Already this week I arrived at homes and a business where the computer users described being on tech support phone calls for 12, 15, and one a whopping 22 hours!! All three users had zero resolution of their original problems and as you might imagine their problems grew by the end of the call.
Then they called me.
Not all phone tech support calls go quite this poorly, but it happens all too often. You can protect yourself when troubleshooting a problem online or over the phone by tracking what caused the problem and what steps you took to start to rectify the problem. A chronological list of what was done to your computer can help you back out of a problem or help a computer tech like me get you out of trouble.
The more detailed the list, the better of course, but even noting what settings were changed and at what point in the process, listing new software installed or updated, and what software may have been deleted makes the recovery process much smoother.
The next time you get into trouble, reach for a pencil and paper and start writing out notes of what got you into trouble and then the steps, in order, you take to try and solve the problem. Your tech support folks will appreciate this information and the amount of time and money you spend fixing the problem will be drastically reduced.
Great ideas Rick. Often times the tech on the other end makes certain assumptions because he can’t physically see what’s going on.
When an onsite tech arrives, and can physically see the problem, and have a record of all the changes that were made in an effort to fix the original problem, it can be a lot less costly and time consuming…
If only they’d called you first 🙂
This is an excellent tip, Rick. My favorite is calling up tech support on an issue and then telling them everything that you have done already. It’s sort of humorous really. Here is how the conversation usually goes:
“How may I assist you today?”
“OK, first off let me tell you everything that I have done so far because if I don’t you will tell me to do it again. I have restarted my machine, made sure that I have all of the latest updates, have updated my Virus protection, have uninstalled any software that I have installed since I noticed the problem, and my computer is plugged in, miss/sir.”
“Thank you very much. Please hold on while I transfer you to our advanced support team.”
It’s nice to feel “advanced” 🙂
In the process of transferring data from my 7 year old desktop to my new laptop I made the mistake of using Microsoft”Easy Transfer” which popped up in my Windows 7 program……what a mistake!
Long story short – Mozy came to my rescue and provided the best tech support ever, second only to “helpmeRick.”
It took time to salvage the”Easy Transfer disaster” “but Mozy did a second restore and phoned me on NEW YEARS DAY! to complete the procedure.
Mozy is a great program with superb tech people!
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