spoken language is a poorly designed interface (Score 1)

First of all, there is often confusion on both ends due to the fact that a. The technician cannot see what is going on b. Often, the customer assumes that critical information should be readily apparent when it is unfortunately not. Hardware problems are easy once the tech realizes what to look for. I know many people that have had problems getting defective hardware replaced, but in my experience that has never been the case. In fact, it has often seemed that many times techs will send out sperfluous hardware to either appease the customer or get them off the phone when they realize they can't fix the problem. nine of ten tech calls I handled during my tenure in the pits were simple three minute fixes once the actual problem was diagnosed, it was the diagnostic part that was the real time killer. Much of this is, unfortunately, the fault of the end user. Use of terms like "dealie" and "blue box that has "file, edit, view and help" at the top aren't exactly descriptive, not to mention the uncountable numer of times where "I can't log on to the internet" really meant "I can't get into windows", and the power user who knows all about windows but changed a couple of "unimportant" entires in the registry, and the whole picture starts to emerge. Usually, the "script" that served as a troubleshooting flowchart was poorly designed and didn't include a lot of problems that occured, and the knowledge bases used either weren't up to date or were not user friendly. Many of the supervisors I served under (and in several cases watched as they were sent away) took the "voodoo" approach to tech support, insisting on fixes that wouldn't work because that's simply "what had to be done", and if a fix works once, then it's obviously going to work every single time. Combine that with the fact that many of the techs I worked with weren't trained very well, and that combination is deadly. Of course, since all of the "sweatshop" style tech support is moving offshore, I imagine that the quality of American support will increase.