Quality of Tech Support with Kenyan Telcos
Apologies in advance for cross-posting. I'm somehow very appalled at the level of technical support we get from our Telcos. What surprises me is the fact they they have some of the best brains in the market, yet they simply cannot get these brains to address the consumer problems. A simple problem can take you ages to get solved -- unless you go behind the scenes and contact these techies at a personal level. I've come to the point of thinking that either there is too much bureaucracy introduced between the people we talk to (the CSEs) and the engineers who work in the background or the escalation process simply isn't streamlined. The process of getting a solution from the engineers can take ages (to me, a week is ages!). Then again, the Customer-facing teams simply seem to be robots who don't want to try and reason out. Is thinking out of the box not acceptable for CSEs working in these Telcos?? Take one such problem that I'm facing currently with one these Telcos - ORANGE: I bought their much touted 21Mbps modem. The issue at hand is that I need to share the Internet connectivity with other residents of my house via a WiFi router. My router, a D-Link DIR-825, has a USB port that supports a 3G modem. There is one obstacle that I must overcome with the ZTE modem for me to be able to use it with my D-Link router -- I must find a way to disable the virtual CDROM and card reader from the USB stick/modem. The problem is no technician at ORANGE knows how to do this. Probably there is a technician (I have a feeling Orange must have gotten ZTE to train some technicians, or in the daftest form, ZTE must have seconded some techies to Orange!) but it's not possible to reach him/her/them! My router already works with the Safaricom's Huawei E1820, because I was able to go-ogle and find the AT Command to use to disable the virtual CDROM (AT^U2DIAG=0 does the disabling; AT^U2DIAG=1 re-enables it if I need to), which then enabled my router to recognize the USB modem. Fortunately, after installing the drivers on a computer, I really do not require the virtual CDROM interface anymore. I have not been able to find an equivalent command for ZTE-MF192 USB stick and has called Orange Customer Support (Data+Internet) so many times and they simply don't have a clue as to what I am asking for. I'd have thought they are trained to know that some clients are more demanding than others and as such they are allowed to go the extra mile and reason outside the box to help such customers. I am not sure if I am expecting too much, but because I paid money to get this modem, I'd expect Orange to help me in any way that I'd like to use the modem. They still make their money by allowing me to use it. What I don't seem to be able to wrap my head around is why there is no technician at Orange (whether native or Chinese) who can help me with this problem? Aren't we supposed to expect a better quality support from these Telcos than we are getting now?? I started by generalizing on "Telcos". I have only detailed my problem with Orange, but such problems are not exclusive to Orange. I remember Robert Yawe has detailed his own tribulations with other Telcos on this very forum. -- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler. Please consider the environment before printing this email.
I feel you, and are spot on and with me too I think the term Telcos applies accurately. Some time last year, I was doing some RnD on some GSM product that required the APN of mobile networks. On contacting Zain (twas still 'Zain' at the start of last year) I was told to wait 48 hours for my request to be processed and they took down my email address and all. Yeah 48 hours to get the APN for a GSM device!! Three days later still no response, I call customer care: - Idiot no 1: it takes 48 working hours; that's at least 8 days since these traverse at least one weekend. 'That cannot be the case, What''s your name?.... You are wasting my time I'll get help elsewhere....' - Idiot no 2: We sent you the settings. Of course they had not been sent. By then I realized no one knew what I needed and there had been no escalation. As you pointed out, I had to go behind the scenes and get help from a friend. Wananchi support at the end of last year. - Troubleshoot -> Call support ->..... Can you please restart your router? Now this one must have been an intern. 'Mr X, I know that's the manual that you guys have there for troubleshooting but tell me something different from that, you can do better than that....' Two months ago; Xtrannet support. Phone goes unanswered for 20 or so mins; An ISP, it takes 20 mins for a call to get through during business hours!! Eventually it's picked and I'm transferred to support. 'Currently we have no internet connectivity.....' 'Let us check and get back at you' By the time I next hear from them, I have been happily online for half an hour. The problem was probably temporary, 'Thanks for nothing....' I am sure the contact did nothing to fix the situation; was still confused even when calling me back And here goes the winner....My current link provider (Fibertel).... After two hours of unanswered calls, support calls back and says... 'We are working on it, plus you whine too much; I have clients who have been down for two weeks' JC of Nazareth!!! That's to mention some but a few of my experiences. Regards, Mugo. On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com>wrote:
Apologies in advance for cross-posting.
I'm somehow very appalled at the level of technical support we get from our Telcos. What surprises me is the fact they they have some of the best brains in the market, yet they simply cannot get these brains to address the consumer problems. A simple problem can take you ages to get solved -- unless you go behind the scenes and contact these techies at a personal level. I've come to the point of thinking that either there is too much bureaucracy introduced between the people we talk to (the CSEs) and the engineers who work in the background or the escalation process simply isn't streamlined. The process of getting a solution from the engineers can take ages (to me, a week is ages!). Then again, the Customer-facing teams simply seem to be robots who don't want to try and reason out. Is thinking out of the box not acceptable for CSEs working in these Telcos??
Take one such problem that I'm facing currently with one these Telcos - ORANGE: I bought their much touted 21Mbps modem. The issue at hand is that I need to share the Internet connectivity with other residents of my house via a WiFi router. My router, a D-Link DIR-825, has a USB port that supports a 3G modem. There is one obstacle that I must overcome with the ZTE modem for me to be able to use it with my D-Link router -- I must find a way to disable the virtual CDROM and card reader from the USB stick/modem. The problem is no technician at ORANGE knows how to do this. Probably there is a technician (I have a feeling Orange must have gotten ZTE to train some technicians, or in the daftest form, ZTE must have seconded some techies to Orange!) but it's not possible to reach him/her/them!
My router already works with the Safaricom's Huawei E1820, because I was able to go-ogle and find the AT Command to use to disable the virtual CDROM (AT^U2DIAG=0 does the disabling; AT^U2DIAG=1 re-enables it if I need to), which then enabled my router to recognize the USB modem. Fortunately, after installing the drivers on a computer, I really do not require the virtual CDROM interface anymore. I have not been able to find an equivalent command for ZTE-MF192 USB stick and has called Orange Customer Support (Data+Internet) so many times and they simply don't have a clue as to what I am asking for. I'd have thought they are trained to know that some clients are more demanding than others and as such they are allowed to go the extra mile and reason outside the box to help such customers.
I am not sure if I am expecting too much, but because I paid money to get this modem, I'd expect Orange to help me in any way that I'd like to use the modem. They still make their money by allowing me to use it. What I don't seem to be able to wrap my head around is why there is no technician at Orange (whether native or Chinese) who can help me with this problem? Aren't we supposed to expect a better quality support from these Telcos than we are getting now??
I started by generalizing on "Telcos". I have only detailed my problem with Orange, but such problems are not exclusive to Orange. I remember Robert Yawe has detailed his own tribulations with other Telcos on this very forum.
-- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler. Please consider the environment before printing this email.
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
@ mugo lol eti u complain too much thats priceless, and which guys are those that can afford to be down 4 that long On 17 October 2011 13:06, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com> wrote:
Apologies in advance for cross-posting.
I'm somehow very appalled at the level of technical support we get from our Telcos. What surprises me is the fact they they have some of the best brains in the market, yet they simply cannot get these brains to address the consumer problems. A simple problem can take you ages to get solved -- unless you go behind the scenes and contact these techies at a personal level. I've come to the point of thinking that either there is too much bureaucracy introduced between the people we talk to (the CSEs) and the engineers who work in the background or the escalation process simply isn't streamlined. The process of getting a solution from the engineers can take ages (to me, a week is ages!). Then again, the Customer-facing teams simply seem to be robots who don't want to try and reason out. Is thinking out of the box not acceptable for CSEs working in these Telcos??
Take one such problem that I'm facing currently with one these Telcos - ORANGE: I bought their much touted 21Mbps modem. The issue at hand is that I need to share the Internet connectivity with other residents of my house via a WiFi router. My router, a D-Link DIR-825, has a USB port that supports a 3G modem. There is one obstacle that I must overcome with the ZTE modem for me to be able to use it with my D-Link router -- I must find a way to disable the virtual CDROM and card reader from the USB stick/modem. The problem is no technician at ORANGE knows how to do this. Probably there is a technician (I have a feeling Orange must have gotten ZTE to train some technicians, or in the daftest form, ZTE must have seconded some techies to Orange!) but it's not possible to reach him/her/them!
My router already works with the Safaricom's Huawei E1820, because I was able to go-ogle and find the AT Command to use to disable the virtual CDROM (AT^U2DIAG=0 does the disabling; AT^U2DIAG=1 re-enables it if I need to), which then enabled my router to recognize the USB modem. Fortunately, after installing the drivers on a computer, I really do not require the virtual CDROM interface anymore. I have not been able to find an equivalent command for ZTE-MF192 USB stick and has called Orange Customer Support (Data+Internet) so many times and they simply don't have a clue as to what I am asking for. I'd have thought they are trained to know that some clients are more demanding than others and as such they are allowed to go the extra mile and reason outside the box to help such customers.
I am not sure if I am expecting too much, but because I paid money to get this modem, I'd expect Orange to help me in any way that I'd like to use the modem. They still make their money by allowing me to use it. What I don't seem to be able to wrap my head around is why there is no technician at Orange (whether native or Chinese) who can help me with this problem? Aren't we supposed to expect a better quality support from these Telcos than we are getting now??
I started by generalizing on "Telcos". I have only detailed my problem with Orange, but such problems are not exclusive to Orange. I remember Robert Yawe has detailed his own tribulations with other Telcos on this very forum.
-- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler. Please consider the environment before printing this email.
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
Number 1 goes to ..... Airtel. After waiting for hours on end, and fiddling with your device, they tell you to wait one hour, 1-hr later the thing is not working, fiddles with the gadget again, wait an hour .... at that moment I can only see the energizer bunny. Now, once you get tired visiting customer care centre, you decide to call CC, they keep you waiting another one hour or so, then when you describe the problem, they refer it to "IT", at that moment, the answer will always come thus "IT is working on it". Must be the ugliest of them all. I decided to stick with QB, at least they always sort me pap! Peter On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 3:16 PM, Joe Maina <maina307@gmail.com> wrote:
@ mugo lol eti u complain too much thats priceless, and which guys are those that can afford to be down 4 that long
On 17 October 2011 13:06, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com> wrote:
Apologies in advance for cross-posting.
I'm somehow very appalled at the level of technical support we get from our Telcos. What surprises me is the fact they they have some of the best brains in the market, yet they simply cannot get these brains to address the consumer problems. A simple problem can take you ages to get solved -- unless you go behind the scenes and contact these techies at a personal level.
so Do we blame the companies or our peers who also work for the companies ? Airtel is just a big ass brand. in there, is a techie just like you and I .... my two cents ... On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Peter Osotsi <peter.osotsi@gmail.com>wrote:
Number 1 goes to ..... Airtel. After waiting for hours on end, and fiddling with your device, they tell you to wait one hour, 1-hr later the thing is not working, fiddles with the gadget again, wait an hour .... at that moment I can only see the energizer bunny.
Now, once you get tired visiting customer care centre, you decide to call CC, they keep you waiting another one hour or so, then when you describe the problem, they refer it to "IT", at that moment, the answer will always come thus "IT is working on it".
Must be the ugliest of them all.
I decided to stick with QB, at least they always sort me pap!
Peter
On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 3:16 PM, Joe Maina <maina307@gmail.com> wrote:
@ mugo lol eti u complain too much thats priceless, and which guys are those that can afford to be down 4 that long
On 17 October 2011 13:06, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com> wrote:
Apologies in advance for cross-posting.
I'm somehow very appalled at the level of technical support we get from our Telcos. What surprises me is the fact they they have some of the best brains in the market, yet they simply cannot get these brains to address the consumer problems. A simple problem can take you ages to get solved -- unless you go behind the scenes and contact these techies at a personal level.
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
I disagree Liko, The customer support agents we talk to are NOT techies. Some of them have no clue about the solutions installed out there. They should stick to capturing the problem on the CRM, issuing out a fault reference and escalating the matter to the people who can understand the problem. Sorry to say but some cane in straight from Nandos.. Good customer interaction experience BUT knows zero regarding technology.
On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 09:19, Thomas Kibui <thomas.kibui@gmail.com> wrote:
I disagree Liko, The customer support agents we talk to are NOT techies. Some of them have no clue about the solutions installed out there. They should stick to capturing the problem on the CRM, issuing out a fault reference and escalating the matter to the people who can understand the problem. Sorry to say but some cane in straight from Nandos.. Good customer interaction experience BUT knows zero regarding technology.
Wait a moment. When I call 200 (Safaricom) or 200 (Orange), do you mean the people I interact with are that calibre from Nandos? And a company like Safaricom can employ graduates for Desktop Support??? Now I am lost. Whenever I have called Orange with this particular problem, the CSE would always put me on hold while they "consult". I wonder if this is the moment they talk to the real techie in the bg? If the truth is that "some of those answering calls have no clue about the solutions installed out there" (and I feel it's true), then I think it's time we techies water down our expectations from the Call Centres....However, I hate to discuss a technical issue with a chap from Nandos. -- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler. Please consider the environment before printing this email.
HTH http://3g-modem.wetpaint.com/page/ZTE+AT-commands On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 11:22, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com>wrote:
On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 09:19, Thomas Kibui <thomas.kibui@gmail.com>wrote:
I disagree Liko, The customer support agents we talk to are NOT techies. Some of them have no clue about the solutions installed out there. They should stick to capturing the problem on the CRM, issuing out a fault reference and escalating the matter to the people who can understand the problem. Sorry to say but some cane in straight from Nandos.. Good customer interaction experience BUT knows zero regarding technology.
Wait a moment. When I call 200 (Safaricom) or 200 (Orange), do you mean the people I interact with are that calibre from Nandos? And a company like Safaricom can employ graduates for Desktop Support??? Now I am lost. Whenever I have called Orange with this particular problem, the CSE would always put me on hold while they "consult". I wonder if this is the moment they talk to the real techie in the bg? If the truth is that "some of those answering calls have no clue about the solutions installed out there" (and I feel it's true), then I think it's time we techies water down our expectations from the Call Centres....However, I hate to discuss a technical issue with a chap from Nandos.
-- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler. Please consider the environment before printing this email.
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
-- for me, it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring /carl sagan
Those commands (at least the ones I'd have desired) don't work with ZTE MF192. On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 11:57, amanya <whynnot@gmail.com> wrote:
HTH http://3g-modem.wetpaint.com/page/ZTE+AT-commands
On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 11:22, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com>wrote:
On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 09:19, Thomas Kibui <thomas.kibui@gmail.com>wrote:
I disagree Liko, The customer support agents we talk to are NOT techies. Some of them have no clue about the solutions installed out there. They should stick to capturing the problem on the CRM, issuing out a fault reference and escalating the matter to the people who can understand the problem. Sorry to say but some cane in straight from Nandos.. Good customer interaction experience BUT knows zero regarding technology.
Wait a moment. When I call 200 (Safaricom) or 200 (Orange), do you mean the people I interact with are that calibre from Nandos? And a company like Safaricom can employ graduates for Desktop Support??? Now I am lost. Whenever I have called Orange with this particular problem, the CSE would always put me on hold while they "consult". I wonder if this is the moment they talk to the real techie in the bg? If the truth is that "some of those answering calls have no clue about the solutions installed out there" (and I feel it's true), then I think it's time we techies water down our expectations from the Call Centres....However, I hate to discuss a technical issue with a chap from Nandos.
-- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler. Please consider the environment before printing this email.
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
-- for me, it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring /carl sagan
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
-- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler. Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Every time i call Help desk for any provider i go straight technical talk...... if answers dont flow within seconds i ask for the name of the person who will handle and the department .... WARNING:Dont wait for them to call after that repeat the same process till you are talking to the big chief ..... works for me everytime On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com>wrote:
Those commands (at least the ones I'd have desired) don't work with ZTE MF192.
On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 11:57, amanya <whynnot@gmail.com> wrote:
HTH http://3g-modem.wetpaint.com/page/ZTE+AT-commands
On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 11:22, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com>wrote:
On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 09:19, Thomas Kibui <thomas.kibui@gmail.com>wrote:
I disagree Liko, The customer support agents we talk to are NOT techies. Some of them have no clue about the solutions installed out there. They should stick to capturing the problem on the CRM, issuing out a fault reference and escalating the matter to the people who can understand the problem. Sorry to say but some cane in straight from Nandos.. Good customer interaction experience BUT knows zero regarding technology.
Wait a moment. When I call 200 (Safaricom) or 200 (Orange), do you mean the people I interact with are that calibre from Nandos? And a company like Safaricom can employ graduates for Desktop Support??? Now I am lost. Whenever I have called Orange with this particular problem, the CSE would always put me on hold while they "consult". I wonder if this is the moment they talk to the real techie in the bg? If the truth is that "some of those answering calls have no clue about the solutions installed out there" (and I feel it's true), then I think it's time we techies water down our expectations from the Call Centres....However, I hate to discuss a technical issue with a chap from Nandos.
-- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler. Please consider the environment before printing this email.
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
-- for me, it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring /carl sagan
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
-- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler. Please consider the environment before printing this email.
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
-- GG
participants (8)
-
Agosta Liko -
amanya -
geoffrey gitagia -
Joe Maina -
m mugo -
Odhiambo Washington -
Peter Osotsi -
Thomas Kibui