dr@ski.UUCP (David Robins) (03/13/85)
FLAME: Bad as Apple's Tech Support Line has been in the past, I had
found it at least marginally helpful for those usual questions
(you know, the one's where that salesperson and the repair person
say HUH? )
Well, I tried calling it last week, and got only a recorded
message, directing me to the customer service line, where they will
just give you the name of an Apple dealer in your area. I was told
that the Tech Line was disconnected permanently.
All technical questions now go through the salesperson; if
he/she can't answer it, *THEY* ask the repair person, and if he can't
answer it, he can call Apple. The answer goes back up this chain
again. If you've ever played the game Telephone, you know how garbled
things get. Plus, you can't carry on an intelligent conversation.
I am totally incensed by Apple's progressively worse customer
attitude. I guess Apple is showing they don't care. I know their
answer will be that going through the dealer chain is more efficient.
Unfortunately, the dealers usually know less than I do, and often
can't even comprehend the question.
-David Robins, M.D.
Smith-Kettlewell Institute
San Francisco, CA
--
David Robins, M.D.; Smith-Kettlewell Institute of Visual Sciencs
2232 Webster St; San Francisco CA 94115
415/561-1705
{ucbvax,dual,sun}!twg!ski!dr
{ucbvax!mtxinu,dual!ptsfa,sun!texsun}!politik!ski!drjohn@hp-pcd.UUCP (john) (03/18/85)
<<< Technical support lines get a lot of questions that the local dealer cannot answer. They are normally started to answer these sorts of questions. They also get a lot of questions that the local dealer could have answered but it was easier to call the support line. They get some questions that the dealer MUST answer such as problems with faulty hardware and they get some questions that could have been answered by reading the users manual. When you spend a lot of money for a support line that gets mostly the latter types of questions , you tend to want to save money by using dealers to "screen" questions. This is unfortunate because support line questions really show up any areas where your product or documentation is lacking. If used properly and manuals are upgraded to answer the common questions then support lines can spend most of the time dealing with the first type of question. John Eaton !hplabs!hp-pcd!john
hsu@cvl.UUCP (Dave Hsu) (03/29/85)
-----------------------------reference paragraphs--------------------------- Technical support lines get a lot of questions that the local dealer cannot answer. They are normally started to answer these sorts of questions. They also get a lot of questions that the local dealer could have answered but it was easier to call the support line.They get some questions that the dealer MUST answer such as problems with faulty hardware and they get some questions that could have been answered by reading the users manual.When you spend a lot of money for a support line that gets mostly the latter types of questions , you tend to want to save money by using dealers to "screen" questions. ---------------------------and now, for the reply-------------------------- Once again, referring to friends at Computerland... Apple plans to install a tech support computer network via their dealers. In theory the dealer gets on a terminal, and connects directly to an Apple tech support person. This is the reason the recording says to contact your authorized dealer. And now the catch...the net is not operational yet. In fact, Computerland in Rockville (Md) didn't even know that the user tech support line was down. They'd been referring people...to that number. So when do they get their act together? -dave