The Savvy Boomer

How many retired celebrities turned it down until Florence Henderson said yes?

Floclub is a support site dedicated to older computer users.  This is going to go the way of all those social networking sites that decided there was a big and profitable market dedicated to boomers and seniors.  Don't they get it?  We can use the dozens of already existing online support sites if we want.  Why do we need a site dedicated to "older" users?  I read nothing on their website that makes them unique from other similar services.  For $250 a year:

"The FloH Club can help you do any and all of the following:

• Communicate with friends and loved ones using e-mail, instant messaging, videoconferencing, or Facebook
• Set up a device that connects to your computer, such as a printer, scanner, digital camera, or MP3 player
• Clean up and tune up your system so it is virus-free and performing at its best
• Back up your files so you don't lose important data
• Make purchases safely on the Internet
• Check financial news online
• Much, much more!"

Damn!!  I don't know anyone who can't already do most of this and if they don't know, that's what family is for.  And do they really think Florence Henderson is going to reel them in?  I have nothing against Florence- she seems like a sweet 75 year old lady but am I missing something about her star appeal?  Glad they didn't get Chuck Norris or we'd all be wearing these.

 

What to do when your cell phone goes for a swim

It happened to me once and the phone was never the same again despite my CPR efforts.  Maybe if I had taken these steps I could have saved it.  Thanks to Wiki-How for the information. 

Lexmark support is a bright star in a dim galaxy

We posted an article a couple of weeks ago about how off-shore outsourced support centers can be an incredibly frustrating user experience which eventually must lead to customer dissatisfaction with a vendor. 

An article on Consumerist reveals just how much some companies try to piss you off with their support.  It's a long but amazing insight from a telephone tech support quality assurance guy.

But I had an absolutely positive experience with Lexmark recently that I want to share with you.

Canadian-American conversations sometimes need an interpreter

As a Canadian, I hate to admit it but I can believe this conversation quoted from Pogue's Posts on the New York Time's site, is true.

A Canadian customer was calling to find out if there was a faster way to trigger menu commands than mousing up to the menus.

Agent: Certainly, sir. There are keyboard shortcuts for many of those commands. For example, suppose you want to trigger the Select All command…

Caller: Yes, I use that one all the time! How do I do it?

Agent: Well, you just press Control-A.

Caller (after a pause): Well, that’s not working for me.

Agent: Do you have a text document open in front of you?

Caller: Yes, I sure do.

Agent: OK, now press Control-A.

Caller: I am, but nothing happens.

Agent: The text isn’t highlighted?

Caller: No, there’s no change at all.

Agent: That’s odd. If you press Control-A, the whole document should be highlighted. Try it again. Press Control-A. Tell me exactly what’s happening.

Caller (nearing his Canadian breaking point): Listen. I’m pressing Control, eh? And nothing’s happening, eh?

Do tech companies realize how locating their support offshore can cost them customers?

Outsourcing support services offshore has been a widely debated subject for some time.  I have seen a few executives say that their company has saved large amounts of dollars by doing so.  But I really wonder how many customers they lose or prospective customers they alienate because the customer cannot understand what the support person is saying or typing.

User forums can often help solve problems.

Who do you turn to when you need help with a technical problem?  A reader recently mentioned to me that he had been having some billing issues with Skype that were not being resolved by communicating with them.   However, when he went on the Skype forum which they monitor, the problem was eventually solved. 

Always check to see if your vendor or prospective vendor has a customer support forum on their website.  Most of them do now and they rely heavily on it as part of their solution.  Chances are that your problem has occurred before and by asking your question of other users or searching the archives, you can often find your solution.  Also, if you are having a customer satisfaction problem, the vendor is more likely to try and resolve it quickly because they don't want other customers or prospective customers viewing them as giving poor customer support.

Some support forums may be hosted by individual organizations that are not part of the vendor.  These tend to be no holds barred sites because the vendor has no control over what is said about their products by users.  You can find these by Googling them.   Another area to look is on the yahoo groups.  Do a search on your product or start up a group yourself (you'll need a yahoo account).

I always use support forums to assist me when evaluating a new product I am considering for purchase.  After all, who knows the true value and how a product really performs better than existing users?

Free Hallowe'en Tech support

I just stumbled over this on Lifehacker.  The 1 free support call actually ends November 1 9AM PST at Cyberdefender.

I have the feeling the phone lines are going to be quite busy but if you have a problem, why not give it a try?

Getting gouged by geeks

What do you do when your computer no longer works?   Hopefully you have someone you can trust come in and fix it.  Geeks are trustworthy right?  After all, they spend all their time thinking about bits, bytes, USBs, routers etc etc.  Well you might want to watch a sting operation set up by the CBC to get an idea what can happen.