Customer Care Less

Fortunately, I seldom have occasion to contact technical support for computer-related issues. I usually have enough knowledge, experience, or web search skills to track down the answer and resolve hardware and software problems. 30 plus years of being a gadget junkie does that for you.

But today I exhausted my knowledge and patience on a TV Tuner/Audio issue (cable tv input to tuner, video plays with sound but a lot of static on Wave channel). Yes, updated all the drivers, reinstalled all the software, checked all the devices, tested all the inputs, ad nauseam.

So I created a support ticket on the Tuner card manufacturer's website.

<**sigh**>

When I next checked my e-mail a short time later, there was an answer, complete with plenty of exclamation marks that followed "Thank you for choosing XYZ Co.!!!"

I rather expected them to say "it's a third party issue", which they did.
I even expected them to say "try this and if it doesn't work, get back to us", which they did. I almost expected the impersonal voice in their response.

But what I didn't really expert, or want to hear, was a completely care-less attitude. "In our experience this is a third party issue. Try to resolve it with the manufacturer of your sound card. If this doesn't help to resolve your issues, please respond to the ticket once more and one of our representatives will assist you."

Their support desk autoresponder picked up "audio" in my subject line and kicked out a stock reply. Try to convince me it didn't. Will I follow up on this issue? Yes, but only when I'm good and angry, now.

In the course I teach on digesting technical information, PWR381 for York University, I call this "suppressive writing". It is intended to make you stop contacting them. And it works. Insurance companies use it all the time. It's very effective.

It also shows a complete lack of customer care.

Funny how many companies have changed the names of their customer/technical support departments to "customer care" departments, but haven't actually instituted any customer "caring".

If I had received a response (even from an autoresponder!!) that said "Hi, Jim here from XYZ Co. Sorry you're having a problem with your [TV Tuner Audio]. We've found that most of these issues can be fixed by changing something having to do with your [sound card]. I'd suggest you try contacting the manufacturer of your [sound card] and see if they can help you make these devices get along. If that doesn't work, contact me directly by replying to this e-mail and I'll help you sort it out. I appreciate your choosing XYZ Co. products!"

Completely different tone. Completely different impact on the customer. What do you think?