What to do when your ISP off-shores tech support

Thu Dec 25 23:00:53 UTC 2008

I don't think there would be a concern about off-shore support if we
couldn't tell it was "off-shore".  That term has all derogatory bias of
describing of persons with foreign accents who are difficult to understand
and provide support for consumer-oriented products but have the most
rudimentary knowledge of the product and how to support/fix it.

I had a most positive experience on a weekend a few months ago when I
received support from Microsoft technician who was working on the other side
of the world, and although was difficult to understand (I had to ask him to
repeat himself two or three times on many occasions), knew the product and
helped me out of a tight spot.  I've had similar positive experiences
working with Motorola personnel out of Australia, and Cisco personnel out of
Belgium, the Middle East, and Australia. 

Frank

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Hannigan [mailto:martin at theicelandguy.com] 
Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2008 3:55 PM
To: Jay Hennigan
Cc: nanog at nanog.org
Subject: Re: What to do when your ISP off-shores tech support

On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 12:43 PM, Jay Hennigan <jay at west.net> wrote:

> Matthew Black wrote:
>
>> I've had difficulties reaching anyone with a brain
>> at my DSL provider Verizon California.
>>
>
> Switch to a local ISP with local tech support.

Hi Jay:

Is there really anything wrong with sending first-level technical support
offshore?

Macs are macs, Windows is windows and mail is mail whether you're in Mumbai
or Memphis. As long as the language skills are good and the people are well
trained, it should be mostly irrelevant, IMHO.

Happy Holidays,

-M<