OT: Customer Support - a Saga

newhope wrote on 3/19/2007, 4:58 PM
All of us have at some time had the occasion to complain here about Sony's Customer Support.

Here's a current tale of 'Customer Support' with another comapny that puts Sony into a totally different light.

After attending a training course in Sydney with Spot (sorry mate this isn't your fault) I bought System Mechanic 5 from IOLO.

Spot was using it and praised the program which helps keep Windows functioning, defrag drives, clean registries etc.

He was right as usual it was a great program and when System Mechanic Pro 6 came out I upgraded to it with the same, but better, results.

So now they have released System Mechanc 7 Pro and I installed it for a friend on his PC, you get a 30 day free trial on a new install, and the it sorted most of his problems. So again I decided to upgrade, paid my upgrade and began downloading.

Now the program uses a downlaoded/install manager to install and that's where the problems began. I discovered that the standard uninstall of SysMech6Pro didn't clear the program out of my system enough for the new install to complete. It would/does hang at 'Checking for updates' everytime.

I went back to the IOLO website and checked through their help files and found an article on 'Thorough Uninstall of SysMech6Pro' and followed it to the letter. Still no luck!

I searched for any other references to this problem. Nothing!

I must point out that I'm suffering it on two separate machines yet the third which has a clean WinXP install and no previous SysMech installs does install SysMech7Pro without a blink. As well I can reinstall the old SysMech6Pro and it doesn't hang.

So I decide I need more help and fill in the online support form. I get the standard automated response recommending fixes that either aren't related or I've already tried unsuccessfully. I then have the opportunity to escalate the problem so that I'll receive an email from a support staff member. I do this but never recieve that human based email.

Two weeks go by and I have another try. Same results so again I fill in the online form and refer to my previous unanswered support submission. Again I get the automated response but no human contact.

All the time I am checking my SPAM folders in case the human response from IOLO is somehow being trapped even though their automated responses aren't. They actaully warn of this potential problem in their automated responses. Does this make you wonder if somehow their response got caught in SPAM. There isn't any email from IOLO in the SPAM folders.

Another two weeks checking SPAM, yeah it's been a month now, and I have time to try this again. Same results but now I am frustrated enough to try to phone IOLO.

Of course that means an international call from Sydney to Los Angles. I try their Customer Care line but when I select Technical Support I'm told by the prerecorded voice that I need to dial a different number. I hang up and do this, a few times but it's permanently engaged, I don't even get an answering service.

So I go back to the Customer Care number and choose an option that will allow me to speak to someone. The Customer Care rep listens to my explanation and suggests she'll put me through to Technical Support, I am then transfered to an 'on hold' system and hang on reluctantly, at international rates, for 25 minutes. No one ever answers the line so I hang up.

By now my phone call charges are approaching the purchase price of the program but I try again. I call the Customer Care number again, Tech Support direct is still just an engaged signal.

I get the same Customer Care operator, do they only have one I wonder, and tell her of my long unanswered wait for Tech Support and suggest that perhaps someone could contact me via email.

She takes all my details and promises someone will email me today.... I wait with baited breath.....

So next time you think Sony Customer Service isn't all you'd want recall this tale. Like Vegas, System Mechanic is great software, not perfect but very useful.

Unlike Vegas their customer support system stinks.

Whenever I have had need to contact Sony's Customer Support I always got a human response, maybe it took a few days but someone at least replied and eventually any real problems were addressed and in many cases cured with updates.

By the way if anyone else out there knows how to fix the System Mechanic 7 Pro update from System Mechanic 6 Pro problem I still have PLEASE send me an email or reply here... I'm getting desparate!

Stephen Hope
New Hope Media

Comments

fldave wrote on 3/19/2007, 6:08 PM
My wife's web provider (multiple sites) tried to charge us twice for 3 years (already paid) plus other services (several hundred dollars).

Phone support menus from he$$ that lead to no where; customer service was not allowed to talk directly to billing or tech support; email chain clearly indicating the persons responding were not reading my responses (clearly people, not auto responders); endless documented trail of corporate failure.

I found the CEO's blog.

I emailed the CEO through his blog email address. I clearly explained my issues, provided email response chains; and I politely demanded my previous "hundreds of dollars" back if this was not resolved within 3 days. I clearly explained this was "last resort" effort as his current corporate structure was ineffective and non-functioning. I provided suggestions on how he could streamline some of his operations (like empowering his customer support to actually be able to do something)

I now have two Vice Presidents' direct phone numbers in case ANYTHING with my account goes wrong. I actually had to use them one day, and things got corrected within 2 hours. And, I have seen actual changes to their processes.
fldave wrote on 3/19/2007, 6:14 PM
Unfortunately, you have two issues though.

I had good contracted services, bad corporate processes.

You have bad service (broken program version) and bad corporate processes.

It usually takes time to fix broken programs. You need to let Corp know your support issues, but it is vital that you stabilize your systems until they get it fixed,
newhope wrote on 3/19/2007, 7:22 PM
If the company had any Corporate information on their website I'd be directly contacting the CEO or whoever.

They have an email address to which they state won't reply, a forms process which they don't follow up, three phone numbers, of which only one answers, and just appalling service overall.

Yes the program upgrade install is broken, I've reinstalled the old version in the mean time... I can still do that... my system is stable it's only SysMech7Pro that is having a problem.

The problem at a first level is communication or lack there of and an almost brickwall approach to customer feedback. Therefore they can't fix what they don't allow their customers to tell them is broken.

I have at least managed to speak to someone at the company in their 'Customer Care' department somewhere in L.A.

How soon a fix will come I have no idea but I still haven't had any email from their Tech Support form for any of my three online submissions or today's phone call... four hours ago now.
farss wrote on 3/19/2007, 8:29 PM
How many billable hours has this cost you, how much face have you lost with your clients while they spin their wheels while you try to get a system working again?
To compare System Mechanic to the pivotal role of a NLE in an income producing business is a bit of a joke, sorry.
For a "professional" product such as Vegas tech support response must be measured in minutes, not weeks. If that cannot be provided then it's simply not "professional".

And yes I do know what this kind of SLA costs to provide, the question is why isn't it on offer, globally?

Bob.
newhope wrote on 3/19/2007, 8:46 PM
Gee Bob thanks for the support...

Sometimes when you have nothing to say the best thing to say is nothing.

By the way System Mechanic is pivotal as it is my frontline virus protection, spyware and overall system health. I take files from clients and third party operators, 3D artists etc, from whom I cannot gaurantee the safety of their systems.

No it isn't my NLE interface but's necessary to allow it to keep running. Would you expect less from Symantec who produce a competitive product I find is not as efficient as System Mechanic, when it will upgrade, at system protection and registry backup, defragging etc.

I'm not a Sony clone just telling a relative tale of customer support. Of course I could also provide simialr stories for Digidesign, AMS-Neve (my god what useless idiots) that would equally parallel IOLO or Sony good and bad.

This one is just my current... which I'm happy to say one of our US colleagues has privately offered to follow up for me.

New Hope Media

farss wrote on 3/19/2007, 10:09 PM
Sorry,
I'm being tough and a bit out of line.
But you did say:
"All of us have at some time had the occasion to complain here about Sony's Customer Support."

Customer support is the only thing I can complain about with Vegas.

For the record Semantic is just as bad, nah, worse, much worse. Ever tried to untangle the mess they can make of a system, at least System Mechanic doesn't trash an entire HDD. And did Semantic tech support have a fix, oh yeah, after you boot the system. Well hello, the reason I'm calling is cause the system will not boot. Oh yeah, no can't help you, thank you for using Semantic products, click.

Thing is though, Customer Support is pivotal to a product like Vegas.

Iola and many such companies can afford to loose your business, how much is it going to cost them and no matter how much you scream how much harm can you or I do their sales? I'd suspect in your case you're probably not alone with your problem and they're simply overloaded with calls. Would be nice if they acknowledged the problem on their web site, would save you time, frustration and money. I'd add Vegas to this concept as well.

I've been through the same thing with Adobe and their Flash player, not alone on that one either, finally fixed that thanks to a HDD crashing.

However Vegas is in a very different boat or at least, I hope, is trying to be. Sure I've had the odd gripe about Sony's tech support but in all fairness I get what I paid for.
newhope wrote on 3/19/2007, 10:33 PM
Bob

S'OK .

I get particularly cranky about customer support here and elsewhere.... you should (NOT) have seen my last online support form submission to IOLO.... and what I wouldn't like to tell Microsoft....

But then I don't have that much time to waste :-)

In fact the only reason I have anytime today is I'm waiting on client feedback on my current video edit and I'm off to Aunty and Catalyst for some freelance audio post tomorrow.

New Hope Media
Jøran Toresen wrote on 3/19/2007, 10:54 PM
Newhope

You can try to reinstall System Mechanic Pro 6 using Ashampoo UnInstaller Platinum 2.6. Then uninstall System Mechanic using this uninstaller. (You must first open System Mechanics before you save the log file that Ashampoo UnInstaller creates.)

Maybe this will remove all the files and registry entries that System Mechanic creates. You can download a free trial of Ashampoo UnInstaller Platinum 2.6 here:

http://www.download.com/Ashampoo-UnInstaller-Platinum/3000-2096_4-10628719.html?tag=lst-0-1

Good luck,
Jøran Toresen
farss wrote on 3/19/2007, 10:57 PM
Good luck with Aunty, haven't had any work from them since late last year.

BTW,
something really wierd we ran into recently. We never got to the bottom of it so we don't know for certain just what the heck was going on, after two hours on the phone to India we just gave up.

It would seem that some vendor's OEM versions have a timer in them. You have 30 days from system install to install the software else it just doesn't. I mean it says it does (install) but nothing there.

Symantic's tech support didn't know about this, couldn't explain what was happening and we couldn't get escalation to find out.

In the end we just ran down the road and bought a retail copy, problem solved. The thirty day limit we heard of via a rumour, could be another urban myth.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 3/20/2007, 7:17 AM
I got an link about getting tech support to work better in an e-mail yesterday.

Maybe that will be of use to someone.
Rosebud wrote on 3/20/2007, 7:38 AM
From Newhope: Whenever I have had need to contact Sony's Customer Support I always got a human response, maybe it took a few days but someone at least replied and eventually any real problems were addressed and in many cases cured with updates.

Imagine what "Sony technical support" can be for nonEnglish user.
Most of us can’t call the phone support and when we make support request in nonEnglish language, answer is very delayed.
newhope wrote on 3/20/2007, 1:21 PM
Rosebud

Tech support that doesn't speak your language must be hell but I didn't mean phone calls I only meant email or the forum here. Still that's in English as well.

By the way it's 24 hours since my long phone calls to IOLO and I still haven't received an email.
I did find a form for the 'public relations' and filled it in as well.... still no reply.

My guess is they don't have any technical support or are so snowed under by this bug they don't know how. nor have time to, respond.

I forgot to mention that every time I load System Mechanic 6 Pro it starts with a page inviting me to upgrade to System Mechanic 7 Pro. It's all part of their software marketing.
If only the upgrade would work!!!

New Hope Media
MH_Stevens wrote on 3/20/2007, 2:14 PM
Would you believe this - I have the EXACT same problem. In fact I am about to cancel my CC payment if I can and I have a small claims court action ready to be filed.

Edited for spelling
newhope wrote on 3/21/2007, 3:51 PM
Sorry to hear other users with the same problem but the good news is that after four online submissions to Customer Care, two very pointed submissions to their Public Relations manager and 45 minutes of international phone calls I finally have an email response which indicates I'll be receiving a phone call in about 10 minutes from now from L.A.

What this might offer I am yet to find out but communication is a start!

I'll post their response to the problem here.


New Hope Media
farss wrote on 3/21/2007, 4:01 PM
I've got to admire your tenacity!

I had a brief trial of SysMech but passed after it removed registry entries that were needed, I was contemplating giving it another try but your problems aren't too inspiring.

Now why don't these cusomer support centres have Skype?

Bob.
newhope wrote on 3/21/2007, 5:23 PM
Registery entries removal... yeah I must admit it can do that....

Here's the latest installment of the saga

Well the Tech Support rep from IOLO called from L.A. at the time he said he would, a nice guy, and after going through all the logical processes that should have allowed the program to install, including booting into 'Safe Mode with networking' and directly downloading the Installer from their server. It still would not install and still hangs at 'Checking for Updates'

Mind you the installer from their server is the same application that the download manager downloads and places in the Temp folder inside Documents and Settings/Local Settings so it's not like it was a new or different version that I hadn't been using before.

We cleaned the registery manually of all previous IOLO references, I had done this before but it was good to prove I hadn't missed something.

In the end I've output a Logfile of the install attempt at their request and sent it along with a System information file to IOLO and they are looking at it to find out what is going on.... nice to know I'm not the only one scratching my head over this.

They promised to have a look at these files to try and detect what is causing the problem.

More news as it becomes available.

New Hope Media
newhope wrote on 3/29/2007, 12:30 AM
Latest update on IOLO and System Mechanic 7 Pro

I received this from their Customer Support tech yesterday.

"I would just like to let you know that we are working on your issue and are on the verge of releasing a product update that I hope will take care of your problem. Once it is released I will go ahead and give you a call and help you get that version over the phone."

Phone call hasn't happened as yet but at least they are now on the case and have identified the problem.

New Hope Media