Help Desk in US

strauchr

Everytime I speak to Help Desk people in the US they always seem so bored, depressed and distracted as opposed to speaking to Australian and UK help desks.

Is this normal or just with company I work for??

Also, I assumed that people in the US knew what the UK was. This guy didn't.

sprkymrk

I guess it depends. I deal with Symantec Platinum support fairly often, and whether it is the office here in the US or up in Ireland (I think) they are always fairly upbeat. Dell support, as long as the tech speaks good English, is okay too. The Dell support from the Phillipines or wherever I can't tell because I can barely understand them. Most ISP's Help Desks in the US are as you describe, bored and listless. Maybe they only have decaf coffee where they work?

jim_stasz

I would agree. I work a lot with EMC support. During out business hours (US CST) I work with guys in Boston. Once their business hours are over the coverage moves to Ireland for support and then Australia. I always seem to get more done with the Irish and Australian support. I don't know if there's just more pride in their job of if their managers' measure their calls differently. It always seems to me the US guys try to find the quickest thing to blame your issue on where as the Ireland and Australia support will actually dig into it before blaming something else. "Oh, your micro code is out of date," or, "Oh, you use Veritas v.5.2.1234? You need to use v.5.2.1234a before we can help...." I also notice that no matter what time I submit my case the Boston guys call 10 minutes before shift change.

Ricka182

I live near Boston, and I can say, although I don't do helpdesk work, the pay is only good if you have tons of experience. Low pay probably generates a bad attitude in the workplace. Outsourcing doesn't help either, and our government isn't exactly helping a whole lot with homeland support and international relations. I think Americans may be the most sterotyped people in the world.

RussS

shoot, every helpdesk I call is either in Mumbai or Indonesia

Trailerisf

RussS wrote:

shoot, every helpdesk I call is either in Mumbai or Indonesia

I always get INDIA when I do Microsoft tech support calls. Alot of the time I can barely understand the guy on the other end but they are always willing to spend 6hrs on the phone to fix it.

He escalated the call back to the states and was told only a re-install could fix the issue... He stayed on for 2 more hours and we fixed the problem without a reinstall.

I just hate the fact any support line I call I get someone who's english skills are maginal at best. Although I appreciate their certs, I'd aprreciate an ESL class thrown in there also.

TeKniques

RussS wrote:

shoot, every helpdesk I call is either in Mumbai or Indonesia

Yep, same here. Unless I call the ISP, and they are in the US somewhere. I don't mind the places in India or wherever they are, but sometimes the language barrier turns a 10 min call into a 45 min call.

Kevin.Smith

I'm on the Help Desk supporting systems for the US Navy. I'm always busy doing something and trying to learn more every day. It seems like the techs who have been there for a long time want to get by doing the least amount of work they can. We only have one person who answers the phone though. The really skilled and motivated guys don't stay at the Help Desk level too long.

strauchr

Ricka182 wrote:

I live near Boston, and I can say, although I don't do helpdesk work, the pay is only good if you have tons of experience. Low pay probably generates a bad attitude in the workplace. Outsourcing doesn't help either, and our government isn't exactly helping a whole lot with homeland support and international relations. I think Americans may be the most sterotyped people in the world.

But most modern countries have to put up with outsourcing inlcuding UK and Australia.

And don't worry, we all get stereotyped too. Crikey! I'm orf. Got to ride me Kangaroo home and wrestle some crocs!