My morning with Micro-Star International

[dcc]

I just had one of the most exasperating experiences, I had to call Micro-Star International long distance because they don’t offer an 800 number, and after going through their automated menu for three minutes, I finally get transferred to their technical support department, where I’m subjected to a rousing rendition of “a one horse open sleigh played on a flute while I’m kept on hold. At this point I’m beginning to think that MSI is in cahoots with the phone company because all the time I’m spending on hold, and to make sure that I don’t give up too easily a recorded voice comes on every thirty seconds to assure me that my phone call is important and to please hold for the next available...back to a rousing rendition of "A one horse open sleigh" played on a flute, and the cycle continues for another three minutes at which point they figure that I should have hung up out of frustration three minutes ago, and do so for me.

I go through this two more times, and on the third try I actually get hold of a tech who promptly puts me on hold for three minutes, you should begin to see a pattern forming here, I'm wondering at this point if these guys are into numerology. Eventually the tech comes back to the phone and asks how he can be of service in his best Indian/Philippine accent, and immediately I realize that I'm not talking with a tech, but I proceed and ask my question regarding the compatibility of different makes of RAM...all I hear in the back ground are crickets...and then he starts into his spiel describing what my motherboard would like to have installed for RAM...now there is only the sound of crickets from my end of the phone...I now realize that all of my patience has been for not, and ask if there is any other way to obtain information for compatible models of RAM for this motherboard, and he starts into the spiel a second time...and I finally realize that I have been defeated and proceed to join him in his Montrose.

After recovering from my induced meditation, I began to question whether it would have been easier to have just gone through the email process and wait a couple of weeks for a response, so I go back to their web site and pursue this new endeavor. As I start to fill out all of the "required" fields of information, I once again realize they have beaten me, and that this to is going to be a waste of emotional resources. There are questions such as "what is the serial number of your Northbridge chipset", "which inspection stamp is on the board, which can be found on the bottom side of the board". I should have started waving my white flag as soon as they kept repeating that my email address wasn't valid, and saved myself from a second session of meditation and chanting my Montrose.

As I wipe the drool from my face and try to rearrange the vapid expression on my face, I can't help but wonder...Am I on candid camera?

[server_crash]

Don't you hate crappy tech support, especially when they can't speak english? I spent weeks trying to comunicate with Dell, but you can't when they're from India or whereever they pick them these days. Personally, it makes me feel better if I yell at them and make them feel as stupid as possible.

[dcc]

It truely is a sad statement of how major companies view their clients. It seems that any large company that deals in wholesale or retail sales and doesn't have a 800 number has their customer support based over seas. The alterative is a very slow dance to the music of email, and one of the partners has a leg shorter than the other which has a tendency to move the dance in a circle. :rolleyes:

[jwenting]

Now for some good news...
Dealing with Sandisk tech support I had a response and an address for a replacement stickdrive within hours.
After my first email to that address to make arrangements got lost (for which they apologised) I had a replacement drive in the mail in under a week from the time I got the shipping address.
How's that for service?

And my experiences with most other companies I've dealt with over the years (Microsoft, Logitech, Maxtor, Iiyama, Sun, Corel, and others) has been very similar.

About my only bad experience has been with Philips, and that was more the extremely slow (glacial is the word) way they work than the end result (took them only half a year to exchange a broken DVD writer under warranty).

[dcc]

I have actually had pretty good luck with most other companies, in fact there have only been three that stand out in my mind. MSI obviously is one, Panda AV just never answered anything until I was discontinuing their service, and then they wouldn't shut up. The third is a company I will not mention on Ebay, I won the bid on a 5.1 home theatre speaker system and paid within the hour, I never received an email comfirming anything, and after I saw where the payment had cleared my bank I started sending email to find out what was going on, no reply. I finally received the speakers two and a half week later, which were in good condition and sound great, without ever hearing a single word from the company until I panned them in my rating of the transaction at Ebay, and then I received a nasty email from them and in turn of course they gave me a bad revue as a customer a Ebay.