How OEM’s Respond to Customer Calls

The following email was sent to me in response to a discussion in our live chat the other night. I wanted to share it with you, and hope it provokes thought for you.

“I’m a technical toad so I sit in on your ustream when I can. Thanks for so much insight into all of the toys and technology in such a unique way.

I happened into the stream the other night when you had Ponzi’s mom on a live call regarding her horrific ongoing experience with her “carousel” of calls. Having worked in a call center for Boise Cascade Office Products, I’m so familiar with her anguish. My email is three-fold here so bear with me if I get a bit “wordy”…

As “call takers”.. most are logged into a “tote board” which reveals calls being taken, those being held waiting for a representative and calls dropped by just “giving up”. Most of the representatives that were engaged in “difficult problem sharing” were usually called into the office for “spending too much time on one call” and their “reviews” would reflect this as a “minus”. Rather, we learned that if we wanted to keep up with the payroll increases or even keep our jobs… we had to literally SPEED THRU these calls, leave a short note in “screen 7″ as to the resolve of the issue while the next call came in. Screen 7 automatically would forward thru encoding to the department for their follow up. So you see the “carousel” spin round and round with no concern for the customer and certainly no brass ring. They eventually write off their loss as their time is more valuable than waiting on hold…. OK Nuff Said…

2nd “fold” for my reason to writing is that when I tuned in… I also stuck around to listen to what you were saying about the PEOPLE that owned PCs really don’t account as “important” to the OEMs. I had to totally agree. For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been trying to revive my circa 2002 Gateway 450 SX4…. which kept freezing, jamming, dropping connectivity. I tried my hand at reformatting and it seemed to work… for 1/2 hour… then again the issues came back… Needless to say… I reformatted 6 times totally. Loaded items one by one and waiting… so far so good… This problem kept repeating itself even after scanning the disk time and time again to verify it was in good order… All checked out.

So the internet search began… I so cannot buy a puter right now… (caregiver to a friend with terminal cancers has led me to leave my job to be here for him). I did find in a forum somewhere.. that overheating can cause my issues… all of the Windows Updates from restoring with disks from 2002, literally was cooking my poor lappy. I LOVE this lil thing and scoured for something affordable that didn’t have VISTA on it. (Reasons I’m sure you understand not to go Vista)

At any rate.. after researching “cooling pads” I’ve lifted my laptop with a stand by Rubbermaid $14.00…. placed a thin quirky fan that is designed to slip onto a windowsill (Clearance $2.25) under the stand and I’m BACK!!!!! WOOHOOO WHAT A RIDE!!! I know I’ll have to replace the HD soon but for now, my window out of the cancer ward is OPEN.

3rd and final fold is this… I had to go to Gateway’s tech site to learn how to remove and change out the HD and MOBO Fan… and although I learned Gateway had been acquired by Acer, thinking I now had a product from an “extinct species”.. was THRILLED to have a pop up from Gateway asking ME to fill out a survey about their website!! I just completed this survey and wanted to tell you.. there IS an OEM out there that CARES!!! GO GATEWAY!!!

Just had to share this with you while I listen to your “Unboxing the Time Capsule” segment… there IS a God!!”

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