I will say we learned this problem YEARS ago. For one, I am a paid IT consultant (that's my day job). I charge a good fee for larger companies to use me as their outsourced IT person. I can't spend hours on the phone with customers - and have no desire to.
Our phone people in our office are basically not techie people. They can take care of billing and send messages to the network folks (us), but they refer people elsewhere all the time - to the router support ppl, applecare, whereever. If you let your techs get stuck on the phone with a customer they will not be able to perform their installations, etc. my 2 cents. ----- Original Message ----- From: Nate Burke via Af To: af@afmug.com Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2014 2:50 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] cheap computer phone support Are they threatening to leave if you don't help them? If not, can you just say 'sorry, not our problem' and leave it at that? You've told them how to fix the problem, 'call the local computer guy' If they're not willing to do that, then its equivalent of doing a cross country road trip on a spare tire. When they wreck, is it the interstates fault? Although having said that, I was at the tire shop last week, and there was a guy there with 300k miles on his tires, they were all bald, but one was showing the strength members. He was only willing to spend $50, and wanted only that 1 tire replaced. They didn't have a tire that cheap (I think his total had come to $65), and he ended up leaving. I guess it makes sense to some people On 12/24/2014 2:34 PM, Ken Hohhof via Af wrote: > That doesn't quite look like the answer. > > Maybe one approach is to push these people to call the manufacturer. > I see that Linksys, Netgear, Belkin, DLink all have paid support after > 30 days. Dell has paid support. Apple has Applecare. HP has > SmartFriend which seems to cover a wide variety of problems and non HP > computers, maybe that's where I should send them: > > https://h30617.www3.hp.com/HP/subscription-services/index.asp > > > -----Original Message----- From: Tyler Treat via Af > Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2014 1:40 PM > To: af@afmug.com > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] cheap computer phone support > > Is securitycoverage.com still relevant? DTNSpeednet used to push it. > > ___________________________ > Mangled by my iPhone. > ___________________________ > > Tyler Treat > Corn Belt Technologies, Inc. > > tyler.tr...@cornbelttech.com > ___________________________ > > >> On Dec 24, 2014, at 1:22 PM, Ken Hohhof via Af <af@afmug.com> wrote: >> >> Is there a service out there? For stuff that's clearly not our problem? >> >> I'm trying to take a firmer stance about not spending an hour on the >> phone walking someone through fixing their computer or router, >> because they are too lazy to Google it or use the manufacturer's >> website, or haven't a clue when it comes to computers. >> >> I give them the number for a computer shop, but often they say I >> can't pay $100 to have someone fix my computer or router or printer >> or smart TV. My business is at the size where I'm not big enough to >> make computer repair a profit center, but if I keep doing this stuff >> for free, I'm going to have to hire someone to do it, and that's not >> a cost I can absorb. >> >> Is there a place maybe with call centers in India that will do this >> for less? I know the telcos offer this service for a monthly fee, >> and I assume they are outsourcing it. Note that I'm not talking >> about phone support for Internet problems. >> >> Oh, and kudos to Apple for fixing the NTP vulnerability without >> asking permission. I can't believe the media is portraying this in a >> negative light. I'm tired of people who don't keep their computers >> and routers and other devices updated. Do people drive their cars >> until the engine freezes up because they are too lazy or cheap or >> clueless to get the oil changed? I suppose some do. Maybe we need >> the government to come do all these things for us. >>
