"I don't know"? - AppleCares Response

[supanatral]

Sorry guys, I need to go on a rant. I called up Apple today with a problem because when I copy files from one computer to the next, its been getting corrupted. When I copy it in Finder, it errors and then freezes there with 5 seconds left and doesn't ever finish or go away. I got the bright idea to do it in terminal because then it could at least give me an error and I actually got one to. So after I found the error, I called up AppleCare and told them the issue. Here was there response:

"We're not trained in Unix commands, so I don't know"

I'm a IT Manager for a windows environment and honestly, I would get fired (no joke) for telling someone that. Its understandable that they don't know everything, and I don't have a problem with them not knowing. I start to have a problem when they're unwilling to learn something new.

Another thing that I feel is odd is why their not trained in Unix, at least a little bit because it is good for diagnosing issues. If not that, then we all know that they're reading "Q-Cards" sort of speak where they read word for word what you need to do, they should at least be able to search through them to find out what the error means. But-hey, thats just one mans opinion

 

[nixgeek]

Did you speak with a higher level of tech support? I doubt that level 1 drones would know anything about anything, let alone Unix commands.

 

[supanatral]

You know something, thats what I expected would happen when I was dialing the Applecare number but no. When she told me that she didn't know I asked her if I could speak to someone that did know and she said that no one knows anything about Unix commands, which I doubt. She finally spoke to someone else to ask them but she wouldn't put me on the line with them

 

[Giaguara]

Tier 1 are not advised to touch the terminal, considering the potential damages a few typos could do to anyone's system. It would have been far more appropriate to pass you on to someone who would have known how to search for the error you got.
Use http://www.apple.com/support/feedback/ but package the feedback constructively... they should be able to find you with your serial, phone number, email, AND the time and day you called. It will be passed via the appropriate feeds to the corrective level to feedback the system. Even if you would not have the case #.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

That page specifically states that you should NOT expect any kind of reply when submitting feedback.

Please know that while we do read everything, we are unable to personally respond.

I think it would be unwise to use that form to try and get technical support, although it would be good to let them know that they may need to get better at providing command-line/UNIX support over the phone.

 

[supanatral]

Giaguara - That makes sense. Well, I've already did the terminal commands, I just needed to know what they meant but I hear what your saying. I can understand why that would be.

Thank you for your response guys and thanks for the link.

 

[Rhisiart]

Could not this incident be down to one poorly performing tech person? Anytime I ring anyone for any type of tech support I find it's a lottery as to whether you get someone really keen and helpful, or someone who is just not on the ball.

 

[Giaguara]

It is exactly that Rhisiart. "I don' know" isn't supposed to be part of an answer in any support job unless it will continue something like "but I will find out for you". I would want to go smack that kind of person anywhere.

Eldiablo, that form will not get visible feedback to the sender, but if one sends a short note of what happened, "on day x/y/z around 5pm I called to get support for my product y, serial zyx, incident number abc. The person who was handling my support request told me on the phone something that should have been reworded before saying it to the customer.." That WILL feedback where things went wrong, so it will get to the manager of the person, as long as there is enough info for finding out in the system who was talking with you. The more info the better.

I can't believe anyone would say that to a customer. Even if they have zero training. If a customer has a problem, find out and learn, or if someone else is supposed to fix that then pass it on to them.
I have zero training in fixing active directory issues, in how most SQL really works, in how over half of the products I deal with work. If I get "my [product I have no training for but am supposed to support to some degree and debug and fix it] isn't working, my 3000 users can't log in, help me" that just would NOT work. If I hear anyone say that type of "I have no clue" phrase to the customer, he'll get the consequences.

It would be entirely different after identifying for sure that something is a 3rd party issue, but it would never be "I have no clue because I have no training in XYZ" but rather "because of [something in the error message log, kb etc] our product works fine, and this error is really coming from [the other product]. We tried [some troubleshooting in general] to get that working without success. I would recommend you contact [seller, manufacturer etc of that product] to open a ticket with them since they will be best suited to help you with [product] and they may help you file a bug report if necessary".