Never Comes

[sligg1]

After spending hours on Magic Chat, the tech agrees your device is defective, they will send a replacement. They say you will get an email verifying this.

The email never comes and neither the replacement. Obviously, this is their technique of putting you off.

If you go back to Magic Chat, you will have to go through the same ordeal and spend another couple of hours and be told the same thing.

I just realized that maybe they use a few techs and when they log in they use a different name. Isn't it odd, you never get the same tech and if you ask for the tech by name, they are never available. The current tech tells you he will try to solve the problem and puts you back into the same cycle.

No matter which tech you chat with, they all read from the same chat sheet.

If someone kept a log, I would bet they have used at least one hundred techs (or names created on the fly) to give the impression they are well staffed.

Dan Borislow is quite an operator.
_________________
Salvatore Liggieri

[az2008]

Dan Borislow is quite an operator.

First level (at least) support is offshored to India or the Ukraine. His Danness doesn't have much to do with how liveperson.net conducts business within their contract with MJ.

My guess is they get a nickle per help session. Operators are working a dozen other chats simultaneously (for Charles Schwab, Ford warranty, and Randy's Online Pr0n Shop). And, they probably have a requirement to solve a problem within some amount of contacts (for the same problem); escalate no more than some number of problems; replace no more than some number of units.

Liveperson.net is working within the same constraints as MJ (at $20 a year). There's just not that many ways to slice a pie of that size. That's just a reality. Dan can't pay much to the outsourced support. The outsourced support can't spend forever on a problem. The economics dictate that they just go for the low-hanging fruit. The people it works for (and those who can be fixed quickly).

I think the important question is whether they warranty the USB device for 1 year. I didn't see any warranty when I purchased. Just the 30-day trial. I think the TOS says it's not warrantied. However, Best Buy says it is.

If it's warrantied and they aren't honoring their commitment, that might be something worth pursuing legally, collectively, as a matter of principle. Individually, it's hard to spend a lot of time over $20 to $40. Especially if you got a few months out of it.

Mark

[HolmanGT]

az2008,

I have been fooling with computer for a very long time. Calling tech support is akin to emptying your bladder into the wind. That is not just MJ, I wish I had all the time back that I have wasted on the phone to technical support groups. Almost all of them are reading from the same data base script (only with a foreign accent to prevent any accidental meaningful communications) that you can access on their site

Most of the bizarre problems that I have come up with answers for came from a Google search that lead me to s site like this where some clever person or group of clever people came up with the solution. In short I don't even bother with most tech support groups anymore.

Don' take my comments as total black and white, there are some tech supports groups out there that are... well just plain dynamite. MJ is not on that list.

[az2008]

That is not just MJ, I wish I had all the time back that I have wasted on the phone to technical support groups.

I think chat-based support adds to the problem. Earthlink's support is in India. There were a lot of complaints on the EL forum (on dslreports). But, I always got good service. I always went into it expecting it to take longer than it should. But, I vowed not to get frustrated. I would make small talk with the support person, asking what part of India they were from; if they celebrate Diwali; etc.

They always went the extra mile for me. Making some phone calls. Escalating. Call backs to see if the problem was resolved. Nobody on the EL forum got that kind of help.

It took longer than it should have. It would have been easy to get upset and take it out on the support person. But, shmoozing them always worked for me.

It's hard to shmooze over chat.

Mark

[HolmanGT]

"It's hard to schmooze over chat. "

Ain't that the truth, I can do pretty good on a phone chat but a text chat with the person on the other end talking to three other people at the same time is RUFF.