Hi,

I haven't used my tech support in a while, but what's up?  I called tech support three times today for a pretty minor problem and each time none of the overseas technicians could help me.  I had a hard time understanding what they were saying, as well.  Is this a new thing?

So, do you have a legitimate question or are you just complaining?  If it's complaining, I'd recommend that a moderator re-locate this post to General Discussion. 

 

 

And it shall be done...

***presto***

Menno

I am totally complaining.  I called 3 times and the techs could not understand my question and were unable to help with what was a minor problem.

Actually, I do have a question: When did Avid switch their tech support to overseas?

What number did you call?  What product was it for?  Where are you located?  Do you know where the support center was that took your call?

Better yet.... what were your questions?

Recently, Avid Support Services received an e-mail from an American customer who had called for telephone support for his Avid Xpress Pro software, and was connected to a support representative overseas. 

 

We understand that many of our American customers have concerns about jobs being outsourced abroad. Avid has, in fact, always used an outsourced agency to backup our support organization at our corporate headquarters in the United States, located in Tewksbury, MA.  Recently, Avid changed service providers from a company in Canada to one in the Netherlands.  We’d like to take this opportunity to offer some of the reasons why we use external help to alleviate the burden on our corporate support teams.

 

First and foremost, Avid is a global company with a commitment to offer technical assistance to customers around the world, and in their native language wherever possible. If you look at the “contact support” page on avid.com, you will see explanations on how to get in touch with us from every corner of the globe. We pride ourselves on our outstanding record of customer service, and endeavor to provide the best support and service for every customer.

 

To meet the needs of today’s market, we share resources with our international offices wherever possible. Avid is now using a single vendor to assist our support teams for Avid Liquid and Avid Xpress Pro in the Americas and Europe. As a result, we have realized substantial improvements to our overall service, including:

·         Call wait times have been reduced from over one hour to less than 3 minutes.

·        Prior to this change, Avid could provide only one call to Avid Support Services with a product purchase of Liquid or Xpress for installation support only. Customers now receive a free service access code that can be used for any technical question at any time, within normal support hours.

·         Avid has significantly reduced the cost of handling support calls from customers without support contracts.

·         Instead of requiring multiple call-in steps to obtain access for a single incident of support, customers can now buy service access codes online and use them instantly.

·         Service access codes are valid worldwide, so you can call Avid for support from wherever you are working.

 

Avid Support Services has expanded the support teams internationally, and we continue to grow as our business grows. Our resource sharing initiatives in 2007 have allowed us to service more customers in the US through the extended global staff. On rare occasions when we experience issues with language (less than .01%), we have addressed those customers’ concerns directly.  Avid Support Services’ focus is to provide customers with the right answer as quickly as possible. To that end, we will continue to take any measures that can assist us in helping to resolve issues as fast as we possibly can.

 

We appreciate every opportunity we have to better our commitment to our customers; please feel free to contact one of the following people if you have ongoing concerns about Avid Support Services:

 

Tony Hamwey, Director of Customer Support, Americas

800-949-AVID (2843) x 3307 (978-640-3307 for those outside N. America)

Tony_Hamwey@avid.com

 

Thomas Jaeckle, Support Manager for New Media Products, Europe

+49 811 5520 735

Thomas_Jaeckle@avid.com

 

Paul Pearman, Services Product Manager, Europe

+44-(1)753-655-999

Yes Avid has begun outsourcing their Technical support overseas. I am a litte more than upset at this prospect. Thank God we have the forums.

Avid Customer Service:

·         Call wait times have been reduced from over one hour to less than 3 minutes.

So now, instead of a front-line rep who has worked at least on the periphery of our business, we now get a rep who doesn't understand, not only our geographical concerns but with whom we cannot communicate as was the case with the call I made as well as the poster above.

Avid Customer Service:

·        Prior to this change, Avid could provide only one call to Avid Support Services with a product purchase of Liquid or Xpress for installation support only. Customers now receive a free service access code that can be used for any technical question at any time, within normal support hours.

Wonderful except when we have to escalate the call anyway because I refuse to speak to a rep who is reading from a script as was my experince last week.

Avid Customer Service:

·         Avid has significantly reduced the cost of handling support calls from customers without support contracts.

And, thanks to this new option, will greatly reduce the flow of incoming calls because users will not deal with Avid new support structure.

It's great to have European calls answered in a call center that is geographically relevant to the caller. However, shipping customer concerns overseas to a different language, culture, and technical background shows a decided lack of understanding of Avid's domestic customer base. Our business is not just the computers on which we work and thinking that you can pair a rep who has very little in common with your customer base purely based on experience in our business is ridiculous. I, for one, will not speak to an "Operator" in an office far removed from my business again. I will ask to be escalated back to the states or I will simply remove my Assurance contracts and go to outside vendors as I have done in the past.

Now, you put Menno on the phone instead of the folks I got last week and we'd be back in businesss.

FWIW, I can emphasize with the frustration of getting someone in a support role who is difficult to understand because they don't speak your native language fluently. I use a printer in California and half the time I get someone who has a heavy Hispanic or Korean accent and I'm always left wondering if they understood what I was telling them as much as I coulldn't understand them... constantly having to ask them to speak more slowly or to repeat what they just said. It is incredibly frustrating. So is going to a fast food restaurant and in addition to having to suffer through all their suggestive selling to also have to deal with someone who speaks broken English. Dangit.

... not to mention the "reading from a script" scenario that Blkdog mentioned. I HATE having to go through their routine after holding forever.... then they start their ridiculous line of questioning (is the computer plugged into the wall? Is your keyboard plugged into the computer? Is your monitor turned on? ... etc.... etc...

I was recently told that I just needed to purchase a new system from the latest qualified list. After getting off the phone with tech support, I troubleshooted the issue myself and the system is now running like a dream. fwiw.

hmm i sense a disturbance in the force....

But i do feel the pain, it is frustrating to be stuck at first line support especially when they are no native english speakers (or any language for that matter)... We have some of our own here. I am glad we indeed have the forums for now. And i think this thread serves at least one purpose which is quality control for the outsourced company ... and at this moment the score is 1:0 not in favor of the customer.

Menno

ps did i mention i was for hire? (just kiddddiiiinnnggggg)

"disturbance in the force..." That's me... and proud of it! ;)