Something happened the other day that I wanted to share with you. I was attempting to help troubleshoot an Internet connectivity issue a local business had with a piece of equipment. That resulted in a number of calls to their tech support.
The tech support people needed me to be on a device that had both an Ethernet port and the ability to connect to WiFi. I asked for a laptop, but someone brought me a Chromebook and a USB Ethernet adapter. I didn’t think that would work, since the tech support people needed me to download a program onto the device.
However, the support guy assured me it wouldn’t be a problem. When I asked if they had the app they wanted me to download for Chromebook, the tech support guy sighed and said, “Ma’am, Chromebooks run on Windows OS.”
Now, I know this is completely untrue. But the other people listening did not and wanted me to do what the tech support guy said. So I did. Of course, when I went to install the program, I got an error saying that you couldn’t install Windows apps on a Chromebook.
“Huh?” the tech support guy said. “I thought you could.”
I had to go home, fetch my laptop, and then finish the troubleshooting with a different tech support guy.
My first important takeaway from this, is to remember that just because someone got hired for a tech support position, doesn’t mean they know a whole lot about technology. He or she might just be someone with a manual in front of them without a lot of real-world experience with technology.
Truthfully, even if I’d been in the dark about tech, there was no reason for the guy to speak to me in a condescending tone.
The same thing is true of people attempting to sell you technology. Salespeople often don’t know jack about what they’re selling. I’ve spoken to more than one person who had a salesperson tell them a Chromebook would work for their needs when it turned out it certainly would not.
It pays to learn all you can about technology before you go shopping. Click here to learn how Chromebooks differ from Macs and PCs.
I don’t frequently need tech support, but when I do, it doesn’t usually go well, like your experience. The lowest entry level people seem to be assigned the task of answering the phone, and seem to have a script to follow, at about the level of someone who has trouble with the on button. They can’t go off-script because reading the script is all they know. Don’t know how many times I’ve encountered tech support that knew less about the problem than I. Then, you have to ask for a supervisor, wait to be transferred, maybe go up another supervisor. Can be very frustrating. To be fair, I have also encountered extremely knowledgeable, super-efficient tech support.