There is No One to Help You

"There is no one to help you" was an actual recording on a tech support phone call I made yesterday.  For some reason it just set the tone for my whole experience with this company and their software.  And not for the "good".

I'm helping a client set up their e-newsletter.  They found a service provider they want to use and asked me to set up the template for them.  Works for me - should be easy enough to do. 

I was wrong.  This software is not user friendly.  After fighting for a bit, I finally decided to call tech support. 

My first issue was with the background noises on the recording telling you options.  I heard what sounded like household noises; water running, cabinets or doors closing, kids (or young people), etc. 

My second issue was when I made it through the menu and dialed 1 for tech support, the phone rang 5 times then clicked over to a message that actually said: "There is no one to help you."   Ok... I understand if there is a lot happening and "no one is AVAILABLE to help me."  But to hear "there is no one to help you" set me off.

I did not leave a message, opting to wait a bit and call back. 

This time I made it to a person.  He had the personality of a door knob!  He answered the phone with "this is ___, how can I help you".  In and of itself a decent answering.  However, when I answered his direct question with my own direct answer ("I'm trying to do ___"), his attitude changed.

With an impatient tone: "I need to know who you are and what account you're calling about."  But that was not what he asked for.  I can go on for days about asking the correct question to get the answer you want...

After some less than pleasant banter and him finally understanding that I was a NEW account and did not know his preferred system to get him to help me; he finally answered my question with "you can't do it that way, you have to go through [those] 8 steps to get there". 

So, my third issue is a severe lack of customer service skills or personality.  I admit, my non acceptance of his attitude was tainted by that original "there is NO ONE to help you".  But still... 

Customer service is essential!!  And having the RIGHT person in that Customer Service roll is even more so.

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