Did Microsoft outsource all its tech support to India?

[Darth Viscera]

Just a quick question before I begin my rant about sub-par customer service support. I don't want to look like a fool if it turns out their tech support is in fact in California and I was merely on the phone with an exchange student.

[Keerrourri Feessaarro]

Pretty much. Tech firms outsource to India all the time.

[ReaperFett]

Many companies who use telephone operators in mass are using India and the like due to the large number of cheap competant labour. I heard some are leaving though because wages are rising there, so they're off to the next place. Others are heading back "home", probably for PR.

[Keerrourri Feessaarro]

That, and Microsoft's tech support is free. You get what you pay for.

Now, if we were talking about Linux, that would be another story.

[Morgan Evanar]

Originally posted by ReaperFett
Many companies who use telephone operators in mass are using India and the like due to the large number of cheap competant labour. I heard some are leaving though because wages are rising there, so they're off to the next place. Others are heading back "home", probably for PR. Except they aren't competant. Just ask Dell's business division.

[ReaperFett]

Okay, competant in theory.



The worst part isn't what happens now, but what happens when India gets expensive. Then, service would get even worse.

[Charley]

Originally posted by ReaperFett
Okay, competant in theory.



The worst part isn't what happens now, but what happens when India gets expensive. Then, service would get even worse.

Then, you just find the better, cheaper labor pool. Business 101.

[ReaperFett]

I know, my worry is when they start running out of pools.

[Charley]

They don't. They will always go for what is better, faster, or cheaper, or some combination of these. There will always be a choice to be made.

[Darth Viscera]

Well then I'll begin my rant. First of all, I loves the Indian people. I love Indian food, sog panir is great, chicken tikka is great, and I loves my samosas, the spicier the better. The lady at the GNC is a bit obnoxious and needs to learn proper customer manners & relations, though. And I should add, I've loved Indian accents ever since the first time I watched "Short Circuit". That Ben Jabituya is surely the beez neez of outrageous accents!

There, that disclaimer will shield me from any and all allegations of racism/necrophila/etc, even with our favorite Bangladeshi resident, I imagine.

That said, I must emphasize my extreme slight dissatisfaction with the quality of technical support I received to-day. Pretty much the only reason I like Microsoft is because of some outstanding technical support I've received from them in the past, with regards to my Intellimouse Explorer mice. 30 months ago I had a problem with my MS Intellimouse's scroll wheel getting stuck. A quick call to Tech Support, and a replacement arrived on my doorstep via 1-day UPS free of charge. 18 months ago I had a problem with my Intellimouse Explorer not working properly in the USB port of a KT266a chipset (I think), and a quick call to tech support and an Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 arrived on my doorstep via 1-day UPS free of charge, still in its retail packaging.

Today, I called MS Support, and initially everything went smoothly. I spoke at first with a kind & helpful customer service representative who had an accent which was either indicative of someone from Michigan or someone from Central Canada (insofar as he spoke with the sing-songy, sunny disposition-laced modification to the standard American neutral, of which I am rather fond), I'm not certain which. I explained to him my problem, that the scroll wheel on my Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 had degraded due to wear & tear and was now stuck most of the time, and as such no longer functioned. He told me, apologetically and with a great sense of apparent foreboding, that he would have to connect me with Tech Support first, that it was company policy in order to secure my replacement. I happily agreed, and he transferred me.

The person who answered the phone told me his name, which came out as sort of an incoherent jumble, and I was unable to understand what he said. I asked him if he could say it again please, and he repeated his name in the same incoherent fashion. When he asked my name, I answered "Walter", which he pronounced "Wallbarra", and we moved on.

He asked me what was my afflicting my mouse, and I explained that due to wear and tear, my scroll wheel was stuck, and was permanently depressed, and could no longer be released. He then told me that I should reinstall my mouse drivers. I informed him that I had lost my Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 drivers CD, and that I could easily download the latest driver from the Microsoft site, but he would have none of it. He told me to go look for my CD, and put me on hold. Minutes later I emerged with an old, outdated Intellimouse CD which refused to be installed because it was designed for Windows 95, 98 and NT SP3. He then suggested that I download the latest drivers from the MS site, and "Now why didn't I think of that?" crossed my mind.

Minutes later, we had both established that the physical, mechanical problem which had permanently depressed my scroll wheel was not an issue of software drivers being out of date, but altogether something else was causing the malfunction. While I had come to the conclusion that the only problem was that my scroll wheel had jammed, he had come to the altogether different conclusion that one of my USB ports had broken. He got me to try my mouse on all 6 USB ports, each of which generated the same issue of a stuck scroll wheel (go figure), and then got me to try the mouse on all the USB ports of all the computers in my house.

After we had checked the mouse on 10 USB ports across 3 computers, he came to the conclusion that there was something physically wrong with my mouse, and that perhaps the scroll wheel had jammed. I happily agreed, he consulted with his associates, and added a note to my case # saying that I could get a replacement when the parts replacement office opened, and gave me a phone number.

I wonder, why did they think that it would be a good business decision to replace thoughtful, experienced, sociable, efficient, helpful tech support people with somewhat intelligible, inexperienced, by-the-books types?

[Charley]

Troubleshooters follow a procedural chain that is standardized across the board. They even have a flow chart for it. Its like a telemarketer of a sort. He's just following the procedure to touch all bases.

[Darth Viscera]

I'm aware of this. The last 2 tech support people from Microsoft I spoke with were not nearly so methodical in following redundant procedures, back when their Tech Support department was in the United States and their staff was experienced, and seemed to even posess an intelligence which transcended flow charts.

[Charley]

You get what you pay for.

[Darth Viscera]

I agree completely. Maybe Microsoft should buckle under and rehire its experienced American tech support staff, even though it means paying more.