Phone Support Hell

So here I sit, listening to bad American music from a phone system in New Delhi as Rohit from Microsoft waits on hold for another vendor's support desk. I've been on the phone for about two hours this morning and a total of over five hours yesterday. All because a previous vendor that installed my customers server apparently didn't do the job properly.

It's ironic that my new-found friend has to wait on hold for support. That seems to be the rule rather the exception any more. I commend Microsoft for getting to me with a minimum of wait time. I did have to listen to lots of plattitudes from several different people who were concerned about pronouncing me name properly (nice, but they almost immediately transferred me to someone who asked the same thing). Each person was obviously reading from ascript, though, so their concern didn't really come across as genuine.


I'm now waiting for Rohit to call me back - he said the queue was pretty long over at Symantec and didn't want to keep me waiting (he even called and asked if I had a direct support number for them that bypassed the queue - as if). Nice. So now I'm stuck waiting here unable to make calls for fear of missing him. Can't leave to take care of other customers. Might was well be sitting on hold listening to crappy music.


I think that's what so many businesses don't grasp. Their efforts to "help" us so often simply waste our time. Call the cable company or phone company when your Internet connection is down. Even after you described your problem to the perky robot answering lady or navigated an endless phone tree to report your Internet outage, I can pretty much guarantee you'll be treated to a long-winded recording inviting you to visit their Web site for answers to commonly asked questions. Does no one at the other end of the phone line see the idocy of that?


To make matters worse, what's usually the first question the live body asks you when you finally get through? Yep, the same one you provided to robot at the beginning of your call: "may I have your phone number/account number?"


I think it should be mandatory that managers and executives of any company be required to call in to their "service centers" at least once a week and try to reach a live person or get the answer to any question other than "how much is my bill and when is it due?" Chances are good you'll get that question answered whether you asked it or not.


When I was a frequent traveler I always wanted to see the CEO of United or Delta fly from New York to L.A. on an overbooked flight. In coach. I figured that would dramatically improve airline performace. Obviously that never happened. And I doubt the CEO of either Comcast or Verizon will be picking up the phone any time soon. But maybe we can collect some of your real-live "support" stories to share with them.

Post your support story from hell here. I'll personally send the best ones to the head of the appropriate company.