Technical assistance from a hardware manufacturer, software publisher, internal help desk, educational institution or third-party support company. The most important thing to understand about getting help from tech support people is the amount of detail you need to supply them.
Be At the Computer
Unless you have a question that has nothing to do with a specific problem you are having with your computer, be sure you are sitting at your computer when you call the tech support line or help desk. Also, have the application running and on screen if at all possible. This is a very precise business (a misplaced comma in a router's table once caused thousands of Internet customers to be down for days).
Write Exactly What It Says
Whenever you get an error message, be sure to write down exactly what it says. "I don't quite remember" will generally not help you get your problem solved. In addition, these people may take hundreds of calls every day and may have little patience with you if you cannot describe your circumstances in exact detail. Be patient with them too, because they must have an unbelievable amount of patience to help people with their problems.
Intermittent problems are extremely difficult to resolve. If you cannot recreate the problem on screen, there may be very little a tech support person can do to help you. See help desk analyst.
Types of Tech Support
Free support is generally by e-mail or a long wait on the phone on your nickel. Go to the vendor's Web site and look for the "Support" option.
E-mail responses generally take from one to three days. Waiting on the phone takes a couple minutes until you run out of patience.
There are premium services where you pay in advance by the year or some other period, and there is typically a per-incident service. For a flat fee usually in the range of $25 to $50, the company agrees to solve a single problem over the phone no matter how long it takes. See how to find a good computer book.
Be At the Computer
Unless you have a question that has nothing to do with a specific problem you are having with your computer, be sure you are sitting at your computer when you call the tech support line or help desk. Also, have the application running and on screen if at all possible. This is a very precise business (a misplaced comma in a router's table once caused thousands of Internet customers to be down for days).
Write Exactly What It Says
Whenever you get an error message, be sure to write down exactly what it says. "I don't quite remember" will generally not help you get your problem solved. In addition, these people may take hundreds of calls every day and may have little patience with you if you cannot describe your circumstances in exact detail. Be patient with them too, because they must have an unbelievable amount of patience to help people with their problems.
Intermittent problems are extremely difficult to resolve. If you cannot recreate the problem on screen, there may be very little a tech support person can do to help you. See help desk analyst.
Types of Tech Support
Free support is generally by e-mail or a long wait on the phone on your nickel. Go to the vendor's Web site and look for the "Support" option.
E-mail responses generally take from one to three days. Waiting on the phone takes a couple minutes until you run out of patience.
There are premium services where you pay in advance by the year or some other period, and there is typically a per-incident service. For a flat fee usually in the range of $25 to $50, the company agrees to solve a single problem over the phone no matter how long it takes. See how to find a good computer book.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2008 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Inside India's CAPTCHA solving economy
- No CAPTCHA can survive a human that's receiving financial incentives for solving it, and with an army of low-waged human CAPTCHA solvers officially in the business of "data processing" while earning a mere $2 for solving a thousand CAPTCHA's, I'm already starting to see evidence of consolidation between India's major...
- Blog posts 2008-08-29
- Green Plug snags heavy hitter for board
- Who says green tech isn't rocket science? Starting Sept. 1, green tech start-up Green Plug, which is pushing for the concept of a universal power converter, has appointed former White House advisor George Keyworth as the chairman of its board of directors. Keyworth was Science Advisor to...
- Blog posts 2008-08-29
- The biggest health tech story of our time
- It's the sort of work politicians have been doing for decades, only with much greater depth, because the database is deeper, and with a purely scientific motivation. by Dana Blankenhorn
- Blog posts 2008-08-29
- Empower your people
- It's the beginning of the year and I'm going out of my mind. Even though we've added my position of "Technology Director" and I don't have to teach anymore, we're still not exactly overstaffed on tech here in the district. I'm supposed to be handling curriculum and designing...
- Blog posts 2008-08-29
- Mobile access to your SIS
- Several student information system SIS vendors offer to sync data with a Palm Pilot or Windows Mobile PDA. This is a handy feature for teachers on field trips, assistant principals stalking the halls, etc. It's fairly limited in it's utility, though since it generally only provides a static...
- Blog posts 2008-08-29
- My father, the casemodder
- I love hearing about these wacky aesthetic computer modifications that people do. While a lot of them definitely have the "cool" factor, most aren't exactly useful or practical. But when I heard about one particular "casemod" from one of my readers, I was intrigued. It just so happened that this...
- Blog posts 2008-08-29
- Novell: Quietly developing some momentum
- Novell's fiscal third quarter was notable for reasons beyond Linux sales and its core product line. Novell's most recent quarter was the sixth consecutive one that topped expectations. That consistency may mark the days where Novell becomes something more than an afterthought. Now it's no coincidence that...
- Blog posts 2008-08-29
- FBI warns 'electronic Pearl Harbor' possible
- FBI warns 'electronic Pearl Harbor' possibleWake Up!Just when are the public and the goverment ever going to realize that there is ABSOLUTELY ZERO SECURITY when it comes to computers? It makes no sense for banks and any goverment agency to have their networks connected to the internet. How many more...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-28
- Comcast takes broadband cap plunge; Other carriers likely to follow
- Comcast takes broadband cap plunge; Other carriers likely to followHmm, I wonder how long it will take the torrent abusers...... to reach that cap and get kicked? Not talking about the ones who get movies and software and games all illegally but the ones who serve this stuff up?...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-28
- What SaaS can teach us about customer service
- What SaaS can teach us about customer serviceGood Advice!As someone actively engaged in the software as a service industry, I can confirm that Archie Black's advice is spot on. I work for PayCycle, an online payroll company that embodies the SaaS model. Our customers don't make distinctions between...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-28
- Google, Mozilla extend search box deal
- That little Google search box in the upper right part of your Firefox browser will be sticking around through 2011, according to Mozilla. Mitchell Baker, Chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation or Chief Lizard Wrangler depending on what you prefer, said in a blog post that Google has...
- Blog posts 2008-08-28
- Windows 7 must avoid the marketing trap that Vista stumbled into
- Windows 7 must avoid the marketing trap that Vista stumbled intoI agree "One OS to unite them all""One price to keep all happy" In the end it's just a marketing ploy different versions each with their own "missing" pieces. In many ways it looks like double dipping...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-28
- SaaS market will 'collapse' in two years
- SaaS market will 'collapse' in two yearsHe doesn't get itSo to summarize Debes (who comes off a little like Vinny from da mob or a coke dealer - his words, not mine):(1) SaaS and Cloud computing as a delivery vehicle has been tried before and therefore will fail (like all...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-28
- Attention Craig Newmark: Citizens aren't customers
- Attention Craig Newmark: Citizens aren't customersDemocracy versus politicsThank you for discussing the difference between spectator politics and participative democracy. It seems to me that technology can definitely be put to better use for enabling the latter. At the risk of rambling, perhaps that might be a role that the newspaper...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-28
- First images of Google-powered HTC Dream
- It was rumored that the HTC G1 Dream would be the first Google powered phone on the market, and if everything pans out, those rumors will end up being true with a launch date sooner than later. Android Guys have the first mock-up drawings of the Dream, and it's...
- Blog posts 2008-08-28
- Smart grid player Trilliant closes $40 million in funding round
- Trilliant, a green tech company that's working with about 100 utilities on various smart grid deployments, has just closed a $40 million round of equity funding from a group of investors including affiliates of MissionPoint Capital Partners and zouk ventures. Trilliant CEO Bill Vogel characterizes the investment...
- Blog posts 2008-08-28
- News to know: IE 8; iPhone password locks; SOA; Palm Treo Pro reviews
- Here are today's notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily: Mary Jo Foley: IE 8 Beta 2 ready for download Ed Bott: Internet Explorer 8 gets a massive makeover Gallery: Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 ...
- Blog posts 2008-08-28
- How do we address the have-nots?
- How do we address the have-nots?It's the NetThe problem is no longer the availability of hardware: many computers are being dumped that can easily be made productive again, by installing a lean Linux on it like Xubuntu. So poor people can have a fine computer for free. That's easy to...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-28
- ScopeBox (dmg)
- Across the industry, there is a wave of change from single-use hardware solutions to software-based solutions running on standard personal computers. ScopeBox capitalizes on this trend by allowing users to replace expensive hardware devices with a single, low-cost, flexible software application. ScopeBox recreates every major video quality assurance tool in...
- Software downloads 2008-08-28
- iPod Deleted Data Recovery Tool (exe)
- Recover iPod Apple, Shuffle, Mini, Nano and portable media player songs, music files. Data Doctor iPod recovery software is the best solution to restore your iPod deleted files. This advanced files retrieval tool support restoration of hard drive-based iPod Classic data. Undelete utility retrieves the touch screen iPod Touch, the...
- Software downloads 2008-08-28
Neighboring Terms
Premier Vendor Content Whitepapers, webcasts & resources from our Power Center Sponsors
- Visit the all new ZDNet Enterprise Mobility Hub sponsored by Verizon Wireless. It has the latest news, commentary, and resources for your mobile strategy development.
- Read the latest from Matthew Miller's The Mobile Gadgeteer Blog
- Five steps to protect mobile devices anywhere, anytime
- Watch a video about Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS)
- Learn how you can fetch your email from anywhere
- All this and more on the ZDNet Enterprise Mobility Hub
