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typoon · Dec 3, 2002, 11:44 AM

What is the longest time you've spent on the phone with tech support? With which company? Yesterday I spent 2 hours on the phone with DELL. Or should I say HELL. I hate DELL tech support.

Brien · Dec 3, 2002, 12:19 PM

Originally posted by typoon:
What is the longest time you've spent on the phone with tech support? With which company? Yesterday I spent 2 hours on the phone with DELL. Or should I say HELL. I hate DELL tech support.

Lets see... 4 hours for my mom's HP... ZzZzZZzZZZZzZZz

typoon · Dec 3, 2002, 12:28 PM

Originally posted by brien:

Lets see... 4 hours for my mom's HP... ZzZzZZzZZZZzZZz

DAMN 4 hours? You must have been ready to shoot yourself by then

Buck_Naked · Dec 3, 2002, 12:43 PM

Once, for my new NetGear router. Took all of 15 minutes before I realized those Morons in India could not be any less helpful.

I have never had to call Apple for tech support.

6100: Flawless until retired
8500: Flawless until retired
G4/400: Still running strong.
Dual800: never a problem.

daimoni · 08:10 PM

.

wdlove · Dec 3, 2002, 12:55 PM

Not being tech savy myself I've been on with Apple Edu Technical support, ~40 minutes. I've found them to be very knowledgeable, helpful, & friendly, thats why Apple support gets high ratings!

beb · Dec 3, 2002, 01:58 PM

I called Quark four days ago, I'm still on hold.

typoon · Dec 3, 2002, 02:41 PM

Originally posted by beb:
I called Quark four days ago, I'm still on hold.

Can't be any worse than AOHELL. "All representavies are busy please call back later." That is if you can get hold of them when you call them again. After waiting on hold for an hour just to get this message.

maxelson · Dec 3, 2002, 03:04 PM

God help me, ASPYR. Gave up on phone. Been a week emailing back and forth on the same issue.
The guy has given me so many solutions I think he is losing track. "Nope. We covered that one already. You want me to do that again?"

At least with Apple's Technician support I am jumping straight to professional support. No first level guy with a flip book in front of him.

Oh. I did have AOL on the speakerphone for a couple of hours once. Hold. Music. Hrm.

calamar1 · Dec 3, 2002, 03:43 PM

3+ years.

I am Tech Support.

maxelson · Dec 3, 2002, 03:48 PM

Who you working with, Newton boy? Anyone I know?

Anomalous · Dec 3, 2002, 03:51 PM

Probably about an hour, with the mail order catalog companies.

scottiB · Dec 3, 2002, 03:54 PM

Once, for my new NetGear router. Took all of 15 minutes before I realized those Morons in India could not be any less helpful.

Two hours with Linksys, setting up a wireless router for a friend: the poor Indian woman on the other end could scarcely speak English--she wanted to help, and was more frustrated than I.

agentz · Dec 3, 2002, 04:03 PM

In recent times the longest I've probably spent on the phone to tech people is probably around 35 minutes with Dell (not TS however, product development teams) and no more than 20 minutes with Apple Assistance.

However in my current job I occasionally have to do first line support (as opposed to 2nd or even 3rd) and a few weeks ago I had an end user on the phone for like 45 minutes trying to talk them through a fairly simple process.

Prior to that I used to do weekend shifts in the call centre for BSkyB (UK's sole digital DTH satellite broadcaster) doing initially tech support, then retail support then engineer support. My first weekend out of training on the floor I had a punter on the phone for over an hour and a half arguing with me - she wanted to claim a replacement remote control under warranty because her dog had eaten it.

When I worked engineer support (which also doubled as a customer care role) the longest call I ever took was a smidge under two hours - an incredibly irate customer ranting in my ear for that length of time. Sheesh.

Retail support was great becuase weekend calls tended to last only a few minutes as all my team did was to take calls from shops, take customer details and contract numbers then issue them a viewing card ref number - I once managed to get through 194 calls on one eight our Saturday shift.

G4ME · Dec 3, 2002, 04:06 PM

i own a mac damnit what the hell is tech support.

although I have spent about 2 hours total over a 7 call period with different ISPs and configuring and other such quick calls.

Lerkfish · Dec 3, 2002, 04:13 PM

I recall once being on hold a total of 5 hours for HP when system 9 first came out and they didn't have a driver for my printer...It did transfer 3 times in that call, but I didn't get a real conversation for 5 hours. Luckily I had speakerphone and they had nice hold music so I continued to work on the computer.

At the end I actually got an honest person who said "honestly, our mac market share is so small I can't tell you when we'll ever get that driver up. And 6 months later they still didn't have it, so I sold my HP printer on ebay and bought an epson, which has served me well since.

typoon · Dec 3, 2002, 04:31 PM

Originally posted by calamar1:
3+ years.

I am Tech Support.

Same.

cheerios · Dec 3, 2002, 04:44 PM

Easter Sunday, last year, about an hour, I was sick as a dog, and the guy walked me through figureing out wtf was up w/ my poor iMac. we hung up when he went to consult w/ the engineers 'cuz i had a prob he'd never seen before. Props to that guy, he was nice and patient. god, i was sick...

ReggieX · Dec 3, 2002, 05:36 PM

45 minutes waiting to talk to the people who made this insanely expensive CD writing software for the Mac, it was dongle-protected and everything. My boss, being an idiot, had bought it because it was so expensive, figuring "It MUST be good!"

Erm, no. I decided it would be a great idea to make all our Director CD-ROM products hybrid discs instead of just ISO-9660, because Macs read those slower that HFS. I read their giant manual, trying to figure out how to make this damn hybrid, nothing worked. Finally broke down, called their non-free tech-support hotline, waited 45 minutes to just talk to someone, and 30 minutes after that he figured out that I didn't need to do 90% of what was in the manual.

A few weeks later another department got Toast 3 with a CD writer they bought, so I just copied it over to our machine, and Voila! Hybrid projects, perfect masters for replication, and a successful backup system.

Toast ruled. Then they started screwing with all the settings and it's a complete pain in the ass to make custom Hybrid discs. Thanks, morons.

My only hardware-related tech call was for a bad Micropolis HD in my Power Computing clone. It was a known issue, and I was on the phone for maybe 10 minutes to get an RMA number. They sent me a brand new Seagate, I shipped them back the crap HD, all easy as pie.
That Seagate is still going strong, 4.5 years later.

Jens Peter · Dec 3, 2002, 06:04 PM

Half an hour with Palm Nordic support. I got this swedish woman on the line, and she could not understand my danish and I didn't understand her swedish. It took a long time before a danish supporter was available...
And with my first ISP, I guess it was like 1-2 hours/week. I even got my personal supporter.

Jens Peter

libraryguy · Dec 3, 2002, 06:53 PM

I spent over 3.5 hours on tech support the Packard Bell. It was nearly 6 years ago. It was my first computer and it ran windows 3.11!! Way back then I din't know anything about Macs so please forgive me

Anyway, after that incident, and seeing my uncles new PowerMac 7100 (I think) I got rid of the Packard Bell and got my self a Performa 6300CD...been a mac fan ever since!

OwlBoy · Dec 3, 2002, 08:25 PM

Originally posted by typoon:

Same.

May I ask for who on both of you?

Just wondering.

I found it interesting that I called Charter for some help once with my cable internet and I ended up talking to a mac user.

-Owl

chris v · 08:49 PM

Originally posted by ReggieX:

My only hardware-related tech call was for a bad Micropolis HD in my Power Computing clone. It was a known issue, and I was on the phone for maybe 10 minutes to get an RMA number. They sent me a brand new Seagate, I shipped them back the crap HD, all easy as pie.
That Seagate is still going strong, 4.5 years later.

Yeah, same thing with me. Power Computing had good customer service. It was a real shame the clone thing didn't work out. My Power Center 150 has just been rock solid.

I once spent 2 hours on hold with QPS (on my dime) to be told that Apple was wrong when they said my CD-RW drive was supported, then refused to help me.

CV

JFischel · Dec 3, 2002, 08:42 PM

I don't know if this counts...but any one remember what a freaking fiasco it was when Handspring first released the Visor? It was such a mess you had to spend 3 or 4 hours on the phone wating to get your credit cleared up. They ended up sending me two of the machines, charged me for four when I only ordered one! On top of that it came in the wrong color. A MESS!

Josh

calamar1 · Dec 4, 2002, 10:45 AM

Originally posted by maxelson:
Who you working with, Newton boy? Anyone I know?

Hehhe... i work for a CAD software company, which should narrow it down to a few. i work for the big one in needham that is despised by both customers and competitors alike.

typoon · Dec 4, 2002, 10:46 AM

Originally posted by OwlBoy:

May I ask for who on both of you?

Just wondering.

I found it interesting that I called Charter for some help once with my cable internet and I ended up talking to a mac user.

-Owl

I work for an ISP here in the repbilic of New Jersey

Cipher13 · Dec 4, 2002, 10:51 AM

Optus, don't know how long, mostly with me telling them they don't know how to run a ****ing ISP, and describing my knowledge of how their system works in ways they don't tell the customers about. I ended up getting a lot of info admitted to me by accident, actually.

Goddamn I hate Optus.

Best service lately? Xerox. Apple might rank high, but I don't call them... I am tech support.

Xerox; I was on the phone for about 10 mins trying this, that and the other (which I explained I'd already tried), before they decided they'd send somebody out the next morning.

Mulattabianca · Dec 4, 2002, 10:55 AM

15-20 minutes.

Mac Zealot · Dec 4, 2002, 05:26 PM

One time I called apple support at around 10AM.

We didn't get off the phone until 1PM. I'm not joking. And it was mostly on hold, on hold, on hold. Gah. I hate tech support!

maxelson · Dec 5, 2002, 09:46 AM

Originally posted by calamar1:

Hehhe... i work for a CAD software company, which should narrow it down to a few. i work for the big one in needham that is despised by both customers and competitors alike.

Hey! I know just the one! In fact we have a dribbles of your product lurking around here... how are they to work for?

calamar1 · Dec 5, 2002, 10:02 AM

Originally posted by maxelson:

Hey! I know just the one! In fact we have a dribbles of your product lurking around here... how are they to work for?

Not bad at all. Not as cushy as it used to be, but then, what is?

Doing support for a complex 3d software program over the phone is an adventure, though, and always has been. Sometimes a good adventure, but just as often it's pretty nuts. It's very telling that i'm one of the senior people here, and am not that old--it's a high burnout kind of thing.

ollio · Dec 5, 2002, 10:26 AM

Originally posted by G4ME:
i own a mac damnit what the hell is tech support.

Same here , never had any problems with a Mac (Mac SE,MacIIfx,powerbook 180, Powermac 8500 ,iMacreva, Performa 630, multiple laserwriters...)

But since I got a new MDD PM , I had to call support twice (was pretty fast and friendly).
I will have to bring the machine in for repair(superdrive problem and noise issues).
HP has much worse support(1hour + on line) , and they also release machines in beta. (LJ 9000 for example) , where the user base are the beta testers , sigh ... where is the world going to ...