Are We Forced To Be Tech Experts?

[Kusa]

Numerous tech companies now expect consumers to handle troubleshooting and problem-solving independently.

In my daily work across multiple tech platforms, I frequently find myself relying on help groups and troubleshooting links, which often fall short in providing sufficient guidance and prove unhelpful.
The shift towards fewer phone engagements and increased reliance on chats seems to be the prevailing trend.

Are consumers unfairly burdened by this approach, essentially being tasked with resolving diverse issues across various tech platforms and becoming un-qualified tech experts?

 

[shack]

Numerous tech companies now expect consumers to handle troubleshooting and problem-solving independently.

In my daily work across multiple tech platforms, I frequently find myself relying on help groups and troubleshooting links, which often fall short in providing sufficient guidance and prove unhelpful.
The shift towards fewer phone engagements and increased reliance on chats seems to be the prevailing trend.

Are consumers unfairly burdened by this approach, essentially being tasked with resolving diverse issues across various tech platforms?

I just had an incident 10 minutes ago.

My TV keeps conking out on me. It's an 8 year old Panasonic. I called the (very high profile) store where I got it from. Spoke to a pleasant young man. In the end he gave me the number of a company that services TVs and said that they may be able to diagnose it over the phone instead of paying for a service call.

So I called today and went through their process (press 1 for this and 2 for that) and in the end they directed me to Panasonic Canada. I then have to jump a few more hoops and just before they're about to connect me to a service rep I get a message telling me to have my credit card ready because they were going to charge me $10 to speak to a live person. Fuck that shit. I hung up.

I called back the young fellow and he said he'd call the service company himself and get back to me. Sheesh.

 

[Jenesis]

I have a BowFlex Max trainer at home and it was having issues. I had to get tools and manually attempt to make the repair on my own and take pics and videos to send into the portal while the rep was on the phone with me before they would send someone out and fulfill the warranty.

it’s like when Rogers tells you to unplug the modem except k needed tools, and did some serious removal of parts and shit to get to the problem. I told her I don’t feel comfortable but she said I have to do it before they send an actual repair tech.

 

[Ponderling]

Most of thus is a side effect of us 'wanting' the latest thing, and the latest thing is designed to be plastic and throw away.

I have a satisfying casual side gig bringing 1970's stereo receivers back to life.
It usually takes a few hours, some contact cleaner, some q tips, a few bulging dying electrolytic capacitors swapped, maybe a dead output transistor replaced.
And yes, my experience of what I have learned poking at this over the years.
But 90% of the time the fix works, and whoever sent it my way head away thrilled that it is working again.

Last big fix was feeding new backlight LED's into a big 63" 12 year old Sony LCD TV that was a curb find.
Most of the time was involved in creating enough horizontal space to take it apart and reassemble it.
Tuner board has an unfixable flaw, but offboard tuner remedies that, and so we have a TV that works just fine for about $25 in kit parts.
So we haul it out as a second TV for events like hosting a crowd in for a meal and watch the Super Bowl

 

[Darts]

There used to be these little shops with guys who could fix anything ever made by man and/or woman. Whatever happened to them?

 

[LTO_3]

Sadly, I agree that self-service seems to be the way things are going. IMO it's because we're a throw away society. Long gone are most shops that provided these services. I've been fortunate, so far, to only have had a few glitches with TV digital box and computer, with the TV digital box fixed by talking to their tech services and the computer by chatting with my computer guy. Cost of both was just my time.

LTO_3

 

[Darts]

Guys who can fix computers/cellphones are babe magnets.

 

[SexB]

That's kind of hilarious considering a lot of the members of this board are completely tech-illiterate.

To the point I'm surprised they don't need to call tech support to walk them through it each time they start their computer or lap top.

 

[aghy0sa6x]

Numerous tech companies now expect consumers to handle troubleshooting and problem-solving independently.

In my daily work across multiple tech platforms, I frequently find myself relying on help groups and troubleshooting links, which often fall short in providing sufficient guidance and prove unhelpful.
The shift towards fewer phone engagements and increased reliance on chats seems to be the prevailing trend.

Are consumers unfairly burdened by this approach, essentially being tasked with resolving diverse issues across various tech platforms and becoming un-qualified tech experts?

I think what you are seeing is the untold reality of Agile.
It's been a buzzword for some time in the tech world.

 

[Nathan 88]

A lot of times in this day and age it’s cheaper or about the same price to buy a new one instead of getting it fixed.

 

[AssTastic]

A lot of times in this day and age it’s cheaper or about the same price to buy a new one instead of getting it fixed.

Well said… you beat me to it!!

This thread is a perfect example of two things:
1. “They don’t make em like they used to”… cliché yes, but no statement has been more true today (for all of us old timers … cars, appliances, cellphones… etc)

2. This is how hyper-capitalism is created… make consumers consume. Cheap parts, cheap labour, cheap product… perfectly and purposefully designed to be cheaper to replace and more expensive or just incredibly difficult to fix.

We will never get ahead of tech and its design to fail us (whether they stop supporting hardware versions, or the OS stuff that’s beyond the average Joe)


It’s tech quicksand. The more you fight against it, the more you sink. They know what they’re doing…

Google is your friend, YouTube as well. You’d be surprised how many techies love to flex their brain pans and show their skills.

Just my 2¢… a GenX’r who had to figure this shit out and still losing!

 

[niks9009]

I think what you are seeing is the untold reality of Agile.
It's been a buzzword for some time in the tech world.

You can't chalk this up to a way of managing projects. If companies thought after-sales support was important, it would be available regardless of agile development. After all, agile is about prioritizing features that provide the most value to the end user.

For years, big tech has lobbied against the right to repair. putting any small shops that would provide some repair/support were forced to close due to fear of litigation. Then, they realized they could upsell services like Apple Care, etc. So I'll put this down to greed and a lack of strong consumer protection rights.

 

[AssTastic]

You can't chalk this up to a way of managing projects. If companies thought after-sales support was important, it would be available regardless of agile development. After all, agile is about prioritizing features that provide the most value to the end user.

For years, big tech has lobbied against the right to repair. putting any small shops that would provide some repair/support were forced to close due to fear of litigation. Then, they realized they could upsell services like Apple Care, etc. So I'll put this down to greed and a lack of strong consumer protection rights.

Well said… and realistically… consumers don’t really “want” to be protected. Examples, many if not all appliance manufacturers factor in the percentage of consumers that actually activate their warranty, most consumers outright waive ‘additional coverage’ because of cost, and if they do opt-in, most consumers don’t read what is covered and not covered.

 

[niks9009]

Well said… and realistically… consumers don’t really “want” to be protected. Examples, many if not all appliance manufacturers factor in the percentage of consumers that actually activate their warranty, most consumers outright waive ‘additional coverage’ because of cost, and if they do opt-in, most consumers don’t read what is covered and not covered.

Exactly. It's in the best interest of corporations to not help the consumer after the sale has been made. Almost every business when it gets to a certain size will start dropping the ball on support. It's notoriously bad in the digital space, where the concept of a support desk is so alien to these tech companies.

 

[aghy0sa6x]

If companies thought after-sales support was important, it would be available regardless of agile development.

True. Then again it's harder to support consumers without comprehensive documentation. I think that's why after-sales support is only available for a hefty enterprise fee.

Well said… and realistically… consumers don’t really “want” to be protected. Examples, many if not all appliance manufacturers factor in the percentage of consumers that actually activate their warranty, most consumers outright waive ‘additional coverage’ because of cost, and if they do opt-in, most consumers don’t read what is covered and not covered.

That's another interesting point. In online services, behind the "I agree to the terms" checkbox there are sometimes class action waiver and non-critical use clauses. Regardless of whether or not they stand in court, it scares the consumers who actually read those pages.

 

[explorerzip]

Phone tech support people often don't know how use the products they support. If they do use the product, it's in a very basic way. The people using the products i.e. in the user groups are often more knowledgeable than tech support. Text chat support is more tedious as you have to sometimes type a long paragraph to get across your problem. On the other hand, you don't need to listen to idiotic hold music during a text chat.