Recommendations: 6

jjackel writes:
If MSFT has muzzled everyone, why don't I hear screaming?

In the void of technical support, no-one can hear you scream. No, I'm serious. In the whole MSFT question, we need to think about the difference between customers, consumers, and home users. Customers are usually business procurents. They have the budgets to negotiate special technical support contracts that the rest of us just can't pay for. The consumers are the people who actually use the software, and they may benefit from such a contract if they work for a business.

However, being a home user is like being in jail. You get one free phone call. If you want any more freedom, break out your Visa card and get ready to pay. It's really true...nobody at Microsoft cares, and nobody can hear you scream.

Here's a tech support anecdote for you: I actually got my start in the industry by working tech support for Microsoft. One night I was trying to get a modem working with Windows NT 4.0, and because I only had one line, the support person had to call me back after I tested it. When he did, I caller ID'd his phone number and was surprised to see a 770 area code, a local Atlanta number. I was disappointed with the quality of the service and I was sure I could do better, so I asked him for an HR contact number, sent in my application, and was hired a month later. Not by Microsoft, but by a "PSS Partner," Wang, to whom they had outsourced their support.

If you want to see what I saw inside the beast, read on. Microsoft was focused almost exclusively on closing tech support calls, and not very motivated in the realm of customer satisfaction. We were given an extremely rigid "support policy" which all but stated that if there was any non-Microsoft software on the machine, we didn't have to fix it. If the machine wasn't on the hardware compatibility list, we didn't have to fix it (even if it was an application problem). Hold times and call length were the major concerns. "Going the extra mile" to help the customer was discouraged...I kept a call 40 minutes one time to talk a guy through actually opening his case and moving a jumper on his sound card. Did I get praised for a good save? Nope. I got upbraided for exceeding the average call time on an unauthorized procedure.

Microsoft may be focused on their business customers, but they are way out of touch with home users and hobbyists. Those are the people who truly have been harmed by Microsoft's practices. Now if we're going to say that they don't represent a large enough market segment to worry about, fine. But let's at least be honest about that.

Email this Post   Format for Printing