[Suikolove]

I'm sure you've all had this happen to you before: Your computer develops an annoying and/or serious problem, and you call the official tech support phone line for help, and after what seems like an hour of talking to automated machines and redirection operators, the actual person who comes on the line to give you support has an accent that you can't understand. 95% of the time, you end up with a technician who sounds like he can barely understand English.

Is Apple Care like this, or if I tell those machines "English" as my language of choice, will I more often than not get someone with an American or Canadian accent?

[Big Mac]

Apple outsources its low level tech support like most other Fortune 500 companies (unless something has changed in the last couple of years). You get a script read to you from India, and if your problem doesn't get fixed by the script you will get transferred to a higher level American tech.

[Suikolove]

I just hang up after ten minutes of trying to understand the tech...

[NobleMatt]

little tip, works for UK dont know about US if ur phone a company and its automated and u just dont wanna go down the road just rapidly press 'Hash, Zero, Hash, Zero, Hash, Zero, Hash, Zero, Hash, Zero, Hash, Zero, Hash, Zero,' ect and it usually Crash's the phone system and sends u straight to a live breathing person to sort ur problem out.

I bought Apple Care, was it the right thing to do?

Matt

[olePigeon]

I have never run into an Indian person when dealing with Apple Care.

If you're super paranoid, you can take it into an Apple Store and talk to someone there.

[ginoledesma]

Most of the calls I've had with AppleCare are much, much, much better than average. You still run through the automated voice response system (give your Mac model, business/residence/educational/government use, etc), but you'll usually end up right with an AppleCare Support specialist.

They still go through the scripts, but in my experience, a number of them are smart enough to think outside the box (e.g. I usually tell them I've done the steps in a KnowledgeBase article or something) and they skip my right to it. Rarely have I encountered the "heavily accented outsourced personnel".

Oh and one nice thing with it is that after the call, they usually send you an email survey. I've left some remarks in the past indicating how the agent could have handled the call better. To my surprise, in one of those surveys, I got a call back from a QA supervisor and gave me credits/discount at the online Apple Store. :-)

[JustinHorne]

I've only called twice, and had a (very caffinated ) American person both times, so a thumbs up from me.

[Suikolove]

Ah, mixed reviews. Well, my problem is, I cannot understand accents that are not American or Canadian, no matter how hard I try. I'm not being racist or picky, it's just I can't understand them AT ALL.

[OreoCookie]

What is it you want to know from the tech support?
Why don't you either ask us or go to an Apple Store?

[Suikolove]

Actually, OreoCookie... I've never thought of that. =\

[silverflyer]

Applecare is well worth it, they will answer damn near anything you want to ask them, and they do it with an american accent.

I have been nothing but pleased with my calls to Applecare and will get it on every mac I buy in the future.

[peeb]

Well worth it - have never spoken to someone who didn't speak fluent English.

[bighill]

Applecare gets my vote as well. It seems to me to be a step above, just like everything
else Apple does.

I just had to (try to) fix a router for my young niece. Netgear support...OH MY GOD, 2 hours
on the phone with India, (I asked) then the guy starts sucking up at the end trying to get me
to give him a good rating. I actually felt sorry for him.

[OreoCookie]

Even in Japan, they were able to connect me to someone with good English (hard to find in Japan!) … obviously not a native speaker though.

[Suikolove]

Well, I can understand Japanese more than I can understand bad English accents.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by Suikolove 

Well, I can understand Japanese more than I can understand bad English accents.

Hommaya?
Outsourcing to other countries is a common thing (the European call center for Apple is located in Cork, Ireland, many other big companies have call centers in Ireland). If you really cannot understand these people (which I find hard to believe), go to the next level of support, go to a store or let someone else handle the phone call.
(Just one last piece of information: Indians don't have `bad accents' anymore than Irish, Scots or Australians, it's their own accent. Personally, I have a much harder time to understand Irish than Indians.)

[Suikolove]

I can't understand English, Irish, Scottish, or Australian accents, either...

[EndlessMac]

Apple is not the only one outsourcing their tech help. For example I had to get some help through Dell's tech support for my Dad's computer and I got someone from India. It's just a sign of the times. I think it really depends on the problem you have.

For Dell it seems the more advanced problems have American workers while the common problems are outsourced to India where they can afford to hire more workers. The very basic questions are given to the robot automated service.

[chris v]

My last call to Apple Care got me an Indian, but he was helpful, knowedgeable, and spoke pretty good english. I had to ask him to repeat a couple of things, but I think my crappy cell phone can be blamed for part of that.

[PhotoBug]

ya i have gotten and indian guy before, he seemed very helpful and while at times he would slip up i could understand him well.