Something I have noticed a lot lately is contacting support via email options instead of using the phone is a lot faster (with regards to time you spend on an issue). This seems to hold true for both computer and non-computer related incidents.
As you probably know, when you call you typically have to navigate an automated system and then wait on hold to get to an actual person, but when you send an email you can be terse and send it off quickly. The good thing about sending an email is an actual person will read it and although the response may be canned, you at least have a starting point/case number in the event you need to call.
Has anyone else noticed this or are your experiences different?
Jason Faulkner is the man who brings you our daily tips. He is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Yes, I had faced simillar situation. E-mail option was much simpler & fast.
Jason, wish that was the case but I was dealing with some poor documentation on a Raid Hard drive enclosure the other day and I thought that it would be easier to email the companies support instead of calling. Well I have yet to hear back from my email but a day later I called in and got the support I was looking for immediately.
I guess you can describe support as hit or miss at best.
Support is a crazy thing, I use one of the largest email newsletter companies to send out my weekly eNewsletters and Marketing and when there is issues with their system or going down for maintenance they post the issue on their Blog…errr…ahhh…instead of emailing their customers. Just last week I saw on an RSS feed (a day after the fact) that they were having an issue with anyone who wanted to send an email. Pretty serious stuff since it is the core of what they do for us but I had to post a comment on their blog about it before anyone took notice which they basically blew me off by saying that they had over 150K customers and it would take to long to email everyone if they did that? Hello…this is your business…they don’t get it and all I can do it change companies which I am actively looking to do right now.
Bottom line support is very important.
Yes, we have found this to be true but we have also encountered the situation of email going backward and forward because of the canned replies.
We have found that the best way to reduce this and get a fast response is to log support calls directly into the vendors call system where possible. HP are one Vendor that have this facility. Of course when logging calls this way you need to be very specific and supply detailed information