The New Technical Support For The 21st Century

Posts: 492

It wasn't too long ago that if you had a problem with a service or a product you could just call up the Company and someone would immediately assist you in any way that was necessary to resolve that problem. Do you remember the scene in the movie "Back To The Future" where Marty is in 1955 and he observes a small army of gas station attendants servicing a car that just pulled up to the pump? I remember those days. Companies took pride in the service or product that they offered to their customers. Fifty years have now gone by and so has the motto, "We give service with a smile". Times have changed and so have business strategies.

In the 1990's, while the U.S. Government was telling us how well the economy was, businesses were struggling to survive. The unemployment rate was staggering. People and businesses did what they had to do to survive. One unnecessary department that could be stripped to the bone and run by a fraction of the people that it once enjoyed was the Customer Service and Technical Support department. Instead of knowledgeable technicians they trained people that would work for much less, gave them an instruction manual which would walk them through the steps using pre-written questions and answers in order to aid the caller in resolving their problem with the product. Crude at first, but with the use of modern computers and data bases, todays businesses have brought this to a fine science.

Those of us that find a need to resolve a problem with their Computer, Computer Program, Peripheral Device, etc. may find ourselves seeking help from the organization that we purchased it from. The modern technical support people are on the same level as using a search engine to find a correlated FAQ. We find that we are well aware of the FAQ because we have already searched everywhere and tested by every means available. Thus, after waiting a lengthy period of time, we receive information that we are already aware of or we get none at all. This is the way of it now. Every company does it. There are no exceptions that I know of, not even Vonage.

There is one entity that is taking a stronger shape in the world of computing, at least. Service groups like ISPs and product users, among others are taking shape to replace that which is no longer supplied by our business organizations. The Forum. This forum is not owned, operated, or controlled in anyway by Vonage. However, as Vonage grows, so does this forum. People now come here seeking answers to their VoIP problems rather than go through Vonage for reasons already discussed. I have noticed a vast increase in new members of late. Most appear sporadically, only when they have a problem with their device or when they wish to set up their router into a particular configuration that it was never meant to fit. Many never did their homework to learn how the features work. Take for example the following Posts: "How would I transfer a call?", "How do I conference a caller in?", and "I have beeping then the dial tone". Before I decided on going with Vonage, I did a lot of research. I read everything that I could find on the subject. I was ready to hook up the RT31P2 a week before it arrived, how to set up my features, and the Local Area Network. Others don't do that I guess.

I would like to finish this by asking you new folks to spend some time in the Vonage.com Help Data Base. Read up on the Installation Support, the Learning Center, FAQ's, and read the User Guide that came with your system. There is a very useful tool at the top of this page. Learn how to use the Forum Search facility. Put your search phrase in quotes in the appropriate field and you may find that your question has already been asked and answered. It could save you a lot of time rather than Posting a new question.

Posts: 183 · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 6:36 pm Post subject:

Give it up, Michael. You're either preaching to the choir or talking to the trees.

Posts: 492 · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:37 pm Post subject:

Have I said or done something to you that would warrant such a mean, nasty, and crass remark to a fellow forum member? In case you have a reading disability that affects the clarity of your thought, I will display the purpose of this section of the forum.

Quote:

Forum Suggestions - Comments
vonage-forum.com" target="_blank">www.vonage-forum.com would love to hear your idea’s and suggestions about this site.

So? I was bored and wrote a comment. What's it to you? It sounds like a personal problem if you ask me. However, I will accept an apology if your man enough to extend one.

Posts: 183 · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:54 pm Post subject:

I am surprised that you interpreted my remarks the way you did. I agreed with everything you said, and all I intended to convey is that no matter how much some people are implored to RTFM, they won't. And there are two classes of users; those who already do (the choir) and those who never will (the trees).

Now take a deep breathe and reread my previous post with that in mind.

And rest assured, if I had anything to say that was as, how did you put it?, "mean, nasty, and crass", I wouldn't post it here. And I don't have any reading disability that affects the clarity of my thoughts, but thanks for asking.

Posts: 492 · Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:16 am Post subject:

Well, Alma, its time to eat crow as they say. In that case, I seem to have misunderstood. I must be too tired and not thinking clearly.

Indeed, I was wrong. Please accept my deepest apology for responding to your post with insult and sarcasm. Thank you for telling me so in a kind, respectful, and adult manner. You did not deserve my remarks. I am truly sorry.

It's really been a difficult week, snow storms, my phone broke in a way that mimicked a router upstream failure, the printer broke,.... I must be more stressed than I though I was.

Once more, Thank you for your kindness. Please forgive me for my lack of same.

Mike

Posts: 183 · Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:25 am Post subject:

And thanks to you for your kind reply. No apology due and none expected.

Have a nice evening, and good luck with the rest of your week!
Alma