RE: For those looking into a laptop

[John Bridleman <jbridleman@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Unfortunately in most cases you start out with a "Customer Support" person, 
not a "Technical Support" person.

At 11:33 AM 1/27/00 -0500, you wrote:
>  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.