yesthattom | Bad customer support

Hi Tom,

I am a Manager in Technical Support here at COMPANY NAME, Inc. You recently filled out a survey for us and rated some areas of technical support as ‘fair’ or ‘poor’.

I wanted to touch base with you and see what problems you have experienced and if there was anything you needed assistance with. My contact information is in my signature please feel free to call or email me.

PERSON NAME
Manager
Tier I Gold Support
COMPANY NAME, Inc.

...

I have a love-hate relationship with COMPANY NAME PRODUCT NAME. I plug it in articles that I write in magazines
(http://www.usenix.org/publications/login/2006-02/pdfs/limoncelli.pdf) but the customer support is terrible for “deep” technical issues, and the phone menu wasn’t completely unclear as to how to get support for the product (if I recall, it used internal names for products, not what customers would call things.... a bush-league error that a lot of companies commit). I wrote about all this years ago: http://www.everythingsysadmin.com/archives/000089.html

I didn’t mention COMPANY NAME in the new edition of my System Administration book because I was so conflicted about my feelings for COMPANY NAME. How can I continue to publicly endorse a product that has great technical merit, but bad support. Especially when my book is all about meta-issues like support! http://www.amazon.com/Practice-System-Network-Administration-2nd/dp/0321492668/tomontime-20

I considered describing my experience in the chapter on customer support (it would have been an example of what NOT to do, and I
wouldn’t have named the company, of course). However, it didn’t make it into the final manuscript. The 3rd edition will have a chapter on “vendor management” which might be a more appropriate place.

I don’t currently need an assistance with the product, as I’ve changed companies and my new employer uses something else. (and I’m not in the security group). At home I’ve moved to other products. However I do appreciate your email.

Sincerely,
MY NAME