Tech Support-Rant (a small one?)

You have to love tech support and those that do try to help and those websites that provide you with the available options of email support and/or chat with a l live person either by toll free phone or through text messenger online. The problem is for those that are already tech savvy, in most cases, more so than the tech support person at the other end of the connection mean only more frustrations. What can you do and who can you complain to at that point? If you are anything like me, I typically "huff and puff" or depending on the level of support I am requiring and the amount of time I have been attempting to get it, quite possibly more then just 'huff and puff', including other 4 letter words not safe for this page!  I will typically spend as long as I need to, searching the web for answers, whether that means reading countless forums or search queries for the solution.

It would be nice to be able to get through to the tech support line and be able to answer a number of questions to test your knowledgeability of whatever the problem you are having so that you can be directed to the correct place but that will never happen until you have exhausted the front line resources either by having them agree that it is over their head, or because you have become so frustrated that you are demanding to speak to their supervisor.  I guess my biggest beef is when I use the email tech support knowing full well I will be sent a typical form letter response with a number of suggested things to try or, when I do spend the extra time within the email message "added notes" section and let them know that I am tech savvy and have tried all the basic steps, and sometimes even add a few questions at that point hoping the response will be more then just the form letter. But of course that never happens. The response is always the same and they always want more information, for which if you do reply, it may be anywhere from 2 to 72 hours before you get a new response. Again, depending on how important and how frustrated you are, you will typically resort to making the phone call and then talking to a real human being, only to go through the same process, all-be-it at a quicker pace, that is, if you don't get placed on hold for an hour or more!

So what is the solution?  For me, I will usually go back to step number one, which may mean uninstalling the product (restarting the computer after this and quite probably cleaning the windows registry before going any further) and reinstalling the product.  If it works then I have solved the problem, at least for now, until it stops working again... but if it isn't actually computer related and is something like a billing issue... what do I suggest for that?   Sometimes it comes down to 'who you know' and in this case, knowing someone on the inside may give you a name or 'down-line' that you can call the extension directly, bypassing that first (sometimes very annoying) customer service/support.

So, why this rant?  I guess because I am hoping it will help me cool down from my most recent tech support inquiries for which the email response has been, shall I say... typical!

I feel better.... 

..now back to work!