Dealing with the Help - Customer Service and technical help

[Guest]

Anybody have pointers on how to deal with customer service when they just aren't getting you anywhere? I know this going to be a bit vague, but techical support and customer service seems a part of the trappings of camera work.


I have exchange something like 10 emails each way over the course of a week. And in the end I narrowed it down to a yes or know question, and still didn't get that, but was replied to by a different person and given the same BS (sometimes inaccurate, but never answering my number one question).

Initially I had not been too direct allowing them room for a creative answer, but as I got increasingly direct, or as I finally got the answer back to something as clear as a "yes or no", and then... nothing... They just didn't reply.

So, I tried again, and was much more concise and direct from the start. Again the BS answers sounding like they were generated from a keyword search engine, but not as good as google. Eventually I gave them a history of answers they had given me already (as I noticed it was a different person replying each time), and asked the question, telling them it was a simple "yes or no" question.... and again.... nothing.... still waiting.

It is frustrating, and not sure what other methods to use and I don't really want to complain about a company, I want answers to my questions. Haha. simple right?


...On a brighter note!
Recently I was corresponding with Cineroid, and while slow in reply by modern standards, they actually answered every single one of my questions with concise clarity. (6 questions total) Amazing!

But this other company is awful.

Thanks

 

[Guest]

(also, sorry for the title, I was looking for something a bit sassy, but really, I do not see technical service in any way other than talking to specialists.)

 

[Andrius Simutis]

Talk to the sales and marketing people. They usually won't have an answer either, but they'll get on the case of tech support if they fear that they'll lose a customer over it.

 

[capt chuck]

I used to work as a customer support engineer so I may have some insight that can help you.

Our organization was broken up into tiers I was a tier 3 engineer, if I couldn't answer the question it went to the factory engineers. Before a question got to me a tier 1 and tier 2 person looked at it first. It sounds like in your case you may not be getting past a tier 1 person who may not be very technically savvy, they may just be using a knowledge base of frequently asked questions (getting the same answers from different people suggest this as well). In general companies are reluctant to go up the tiers because each step costs them more money. It sounds like you have tried some of the steps I'll mention below, but here are some general suggestions.

1. establish your credibility... mention that you've tried this or that, or you've looked in the manual and it doesn't answer the question fully
2. if you've asked before and gotten an incomplete answer, let them know of this history and that you need more.
3. Try to get to the higher tiers. Phrases like " .. if you are unsure, please refer to a specialist for this product", "... do not hesitate to escalate this to find the answer", etc. could help
4. Try different communications media, if email doesn't work try live phone or chat
5. If going with live communications, try calling at different times
6. In the case of the yes/no question let them know that bad news is better than no news. Some agents are somewhat defensive about their product and don't want to reveal a weakness. So they may not want to tell you that cam x5zk can't record at 60p. If you say something in the question like, "it would be great if it could...., but if it can't I'll go to plan B, it would just be nice to know for sure..."

Also Andrius is right that the sales and marketing folks can help, they carry a good amount of clout in the call center.

I hope this helps some and good luck.

 

[Guest]

I used to work as a customer support engineer so I may have some insight that can help you.

Our organization was broken up into tiers I was a tier 3 engineer, if I couldn't answer the question it went to the factory engineers. Before a question got to me a tier 1 and tier 2 person looked at it first. It sounds like in your case you may not be getting past a tier 1 person who may not be very technically savvy, they may just be using a knowledge base of frequently asked questions (getting the same answers from different people suggest this as well). In general companies are reluctant to go up the tiers because each step costs them more money. It sounds like you have tried some of the steps I'll mention below, but here are some general suggestions.

1. establish your credibility... mention that you've tried this or that, or you've looked in the manual and it doesn't answer the question fully
2. if you've asked before and gotten an incomplete answer, let them know of this history and that you need more.
3. Try to get to the higher tiers. Phrases like " .. if you are unsure, please refer to a specialist for this product", "... do not hesitate to escalate this to find the answer", etc. could help
4. Try different communications media, if email doesn't work try live phone or chat
5. If going with live communications, try calling at different times
6. In the case of the yes/no question let them know that bad news is better than no news. Some agents are somewhat defensive about their product and don't want to reveal a weakness. So they may not want to tell you that cam x5zk can't record at 60p. If you say something in the question like, "it would be great if it could...., but if it can't I'll go to plan B, it would just be nice to know for sure..."

Also Andrius is right that the sales and marketing folks can help, they carry a good amount of clout in the call center.

I hope this helps some and good luck.

Thank so much! I tried your steps, and got my answers. All bad news, haha, but at least I have my answers now. Thank you so much. Really good advice.

I didn't have to try the sale rep route, but will definitely keep that in the arsenal. Again, thank you guys!