RE: For those looking into a laptop

[Adam Williams <adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 From          : klug>klug-request
 To            : adam
 Subject       : RE: For those looking into a laptop
 Date          : 01/01/70 01:01


>><snip>
>>Hey, this guy is just like the other tech support people I have talked
>>to at Gateway.  He's a flaming MORON!  "Real" modems don't require
>>finding drivers, they are tty/com devices supported natively by every
>>desktop OS since CP/M and probably before.  Don't take his comments as
>>worth anything,  the minute a tech-support guy uses words like
>>"should" and "believe" just stop listening.  And if my personal
>>expience with Gateway tech support was any worse than it was I'd have
>>to start frothing at the mouth to get my point across (and I was
>>talking to the smart back row guys).
>></snip>
>In defense of tech support people, they usually aren't given the information
>to tell you things will work and/or they have been told not to.  I will

True, and then the fault lies with their employer, doesn't much matter to
me the customer.  The tech guy should have been able to provide that exact
model and version of the modem in that peice of hardware.  Irregardless of
his opinion if it would "work" or not.  Gateway built the product, and a
consumer is inquiring for technical information about the product.~

>confess that I myself have told technical support people not to tell
>customers something will work for sure even though I knew it would.
>Sometimes you just can't absolutely guarantee something will behave in the
>wild the way it did in the lab.

I understand this completely, and have "fibbed" myself on certain issues.
But that is on my opinion if something will work or not.  As to an inquiry of
what chipset a product uses, or if it loads MSVCRT.DLL, or requires a thread
safe version of GLIBC, etc...,  there is no excuse for anything other than
a straight up and detailed answer.  Tech support is just that: "technical"
support.~

For a great example of tech support I point to my experience with IBM.  They
start out treating you like a mindless symbiant, but if you ask GOOD
questions the quality of the answers raise in an effort to match the
percieved level of expertise of the user. A tech support person knows if
he's talking to a Grand Ma who found a PC on the street corner, or an
experienced user.  Irregardless they should have complete technical
information available to them, if they don't, and it becomes apparent I know
that I take my business elsewhere.