sooner or later, it happens to all of us.
Sometimes there are disturbing warnings:
You may start to hear weird clicking
sounds, or see cryptic messages that
appear, chillingly, out of the blue. Other
times your gear simply dies before you
suspect that anything is amiss.
Either way, you need tech support,
and you need it now.
But if you’ve ever whiled away
time on hold listening to irritating
music, or had difficulty
understanding the customer service
representative, you know that
telephone tech support is broken.
And even if you’re willing to give it
a shot, in some instances support
isn’t available when you thought it
would be.
But where can you fi nd assistance
when you’re staring into the depths
of PC purgatory and your presentation
is due in six hours? Well, as
long as your problem doesn’t prevent
you from going online (perhaps
using a second computer),
the solution might be just a few
browser links away. The trick is to
know where—and how—to fi nd it.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
if there’s a tarnished silver lining to
the sorry state of phone support these
days, it’s that Web-based support seems
to be improving—albeit slowly.
The online support experiences of
most users I’ve heard from run the
gamut from abysmal to merely adequate.
But the trend of companies
improving and expanding their online
support options can only be positive
news for consumers.
Most hardware and software vendors
already provide at least basic Web
services such as information centers
(Microsoft’s exhaustive Knowledge
Base is one example) and e-mail support;
many companies also supply
assistance via live chat. Some of the
bigger players, including Dell, and
Microsoft, have implemented moresophisticated
support resources for
some products. Among these offerings
are expert-moderated user forums and
newsgroups, links to product-specific
blogs, remote diagnostic and troubleshooting
utilities, and even Webcasts.
START SEARCHING
if your problem seems to be associated
with a particular application or device—
for example, you consistently see the
same error message from your fi nancial
application whenever you try to download
data—start by visiting the vendor’s
site and searching the support database
there for your error message.
Many sites allow you to search by
entering a question or a brief phrase
describing the problem (for instance,
“system crashes when I begin download”).
Search engines have a limited
ability to process complex ideas, so keep
your search phrase as clear and simple
as possible. Include keywords, such as
“download” and “install,” when you can,
but also identify the problem so
the query isn’t too vague.
If your search comes up empty,
fire off an e-mail to the company’s
tech support address; better
yet, look for a link to live chat.
Regardless, you’ll almost certainly
have to complete several fields
of very detailed information
before you even get to the point
of describing your problem—so
keep all your system specs, along
with any error messages, handy.
This is where screen shots and
cut-and-pasted documents can
be helpful.
If you reach a tech support rep
in an online chat forum, try to be
as succinct as you can while still
providing all the pertinent information
about the problem.
Online support reps typically work
on multiple cases simultaneously,
which can make their response times
aggravatingly slow. Though you can’t
do much about that, try to keep your
patience and don’t let the support
representative end the session until
you’re satisfied with the answers you
receive. Generally, you’ll then have the
option to get a copy of the chat session,
often via e-mail: Be sure to do so, as it
may come in handy if you need to pursue
the matter further.
BEYOND THE VENDOR
sometimes, however, you simply
cannot get satisfaction from a vendor’s
website. For more complicated issues,
independently run tech support sites or
user forums may be invaluable.
One way of ferreting out useful thirdparty
sites is to repeat your error-message
search on Google, Yahoo Search,
or another general-purpose engine.
Often this leads to obscure newsgroups
or user forums where you may gain
insights from others who have had a
similar problem.
The best advice frequently comes
from other users, so be sure to
include sites like PCMechanic (www.
pcmech.com), Suggest a Fix (www.
suggestafi x.com), Tech Support Forum
(www.techsupportforum.com), and
Tech Support Guy (www.techguy.org)
in your research.
Another site worth visiting is Experts
Exchange (www.experts-exchange.com),
where IT professionals provide quick
answers on just about any tech topic.
There is a catch, however: To get all your
technological questions to be answered
by tech professionals, you have to pay a
monthly subscription fee.
Hundreds of helpful online thirdparty
tech support resources—some
free, and others requiring subscriptions
or service fees—specialize in
helping hapless PC users chase the
ghosts from their machines. The Web
is also home to plenty of product-,
product category–, and service-specific
support sites, such as Broadband
Reports (www.broadbandreports.com),
which focuses on communications
and ISP issues, and fi xyourownprinter.
com, which posts discussions of
particular problems, links to repair
kits, and more.
Some companies even host resources
of this type on their own website.
A good place to unearth resources is
Tech Support Alert (www.techsupportalert.
com), which serves up a healthy
collection of tech support links (including
active sites and user forums),
reviews, and advice on an extensive
range of technology topics.
Of course, some problems are so complex
that all the Web resources in the
world won’t help you escape their toils.
And if you can’t get online at all, you’ll
probably have to call tech support eventually.
But with a little research, some
scrupulous note-taking, and an extra
dose of patience, you just might be able
to cure your tech woes without having to
pick up the phone.
Would love to here from you...