I bought my 360 at launch. Well, within a week of launch. I hooked it up and never had a problem with it. It’s never overheated, it’s never given me the dreaded ‘red ring of death’, nothing. I’ve considered myself pretty fortunate.
So, of course, I was due for a problem. But this one is weird. A few weeks ago I noticed I would get weird artifacts on the screen. Almost like ghost images. Especially on screens where a lot of blue or black was displayed. There would be this weird lighter blue banding across the screen, or surrounding objects. It was almost like taking a computer set to 32-bit color and scaling it back to 16-bit, but a little more severe.
At first I thought it was my HD cable. It wasn’t. Then I thought my receiver was suffering from interference. It wasn’t. I even tried my XBOX on Colin’s HD cable and screen. No difference. I could no longer play DVDs (the video would go blank), and I could no longer adjust the resolution of the screen (say, from 720p to 1080i).
Finally, angry and depressed, I called up Microsoft’s help line. I got a call center in India. Which isn’t a bad thing, really, except in my experience first-tier support is usually staffed by technically… challenged people. Add a language barrier to that, and you’ll understand the nightmare this is leading into.
The nice lady with the heavy accent said “Hello, Mr. Reyes” tried to lead me through her script. I interrupted her description of installing my console by mentioning that I knew how to install my console, that it had been installed for some time, and that the problem only recently manifested, so it isn’t my install.
Without missing a gods-damned beat, she says (I swear to god) “Hello, Mr. Reyes” and asks me to install and check my HD cable! Sonofabitch, this is going to be a long call! I tell her again what my problem is, and I can almost hear her brain shut down. She asks me to hold.
She comes back 5 minutes later (I was timing this) and asks me to reboot my console. To reboot my fucking console! I remind her that I had already done this, but went through it anyway. She has me reset the console using the right trigger and ‘Y’ button or some useless crap. Same thing, I say. We go through a few other things. She asks me to hold again.
She returns 23 minutes later. And says- wait for it- “Hello, Mr. Reyes,” and proceed to fucking tell me to INSTALL AND CHECK MY HD CABLE.
At this point, I am done. I interrupt her and say, “Look, you had me go through this at the beginning of our call. Don’t you even remember that? I told you then that was not the issue, and I don’t think it’s different now.” She asks me to go to my Console Settings tab and look for a menu item that does not- and never has- existed on the 360 console. When I tell her that there is no such menu item, she goes silent for a full minute.
Once again, the death of her brain is almost audible. She puts me on hold… AGAIN. Come back after 10 minutes and tells me I need to speak to XBOX live, because it’s a fucking update issue and I need a PC to burn an update CD! I ask if I can’t simply download the updates using my console… and she says yes, but she doesn’t know how!
So I get punted to Live. Mercifully, thankfully, I get back to the states. Ohio. An American picks up the line, I cut him off and describe my problem. And he starts chuckling, because he knows their India call center is staffed by script-monkeys. Worse, it is staffed by script monkeys who don’t fucking understand English. And so describing ‘blue banding and artifacts’ to them is like the fucking Obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey. He tells me I need warranty service.
I get punted somewhere else. A guy named ‘Jojo’ picks up, and though his accent is neutral and I cannot tell where he is, his silence to my comment about brain-dead call centers in India makes me think he’s not two chairs away from robot-woman from the 11th fucking dimension.
Fuck him, at least he understands English. A box is being sent to me for my console. That should take about 5 days. Then it will take 2-4 weeks for me to get my 360 back. Gods damn it!
Still, not much I can do except send it in. With a clear description of what is wrong taped to the console for whoever opens the box.
And to Microsoft, I have nothing against call centers in India. I understand it’s cheaper. Good for you. But c’mon, some fucking quality control would be nice. How about making sure your staff:
a) understands FUCKING ENGLISH. It’s not that hard. You are serving Americans, understand English. Understand fucking English. Understand what ‘blue’, ‘banding’, and ’screen artifacts’ mean.
b) understands the product they are supporting. If someone gets thrown for a loop because your Pacific Rim documentation is assy, fix it. If someone doesn’t understand what 720p is, or the difference between a DVD and the hard drive, you need better staff.
Oh, and total time on the phone for this one excruciating call? 78 minutes, 23 seconds.
Ya, America Rules and all those foreigners suck.
Cuz, I have never had an issue with an American on a tech-support line. No, not one issue. American support lines are staffed by intelligent, articulate folks with IQs well above average and pants made out of gold… and, they smell like chocolate… yes… over the phone they smell like chocolate.
Stupid India.
That’s what you get for buying an XBox
No, Americans don’t ‘rule’, and foreigners don’t suck. Read my goddam post again: I want them to UNDERSTAND ENGLISH. I have no doubt the woman was possibly intelligent, she obviously did not understand my language, or the console. Period.
I don’t give a rat’s goddamn ass if it’s a global economy or if the entire fucking world sinks into the abyss singing koom-bah-yah. If you are serving a customer whose native language is English, UNDERSTAND ENGLISH.
Under-fucking-stand ENGLISH. If you support Spain, understand Spanish. If you support France, understand French. I am American. I speak English. I expect that when I call a support line that I was sent to by an American company selling a product whose primary market is in the United States, I will get someone who understands what my problem might be, or at least understands what a fucking ‘blue band across my screen’ means.
If it had been some moron from the States who just didn’t grasp the concept, I’d be equally pissed at him for being a fucking moron.
But no. This woman was both unfamiliar with the equipment in question AND the language I was using to describe my problem.
Seems to indicate that you prefer an American… at least by reading what you wrote.
Let’s face it… your entire post has an anti-”Not American” slant to it. I have run into “heavy accents” with support persons born and living in this country. A conversation with a support tech from Tennessee comes to mind. Why couldn’t he speak proper English?
Although… hrm… now that I think about it… I have trouble with those from the UK. Especially anyone with an Irish accent.
Ok. I got it!
Let’s compile a list of Nationalities/Ethnicities that are allowed to become support personnel.
Who wants to start?
Not Chinese…damn yellow people…
AAAAGH.
It isn’t the fucking accent. IT IS THE COMPREHENSION OF BASIC WORDS LIKE ‘BLUE’, ‘BANDING’, and ‘COLOR DEPTH’.
Dude in Ohio might be a fucktard, but he will probably understand (or at least grasp the concept) when I say “There are weird blue bands, like ghost images or interference, on my screen.” Because he knows what ‘blue’ is.
He would be able to ask follow-up questions, or be able to respond in some appropriate way when I say there is a video glitch. He is MORE likely to respond properly than someone who cannot. speak. my. language.
Except he’s really not, because it’s been drilled into his head that he is to follow precisely the script he’s been given. If he doesn’t, his boss will give him shit, and he may be fired.
This is true at every call center, everywhere. The whole point is to make sure that everyone who calls goes through the same standard diagnostic routine, so that when the people who do second-line support take over, they know that the easy stuff has all been exhausted.
I’m pretty sure your real complaint is something like “the first-line support person didn’t realize that I am a SPECIAL PERSON, who is ENTITLED. i should be able to SKIP AHEAD and talk to an xbox developer, who will fix MY PROBLEM”.
Let me address a couple of things, since some people seem to get the wrong idea.
I have no problem with India or people from India.
However, it is a fact that English is not the primary language there. It is also a fact that most call centers are outsourced to India.
So, if I say Indian call centers blow big fucking chunks, that does not make me racist or a bigot. It means that they need to teach English better, or we need to stop outsourcing our call centers. Period. That way, even though you might get equally brain dead people on the phone, you remove at the very least the apparent language barrier.
Secondly, if you don’t think you are a special person entitled to have your problem fixed, then that’s your problem. It speaks to a certain level of apathy inherent in most consumers. As I mentioned to Colin, warranties are not gifts. Service is not a favor. I paid for it, it’s mine. It is part of a product, and arguably the most important part. If I buy something and then I am pissed when it takes me 80 minutes just to get them to send me a box, that doesn’t mean I am impatient, it means they don’t respect me as a customer.
Seriously…if you don’t see what’s wrong with letting every asshole who dials in demand to speak immediately to second-level support, even after working IT for years…
I’m just at a loss.
Maybe they should train everyone at tier 1 to be as smart as everyone at tier 2… then tier 2 can be trained to be like tier 3…
See where this is going? They can’t afford to pay more than $10 an hour to someone who doesn’t know an IP address from a serial number? boo hoo. Pay more, get better people.
Do you seriously think they give a shit about tech support or your warranty? That’s laughable. As with just about any company, they give those warranties out knowing that only a small percentage of people will ever need to use them or even keep the warranty card. Why should they bother to make the tech support any kind of quality?
As for you being “entitled” to a certain level of respect, again laughable. They already got your money for the XBox, they’ve got your money for Live and they’ve got the money for the games you bought. You should be happy they even provide you with a working phone number to call for the tech support you got.
Good tech support is about priority last at just about any company. Are you going to sell your XBox or stop using their services because of this incident or their tech support? Highly unlikely and they know it. As long as they do the bare minimum and get your XBox back to you and maybe working you’re not going to stop giving the money, and again they know it.
So why should they bother changing their ways to suit you?
Are you asking from a pragmatic bottom line position, in which case I agree with you, or from the rhetorical perspective of ethical corporate behavior? In which case I’d say I’d never run a company like that. Companies didn’t used to be run like that.
Companies used to care about the customer, because repeat business was always important. Now, not so much.
I’m not asking from really either, I’m merely stating what is probably reality.
Unfortunately for you, you are not running the company.
When you say “Companies didn’t used to be run like that” could you elaborate…. when?
Companies that have provided me with consistently excellent customer service:
- Most local stores in neighborhoods I have lived in.
- My car service center.
- Amazon (exception: one phone order gone very very wrong).
- Amazon Marketplace sellers (most are small stores and independent merchants who need the good customer satisfaction ratings).
- Dell Small Business Technical Support.
Restaurants have occasionally gone above and beyond, including preparing my meals so that they are completely isolated from any shellfish.
And companies in the past, such as local banks, gas stations, and other service-related outfits, knew that the key to their continued existence was good customer relations.
And if I had to pick one thing to criticize about outsourcing (other than the language barrier), it would be that the contracted companies have no vested interest in excellent customer service, or even good customer service. They are cheap, and they hire script-readers who don’t know anything. Corporations make money off your initial investment, and that is all they care about. Caveat emptor to the max.
So you couldnt elaborate on the time period when companies gave cared about customers more than they do now.
I really don’t think much has changed as far as ethics within companies/corporations. To me, this is just another example of someone viewing the past and present with bias. Think of the old guy who reminisces about how great things were when he was young and how much of a shithole the world has become. Ya, I don’t buy it.
I can’t speak to Dell Small Biz Support, but I have spent far too long on the phone/chat with them as a ‘regular user’. Then again, they know where they need to focus their efforts… You spend more, you get more. Imagine that.
Car Service Center? You mean, you are treated well outside of being screwed on the rates, right?
As for your restaurant example, I am not srue I follow. Are you trying to say that not all restaurants are the same? Heck, not even all waitstaff at a restaurant are the same? If you are, then how does that differ with support staff at a call center in India?
You can generalize people all you want. And, it might even make you feel superior. Heck, isn’t that what being American is all about?
I seriously can not believe you quotes that song as part of your arguement.
You can attempt to put words into my mouth, or you can listen to the ones I actually say and read the ones I actually write.
First of all, don’t pretend this is some militaristic, narrow-minded, pro-American, bigoted screed. That’s wrong on several levels as 1) I never said I prefer Americans to anyone else, and 2) pro-nationalism is hardly solely an American trait, and 3) it’s an unworthy low blow that is neither true nor fair. You should know better than to continuously try to hammer home an invalid point, as it only pisses me off and doesn’t actually advance your fallacious argument.
Secondly, The time periods I was referring to would be anywhere from the late 19th century to about the 1970s, when the business globalization movement began, though vestiges of good customer service survived at many levels until the mid-1990s, when most customer service turned to shit as it was outsourced to cheap sweat-farms overseas. Don’t like that opinion? Too bad. Look at customer service trends and check the following articles detailing failures and frustrations of Indian call centers:
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/16659.asp
http://news.com.com/For+Dell,+Indian+call+center+failure+a+lesson/2100-1001_3-5182611.html
http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrswp/7/
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2025288,00.html
Now, maybe I feel the nostalgia I do because I have to rely on other reports on customer service pre-1995 or so, seeing as I was not in the target customer service demographic at the time. But I also clearly remember calling Nintendo of America in 1988 about what that stupid connector was on the bottom of the NES and getting right through to a very nice lady who spoke english as her primary language and was not only happy to answer my questions, but also look up the answers to stuff she did not know.
So, what’s changed? Why in 1988 could I get a simple answer in 5 minutes, but today it take 78 minutes to get a box?
It is clear that the problem is not in India or any other country, nor it is the accent. I’d stay away from assigning the responsibility to a person or country. There are painful experiences on US soil, too with poor customer service. Problem represents a symptom of a bigger issue in Microsoft and corporates alike in general. I am glad to see that you all finally came to this conclusion.
Although with considerable clutter…
The clutter was mainly to drive Carl nuts.
No, I feel justified in mentioning India in particular in this case. Not as a dig against an ethnic group, but because, once again, most major call centers have been outsourced to India!
If the call centers were in Australia, I’d be criticizing them instead.
Just remembered an example for a terrible PR. A real story…
A person mails the US president his grievance on medicare changes. In return, he recieves a letter with White house letterhead with the following:
Dear Mr….,
Thank you for your support.
President of US…
Seriously!
You see, the problem is that you are indicating the being Indian has something to do with it. You can try to deny this all you want, but it is clear for all to see, in writing.
According to you, this isn’t a Tier-1 support issue but an issue with the brain-dead Indians that work in all Call Centers in India.
As for the noise you provide to mask this disdain you feel for the Indian people… you provide no data about Corporate attentitiveness to the needs of the consumer. It’s neither factual nor relevant. Saying things are fact does not make them true (like your assertion that most call-centers have been outsourced).
I don’t know why you keep trying to make me out to be a bigot, but I don’t particularly appreciate it.
I don’t know why you keep denying facts, even when I point you to articles, even when my assertions are common knowledge:
http://www.siteselection.com/issues/2002/may/p284/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/09/national/main587601.shtml
http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/2006/09/04/kolkata-call-center-scam-indias-doing-the-right-thing.asp (the relevant part there being The analyst firm estimates that India’s current 85 percent ownership of the BPO market share could dwindle to about 45 percent by 2007.
So, you know what, fuck you. Enough, enough, enough e-fucking-nough. I don’t have a problem with Indian people. I never ever said ‘brain dead Indians’. I precisely said ‘brain dead Indian call centers.’
So again, fuck you. I have no need to continuously justify my thoughts on this subject (or any other) to you, or anyone else. However, when you attempt to cast aspersions and label me a bigot when I am not, when you continue to twist words I never even said for little more than trolling, you’ve crossed the line from debate and friendly jibes into idiocy. Idiocy I will no longer engage in on this topic.
I don’t remember this being about India’s dominance of the BPO market, but your assertion that most Call Centers are located in India. I don’t remember reading that.
Dave, I still don’t see the contradiction there. Could have been an Englishman (or Irishman, or fucking Inuit) that picked up the phone. As long as it wasn’t a script monkey, and as long as he fucking understood english.
You really don’t see the contradiction in “I never said I prefer Americans” and “Mercifully, thankfully, I get back to the states. Ohio. An American picks up the line…”?
….so how about them red sox?
Well, at the time I felt the reilief, getting in touch with someone culturally and gramatically linked to me was very comforting. I don’t really have an opinion on Ohio. I mean, it’s Ohio. But you know, it’s a lot better than pressing the reset button on someone who obviously couldn’t understand me.
To clarify, no, I don’t see a contradiction. I might have been as relieved to get a scottsman like I did on one of my Verizon calls. I do see you’d like there to be a contradiction, though.
The Sox won last night.
Wow so I suppose this wouldn’t be a good time to bring up my “HP support story” where 2 calls forwarded to an overseas center, combined total of 45 minutes, gave me the options of 1) buying a new 3 year warranty, or 2) buying a new machine (because mine was “too old to support, but if I had a new one, they could help me”). And 1 call forwarded to a local center (well, CA is more local than they were, and all 3 places were reached by dialing the same 800 #) had my issue resolved in 2 minutes flat.
I don’t see the contradiction in Carl’s stances, because if the majority of outsourced centers were located in, say, Brazil, odds are there’d still be a language comprehension barrier. When one calls these centers, it’s almost always due to a problem that can’t be resolved (hence the support call) so there’s already that level of frustration, then add in the script-reading (which does happen everywhere) and then combine it with potential misunderstandings in wordings…
I think the “An American picks up the line…†comment would mean the same thing if the person was Canadian, or British, or Australian… like Carl said, there was a “grammatical link” which I can understand and relate to.
I have never had a major language issue with an overseas call center, so I can’t speak to that from experience (in my experience, patience and politeness expedites things greatly). And, I don’t deny that language issues can be present. But that does not excuse referring to all Indians who work in call centers as brain-dead or as morons. That is what I take exception to.
Do I think there are quality problems with Call Centers… sure. Do think it can be magnified by a language issue. Of course I do. And, do I think it is a tad bigoted to refer to all Call Center workers in a country as brain-dead or morons? Yes.
I have and continue to receive poor support equally — regardless of the nationality of the person on the other end of the phone. I think it is the nature of Tier-1 support (as pointed out a long time ago) that is the root cause here. Businesses have figured out that they can save a whole lot of money by hiring non-technical people to answer phones and follow scripts. And, I imagine, it solves the vast majority of problems for which people call support (Is it plugged in? Problem solves a good number of problems.)
Here’s Foamy the Squirrel’s experience with outsourced tech support:
http://www.illwillpress.com/tech.html
Ahaha. I love it.
“Keep your jobs in the U.S…. so I can understand who the fuck I’m talkin to… you bastards.”
Exactly.
Ah, I’d pay money to get a response like this. I am sure Colin would get a kick out of it…
http://www.illwillpress.com/tech42.html
I totally feel the fustration. I called xbox customer support today because they double-charged me on my credit card for microsoft points. The first lady, who btw sounds Indian (surprise surprise) asks me what the problem is. I tell her microsoft double charged me. She tells me to “hold on for 3-4 minutes.” She comes back and tells me that they didn’t double charge me. I’m looking at the fucking bank statement! She then says hold on while they connect me to a billing person. I wait another 4-5 minutes, and when she comes on the phone, tell her my problem. She can’t help me so she tells me she’s going to have to transfer me to a “specialist.” A specialist for what?
Finally I talk to a “billing specialist” and resolves my problem. Total talk time: 30 minutes for something that could’ve been resolved in 5. Praise Microsoft!
A similar situation happened to me. I was billed 3 times for xbox live gold subscription. I have been trying to resolve this for two weeks using ms support. The non-English are polite and well mannered (it’s obviously in their script), yet when I finally get thru to tier two support (usually uk based - I’m uk myself), they fob me off with ‘wait for a week to see if the card credits turn up’ scenairos. I also had ‘our system is being updated’ line too. I wouldn’t mind but it’s MY money that’s been taken - if it was their’s they’d be livid and no doubt want the situation resolved straight away.
I work in the IT industry - 20 years as a developer, so I know all about handshaking and server loads etc - they are just belligerent bastards who will only as a last resort do what the customer wants.
‘Tech’ support - don’t make me laugh. I think they are a very good example of how support shouldn’t be.