Is support automated and/or outsourced? If so, where?

[greenman]

I just watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and was charmed by the concept of outsourcing old-age to India. I mean, Florida is getting full from all the retired snow birds, right? So why not?

In the same spirit, it seems very likely that Ymax outsources their chat support. I can't see them paying someone a day's American wage when the same amount will pay someone in another country for a month. When I've asked on chat, they say they're located in Florida. But they don't chat like Floridians of any flavor. Most barely have mastery of the obviously templated response system.

Ask them what happens around 2 to 3 in the afternoon in Tampa just about every summer day, and they haven't a clue.

I'll go one step further: I suspect that the first tier of support is just a Siri-type automated response system that sends you on to a second tier of live overseas chat support when you ask questions that are above its response capabilities. This seems almost too obviously to be the case to me. Answers are too similar from chat to chat.

Does anyone have definitive proof that the people in chat are working overseas? In what country? State? City? Is there any proof of automation of the first tier?

[conniemadagain]

Just go look in the back room of your local kiwi mart ... its a boiler room I tell ya !!!

[SteveHC]

It's outsourced overseas.

[greenman]

It's outsourced overseas.

We suspect similarly. However, I haven't conceived a way to prove, beyond mere conjecture, the truth one way or the other. Have you?

I know they're using 'Live Person', but that doesn't mean it's really live - hence my thought it may be automated, nor does it mean it's absolutely overseas - though likely most of their services are outsourced.

I'd really like to pin it down.

[cell14]

Unless they changed it very recently, their customer " support" is in the Philippines . Would be equally miserable if it was anywhere else.You get what you pay for, or as with MJ, less than that.

[Bill Smith]

According the the company's 2011 Form 10-K, they have customer service offices in West Palm Beach, FL and Allen, TX. The FL office provides "customer service management" and the Texas office provides "Executive, administrative offices, technical team and customer service for our telecom products."

Source: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/ ... 211154.htm

see "Item 2" on page 28

Who knows if they also have overseas support?

[SteveHC]

The same filing also states that it has customer service operations in Israel.
But none of this means anything.

[nailgunner]

Who knows if they also have overseas support?

To paraphrase Cell14, who gives a shit one way or another?

It has long been my response to those complaining about them not having phone support. Crap customer service is crap customer service regardless of the method it is made available. Whether they are in Florida, overseas or down the street, other than for basic information, they are 99% useless, and even then they frequently don't give consistent answers.

[udsting]

1 thing's for sure, the operators for magicJack are live people, i've chatted with one and they too make typos and it's too complicated to have an auto response to support 1 of the biggest VOIP service in our country and by the way this needs to be outsourced due to the different issues magicJack have which needs a lot of patience and dedication, I salute the men and women behind magicJack's tech support.

[Pilot]

1 thing's for sure, the operators for magicJack are live people, i've chatted with one and they too make typos and it's too complicated to have an auto response to support 1 of the biggest VOIP service in our country and by the way this needs to be outsourced due to the different issues magicJack have which needs a lot of patience and dedication, I salute the men and women behind magicJack's tech support.

Why?
They are USELESS 99% of the time!

[udsting]

The problem won't be fixed if the problem is in between keyboard and chair..

[Pilot]

Sounds to me like you may be one of these "helpful people at MJ live chat support" - or not helpful!

Read all transcripts of "chats" with MJ support on this site and you will go away with a red face!

Your location: Middle Earth ... should that not be Middle East?

[greenman]

Thanks for all the responses.

Your location: Middle Earth ... should that not be Middle East?

Middle Earth is the anglicized version of MidGard, the Norse legend of a bountiful land between the heat and the snow. Some believe the ancient Norse thought of southern England as a sort of MidGard. Tolkein steals the concept for his Middle Earth trilogy. He, of course, was English.

Away from that concept, I'm still not thoroughly convinced that the typical introductory 'chat' sessions for mJ are not automated.

Most of the responses I get when I'm in mJ chat are surely cut-and-paste if not entirely automated. Something like 'Thanks for your patience' shows up on regular two-minute interval, like I'm on hold or something. I've seen less of the typos udsting talks about.

One interesting meme floating around on this forum includes the idea that one live chat responder is simultaneously answering multiple chat sessions. This seems unlikely since it's been proven that multitasking in this form leads to very poor performance on the part of the multitasker. It makes a good story, though.

I'm most interested in nailing down for sure:
1. Is the first line of responders just automated?
2. Is the second of responders line overseas, as in outside the US, and if so, where?
3. Is any of the support actually located in the US?

I guess I could pretend I'm a possible client for liveperson support and ask them where their services are actually based.

I tend to suspect as cell14 does that at some level they are located in the Philippines, but am not against the idea that they could be located in Israel too. I seriously doubt any of the chat support lives in the US.

[crackerjack]

http://www.phoneservicesupport.com/a-da ... t9840.html