Computer Glitch? Consider Calling the Phone Company

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

Computer Glitch? Consider Calling the Phone Company
By ANDREW LAVALLEE
July 31, 2008; Page D1

When Rob Tugman's computers started acting up, he called the manufacturer. After an hour waiting on hold and going through basic troubleshooting steps, the Dell Inc. representative told him the problem was his operating system and to call Microsoft Corp. He spent 90 minutes on the phone with Microsoft, only to be told to call Dell again. "It's like catch-22," said the 58-year-old antiques dealer, who lives in Arcadia, Fla. After paying $100 for a local repairman to help, which also didn't solve his problem, Mr. Tugman was out of ideas when his wife made an odd suggestion: Call the phone company. She had signed up with their carrier, Embarq Corp., for a trial program that provided them with over-the-phone technical support for $7.95 a month. He was skeptical. "I said, O God, for $7.95, what am I going to get? 'Is my computer plugged in?'" The technician walked him through a software reinstallation and recovery of his email. "Not only were they extremely courteous," he said, "but they knew exactly what to do."

Land-line phone companies across the country are wading into the tech-support business, seeing it as a way to hold onto customers while developing a new revenue stream. As they have gotten deeper into selling Internet services, as part of bundled packages with TV and voice, technicians are often already in the house installing routers and other devices, making tech support a natural add-on... Carriers also are barraged with questions unrelated to the products they sell, such as software installation, photo-sharing and spyware removal. Instead of telling customers it's not their problem, they're attempting to tackle the questions -- for a price -- over the phone, in person or with outsourced technicians, depending on the carrier.

Embarq, which has been testing its service in Florida and New Jersey, plans next month to expand to the other 16 states where it operates. Windstream Corp. launched its technical-help service this week. AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. both have offered support to their broadband subscribers, while Verizon last month started letting customers sign up for a "device protection" option for their PC, phone or TV. While those carriers limit their service to existing customers, Frontier Communications Corp., whose name change from Citizens Communications Co. is effective Thursday, is taking the unusual step of selling its help-desk services outside its coverage area and even to competitors' customers. In addition, Qwest Communications International Inc. and CenturyTel Inc. are both in the trial stages of their support initiatives.


The services cost anywhere from a few dollars a month, if customers sign up for continuing phone-based help, to $100 or more for house calls and one-time issues. In contrast, an in-home repair by Geek Squad, Best Buy Co.'s well-known support business, costs about $300... Customer satisfaction is a critical part of these offerings, as phone companies fight to keep customers from defecting to wireless and cable operators.

(snip)

Verizon and Windstream outsource their help desks to Circuit City Stores Inc.'s Firedog service and HiWired Inc., a Needham, Mass., remote-support start-up, respectively. The others are determining how broad their offerings will be. For example, Verizon likely wouldn't be able to help a customer transfer files between a PC and a digital video recorder if it was provided by another vendor, said Pete Castleton, its director of corporate marketing. Carriers are also realizing that troubleshooting requires people skills as well as technical know-how. By the time customers call, they're often already at the end of their rope.

(snip)


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[DS1]

1. I can almost feel the sudden relief when I recover someone's f'd database

we sell a product that uses an embedded version of a dbms, so when someone manages to blow it up, all their work in their minds is missing.

:)

As long as they're not telling ME what to do, everyone will be happy