Someone professional…

I always wonder when I call customer support / technical support over phone. Very neat and professional. Well not all, there are some products which put funny people on phone.

When my Dell laptop recently crashed, I had to call the technical support. This was the first time ever I called the technical support for my computer problem. As usual everything was well, sweet greetings, concern and assistance.

During the long call I felt the tech guy on the other end was trying to finish the call as soon as possible. It usually happens when there are other calls on queue, but I feel that they should not make it obvious to their customer on the other end.Since the problem was with the hardware, the tech told me that one of their service engineer would visit my premise and replace the motherboard.

As told, the service guy came on the exact time they mentioned, was happy at their prompt service. But the service person who came to replace was in hurry to leave even before I could check if my system works properly. Unfortunately my system still had some problem with the hard disk while performing the diagnostic test. So I had to call the technical support again on the next day as it was past six already.

Again the guy on the phone was so professional and assisted me in all way and told me that a service engineer would visit me to replace the hard disk. But this time I had to wait for more than a day as the weekend came in-between.

I waited on Monday for the call from the service guy, but until noon I did not receive any call, and as I was not able to work with my laptop for already a week by then, I called the customer care to check the status about the service guy ‘s visit.

Surprisingly, the call hold time for this was longer than the technical support, I wonder why. Finally when my call was connected, I was told that I will receive a call in an hour from the local coordinator regarding the arrival of the service guy.

Since I did not get any call for about three hours, I called the customer care again and waited on a long queue to know the status. This time the lady I spoke to connected the call directly to the local coordinator.

When I asked the local coordinator regarding the status and I told him my problem of not able to use my laptop for almost a week, I was taken aback by the way he replied. I felt that I was dealing with some road side vendor. Though he was not abusive or rude, his tone and the way he told me things surely sounded like one.

As it was a conference call, the lady who connected the call was also there on the line, so I asked her to take care of the issue and to send the service guy on the very day as I could not wait anymore. I was assured that the service guy will be sent by next day morning.

But I got a call from the service guy in an hour and he asked if he could visit and replace the hard disk. I was glad because no more waiting. I thought that the person will replace the hard disk and set up the computer. But when he came, he asked me if I was able to boot my computer. When I said yes, he asked me then why the hard disk should be replaced if I was able to boot my system.  I was surprised by his question.

If I remember, when I checked their support site for the particular error code, it was mentioned that the hard disk should be replaced and the technical support guy I spoke to also said the same, and if I am not wrong the service guy was sent to replace the hard disk.

So, I reminded him that he was here to replace the hard disk and to set up my computer. Again he asked me if I can take care of reinstalling the OS if he replaces the drive. I had no problem in reinstalling the OS by myself, but I wanted to make sure that everything works fine, so asked him to show me that everything works fine.

But he was very much reluctant and told me that it would take time to complete all the process. I still do not understand what he meant. He was there to make my computer work properly and also to make sure that the issue is over, but he was trying to go even before the work was completed. Though he was polite, I felt that I was with a reluctant kid who is trying to getaway without doing homework.

Overall, I was happy with the experience I had with the technical support and customer support of Dell, except some unprofessionalism from the onsite people. Even if the service is of good quality, small disappointments and frustrations will always lead to unsatisfied customers.