A conversation with Microsoft...

Reactivating Publisher

[Sanenet]

After trying to use the automated system, I get transferred to a "CSR" (Customer service rep?) because of unspecified "technical difficulties".

Only to be told to "hang on, our computers are really running slowly today".

Followed by "one mintue please, we're rebooting our systems"

Followed by "Could you please ring back sir, my pc is hanging".

Me - Have you tried running Linux?
CSR (diplomatically) - well, I wouldn't know about that, sir.

Arrrrgh!

[lZakl]

That's why you buy Adobe ;0)

That, and InDesign is better than Home Calender Maker .. oops, I mean Publisher...

[Leosghost]

In Europe at least non of M$'s own people use N*rton ( in spite of the recommendations on Redmond's sites and their links to symantec )...When asked why the reply ( translated from the french ) was don't be *$$*ing silly ..the OS is vulnerable enough as it is without telling it it has an AV and hoping that it's convinced by the ads..One guy likened it to putting up a photo of a Doberman at your door ..and hoping the burglars never noticed that it couldn't bite ;).

[sem4u]

lZakl - I was about to say something similar ;)

And yes I have used Publisher before... :)

[rocknbil]

Maybe it's just me. Is anyone else totally annoyed by the fact that most of these big corps are outsourcing their T.S. calls to India?

Nothing more frustrating than having someone from India tell you they can barely hear/understand you. "Of course you can't! Not only are you halfway around the world you can barely speak my language!" :-)

[mcavic]

someone from India

Actually, the fact that they're in India doesn't bother me all that much. What bothers me is that they're level 1 support, and I'm calling because something doesn't work, not because I don't know how to do something.

[Leosghost]

Not only are you halfway around the world you can barely speak my language!

The accent of some Indians may be difficult for the American ear to understand ..However in my experience the general level of spoken and written English is better in India ( ie:grammar and richness of vocabulary , spelling etc amongst the educated Indians ) than in the levels of those who have passed through highschool or it's equvalent in the USA or for that matter the UK ..

I visit quite a few fora that are not about the internet ..but are mainly adults posting in English ..the level of straight illiteracy evidenced by American and Uk posters ..( many of them in their 40's and upwards ..including serving military personel ) is horrifying ..and I'm not talking about the differences between "English English" and "American English" ..just most folks in those two countries now seem to be semi-literate at best ..

This is even the case with the broadcasters in radio and TV..

OT ..but I felt it needed saying .

[rocknbil]

My comment was not intended as a nationalist or racist statement and the problem is not with the country of choice, it's with the corporation. It just stands to reason if you're going to outsource your entire tech support department to a foriegn country, it would be a Really Good Idea to make sure the country's primary language is the same as yours. You know, to avoid . . . communication problems. :-)

[2by4]

" Maybe it's just me. Is anyone else totally annoyed by the fact that most of these big corps are outsourcing their T.S. calls to India?"

No, it's not just you. Outsourcing is never done to improve quality of service, it's done to cut costs. To me it's not the actual language thing that's the problem, it's more a cultural syntax thing, when I speak to a tech person from my country, it's easier for me to actually communicate my problem to them, since we have the same cultural background, and have a common understanding that doesn't need to be explained in words.

My tendency now is that if a company I deal with starts using that type of outsourcing, if I have a choice, I stop using them. They are free to try to cut costs, and I'm free to look elsewhere for those products or services. Dell recently had to cut their corporate outsourcing for example because their corporate clients were getting seriously annoyed. Normal dell users of course still get the outsourced support.