http://www.fief.org/sysadmin/blosxom.cgi The occassional trials and tribulations of a jack of all trades sysadmin in a startup in Silicon Valley sysadmin@fief.org en Copyright 2005-2006 Brian De Smet http://www.fief.org/sysadmin/blosxom.cgi/2007/10/02#bakbonecustomersupport <p>About once a week I need to talk to a technical support group with one company or another. Few of these calls are what I would describe as pleasant experiences. One company however has always proven themselves to understand what good customer service is supposed to be. <p>When I call, the call is answered by a nice lady (I have never been on hold for more than two or three minutes). She wants a serial number to verify your support eligibility (she can look up serial numbers if need be based on company or a person's name), followed by a brief description of the problem. While not a support technician herself, she understands more than enough to collect the needed pieces to create a detailed description of the problem at hand (she does this by taking what I say and repeating what she understands the problem to be in a different way). At no point does she make me feel stupid, nor does she make me feel like I am wasting my time dictacting to a drone who simply types what I say. <p>From there, she arranges how the technician will get in touch with me and can arrange a specific time if need be. I have always been called or emailed back promptly by a tech. They have always been polite and understand how valuable my time is. As such, they believe me when I tell them I have already tried something and don't ask me to repeat these tests unless there really is valuable information to be obtained that I did not take note of the first time. They have never sent me on wild information gathering quests like many vendors do. The techs always follow-up when they say they will, and they keep me in the loop when a problem is sent up to the engineers for further analysis. <p>Great job BakBone. Sure most of my support requests end with them being marked "won't fix; works as intended" or some similar such condition; but you sure understand how to run a support group. Thanks for not being another source of blood pressure raising anger in the sea of mediocrity that technical support usually is.