course it
> didn't see the media. I wrote a again with the results and told them
> I was upset about what started out as great service is now turing
> into a run around.
>
> Then I get a third tech, Nikii saying she would replace my Hard Drive
> and wanted to know what part number I had. Of course I had to write a
> bit stern message back asking if they read the info in the service
> request record. The issue was the DVD.....HELLOOOO!
>
> How I got such a great tech the first time, and went down hill from
> there, is beyond me. Now supposedly I do have a DVD on the way per a
> second email from Nikii. Time will tell
>
> I did do the user survey for each one and told them the first guy
> should get a raise. He got high marks and the others very low. I bet
> "Gabe" the good guy gets fired for making it to easy.
>
>
>
> --
>
> You know what to do: shdb at slip dot net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 08:35:49 -0700, "Tom Clydesdale"
<t.clydesdale.nospam@comcast.net> wrote:

>I had a bad DVD/CD writer which failed after warmup and went thru the email
>support routine with totally unsatisfactory results. Finally called in on a
>Sunday evening to their 800 telephone number (completely frustrated) and
>explained the situation to a real person - they took my information and had
>a new drive shipped and it arrived 3 days later (Wednesday).
>
>When my video card failed I called immediately to the 800 number and had the
>same results. In my opinion the email routine is a farce, if you want
>service call direct (don't know what to tell you if you get a foreign accent
>though)!

I did phone support to Gateway for a lady friend twice a few years
back. It was a video card first, and it went very well since he
understood what I had done, and didn't have me repeat useless tests,
and a CD-RW then second time, and it went well. I did have to redo
some test that I already did.

The sad part is with Gateway and Dell ( I had VERY bad luck with them)
and others, is I am sure doing email support is a lot cheaper for
their bottom line, especially for people who are a bit on the advanced
side of computer problem fixing. If only those techs would read!!!!

--

You know what to do: shdb at slip dot net