Alienware Warning

[JamesXP]

Best thing with tech support is to be calm.

Ask thideras

 

[Automata]

Best thing with tech support is to be calm.

Ask thideras

Yuppers

You also have to know how to work with them. There are some things that we just can't do. If an account is marked as "inactive", we can't do anything with the account except create a ticket, no RMA (send items) or passwords.

What I would suggest doing is just work up the chain, ask for a supervisor. What if they can't do anything? Ask for their supervisor.

 

[duper]

Oh over the past year I have learn ways around people. I know I may not be as enlightened as some people and I may lose my cool and get upset because I have better things to do and I'm sure they do too.

Any problems now with any company I get the name of the person helping me with there employee id and call corporate on the spot and file a complaint. And that usually solves the problem. (Doesn't work with Circuit City)

If that doesn't work I call up a make a complaint with the better business bureau and call back to let them know that I've made my complaint and if action isn't taken next steps will be for me to call a distant cousin of mine who just so happens to work for Fox News Problem Solvers who told me if I ever have any problems like that again to just give him a call(Speed Dial). Then I ask them how they will feel about being on the News.

Sometimes you have to play hard ball.

 

[Automata]

Sometimes you have to play hard ball.

Correct, but do remember that they are not all against you. They are just doing what they are told by their supervisor

I have had people be rude/hang up, those are the people worth fighting

Good job on finding out who you were talking to. That makes them work with you easier and less likely to be rude!

 

[duper]

Correct, but do remember that they are not all against you. They are just doing what they are told by their supervisor

Maybe I should try to be more calm, but after the 11 transfer to another department and 2 hours of my life on hold to say a whooping 3 sentences only to be told "sorry" I get a bit upset. Maybe I becoming a grumpy old man who knows. lol

 

[masakabassist]

I work for customer service, if someone is polite I will go out of my way to help them, if they are rude and start raising their voice I instantly don't want to know and there goes your good CS down the drain.

 

[Automata]

Maybe I should try to be more calm, but after the 11 transfer to another department and 2 hours of my life on hold to say a whooping 3 sentences only to be told "sorry" I get a bit upset. Maybe I becoming a grumpy old man who knows. lol

No, it is understandable. I know exactly where you are coming from. Had a laptop problem with Toshiba. I'll do a summary: 3.2k laptop, been 2 years and it STILL doesn't work.

There are times to be rude

What I've learned is tell them you are not mad at them, but you are mad at the company. That usually helps drop the tension. It is hard to tell when customers are mad at you or something else

 

[Havoc_]

You are not grumpy you have just experienced the startling trend in customer service. Many people with very little power to do anything and are working off of scripts for trouble shooting. The next time something like this happens ask to speak to the "gold team members". These are generally people who actually know what they are doing and have some limited power to solve problems. I too have asked for supervisor after supervisor and I generally find that this does work. Of course, you must resign yourself to spending hours on the phone.

 

[MooMasster716]

So basically you had a bad service experience with a product that was out of warranty. As sad as it may be I've had the exact same thing happen to me with Apple, Gateway, HP and Dell computers. You have to accept that if a product is out of warranty you will not get support unless you're willing to give up your first child. Hell my Cisco Cert Teacher had the same thing happen to him with a $10,000 HP router. I'm not trying to be rude but you should just get used to the fact that no one will help you when your warranty expires and as mentioned before I've had the same feelings of anger when you just know that the driver cd would take all of 2 seconds to burn and ship out.

 

[Automata]

That is the sad state of Customer Support. We can't do anything.

 

[Xris]

When did this "asking for a supervisor" thing start? I guarantee you've never spoken to a tech's supervisor. They spend all of their time making sure the techs are chained to a phone and generally don't know much or anything about the products they support.

It's just an odd way of asking for a higher level of support.

Your warranty was up. It sounds like you're blowing this way out of proportion. I can't imagine alienware even suggesting that you needed a new laptop because you didn't have a driver CD. When I worked tech support, I tended to just blow off the people who just don't get it and are combative. If you're not nice to me, why should I be nice to you? It sounds like you got caught in a similar situation.

 

[Automata]

Xris, I know what you mean, but I think you are missing the point.

Even if it is out of warranty, why should we not provide support? Customer Service has been in a decline for awhile now...

 

[Xris]

There's no doubt about that. I blame outsourcing. When call volume got out of hand in my call center for weeks and they started routing calls overseas every other customer it seemed would make the "I can't believe you speak English" comment and then complain about how bad the service they were getting from my accented counterparts was. I don't have much of a problem with outsourcing. Everyone has to make a living, but when quality goes down because of miscommunication and what sounds like poor training it's unacceptable.

It sounds like there was just such a communication error. There's no way the alienware tech told him, that he needs to buy a new laptop because his driver disk was broken and he was out of warranty. I don't think we're getting all of the story. You know when you're dealing with combative customers that you tend to give the minimum level of support, exactly what a script/KB article tells you and nothing more. I think that because he was out of warranty and was asking for a supervisor that there was a break down sometime before he asked for a supervisor and it wasn't that alienware's tech said he needed a new laptop.

 

[Automata]

Everyone has to make a living, but when quality goes down because of miscommunication and what sounds like poor training it's unacceptable.

Exactly

I had that issue with Toshiba except they are all outsourced. Yaaaaaaay....

The problem is they don't know how to critically think and solve a problem, they read from a screen. What ends up happening is I tell them the problem and what they need to do to fix it. That is backwards.

They give us a bad name...

 

[Xris]

The reason I don't believe duper's story: http://support.alienware.com/Support_Pages/Restricted_Pages/driver_downloads.aspx

It took me 15 seconds on alienware's website to find that.

 

[duper]

The reason I don't believe duper's story: http://support.alienware.com/Support_Pages/Restricted_Pages/driver_downloads.aspx

It took me 15 seconds on alienware's website to find that.

When did this "asking for a supervisor" thing start? I guarantee you've never spoken to a tech's supervisor. They spend all of their time making sure the techs are chained to a phone and generally don't know much or anything about the products they support.

It's just an odd way of asking for a higher level of support.

Your warranty was up. It sounds like you're blowing this way out of proportion. I can't imagine alienware even suggesting that you needed a new laptop because you didn't have a driver CD. When I worked tech support, I tended to just blow off the people who just don't get it and are combative. If you're not nice to me, why should I be nice to you? It sounds like you got caught in a similar situation.

you missed some of my post or you just didn't read it. I said

"Sorry Sir but your computer is no longer under warranty we can not help you" They might not have told me to go out and buy a new computer but when the one I had was broken and they were the only people with the thing I needed to fix it and refused to give me any support. To me that means my computer is a paperweight and I took it as buy a new computer. Wouldn't you? It was totally useless to me.

And since then they changed how you can obtain drivers enough of us must have complained to get the log on removed. Bottom line was they treated me poorly and I care not to do business when them again.

Sites change all the time and that was over 6 months ago btw

 

[Automata]

Bottom line was they treated me poorly and I care not to do business when them again.

I completely agree with you here. If it is something as trivial as drivers, why wouldn't they send it to you???