cybasheep
10-08-2007, 08:18 PM
I just asked to close a 1.5 month-old ticket (#105069, filed on 8/17/2007) for my XFX graphics card. The problem in my ticket was not resolved and the way it was handled revealed several serious problems with the way these tickets are handled.
I would like to point out these problems hoping that the person(s ?) who post here as 'xfxsupport' are in a position to do something about them. If not, or worse if they are in fact the same person(s) who were answering my ticket, I apologize - just trying to help here.
1. The exclusive modus operandi of the XFX graphics card support seems to be the checklist.
I opened the ticket with a very verbose and detailed problem description (and PC profile), which was almost completely ignored by the technicians who responded and asked me to provide largely the same information by going through checklist questions. While this approach is fine with technically unsavvy customers, it is wholly inappropriate with people who do actually recognise most of the error they're getting.
2. The response times are too long.
The delays between answers just for dealing with the checklist questions for my ticket were: 1 day, 3 days, 1.5 weeks, 1 week. That is almost 3 weeks of nothing but going through the checklist, something which could have been implemented as a multiple choice quiz on the website just as well.
3. XFX support staff is unwilling and/or unable to escalate customer support requests to engineer or OEM-support level.
My problem is quite clearly a compatibility issue with nvidia's drivers and a certain motherboard chipset. Although I specifically asked two times that a software engineer should look at this problem and even provided debugging material (kernel memory dump), it never happened. Instead, I was repeatedly asked to either RMA the motherboard in question or the graphics card.
As a consequence,
4. XFX prevents their customers from accessing the technical support resources nvidia provides for them and prevents nvidia from receiving end-user feedback.
Nvidia expects end-user technical support to happen through their OEMs, however, Nvidia does have technical support resources these OEMs can make use of if a problem calls for it. At the moment, it seems impossible to report a driver problem to nvidia through XFX, but this is how nvidia expects to receive reports about driver problems from end-users.
5. Two minor points:
- The XFX website is localized in several languages (including the support area), but it seems customer support is only available in english. This is obviously problematic, since it can create orphaned tickets.
- I received one reply on a Sunday, which makes me wonder about the working hours of the XFX support staff.
To summarize, I get the impression that the XFX online customer support at present first and foremostly exists to determine whether or not a customer has a faulty product that is eligible for an RMA. In my humble opinion, this falls short of the service and expertise a competent and well staffed customer support department should provide, especially since XFX does not sell toasters, but premium-segment high-tech products such as PC graphics cards and motherboards.
I would like to point out these problems hoping that the person(s ?) who post here as 'xfxsupport' are in a position to do something about them. If not, or worse if they are in fact the same person(s) who were answering my ticket, I apologize - just trying to help here.
1. The exclusive modus operandi of the XFX graphics card support seems to be the checklist.
I opened the ticket with a very verbose and detailed problem description (and PC profile), which was almost completely ignored by the technicians who responded and asked me to provide largely the same information by going through checklist questions. While this approach is fine with technically unsavvy customers, it is wholly inappropriate with people who do actually recognise most of the error they're getting.
2. The response times are too long.
The delays between answers just for dealing with the checklist questions for my ticket were: 1 day, 3 days, 1.5 weeks, 1 week. That is almost 3 weeks of nothing but going through the checklist, something which could have been implemented as a multiple choice quiz on the website just as well.
3. XFX support staff is unwilling and/or unable to escalate customer support requests to engineer or OEM-support level.
My problem is quite clearly a compatibility issue with nvidia's drivers and a certain motherboard chipset. Although I specifically asked two times that a software engineer should look at this problem and even provided debugging material (kernel memory dump), it never happened. Instead, I was repeatedly asked to either RMA the motherboard in question or the graphics card.
As a consequence,
4. XFX prevents their customers from accessing the technical support resources nvidia provides for them and prevents nvidia from receiving end-user feedback.
Nvidia expects end-user technical support to happen through their OEMs, however, Nvidia does have technical support resources these OEMs can make use of if a problem calls for it. At the moment, it seems impossible to report a driver problem to nvidia through XFX, but this is how nvidia expects to receive reports about driver problems from end-users.
5. Two minor points:
- The XFX website is localized in several languages (including the support area), but it seems customer support is only available in english. This is obviously problematic, since it can create orphaned tickets.
- I received one reply on a Sunday, which makes me wonder about the working hours of the XFX support staff.
To summarize, I get the impression that the XFX online customer support at present first and foremostly exists to determine whether or not a customer has a faulty product that is eligible for an RMA. In my humble opinion, this falls short of the service and expertise a competent and well staffed customer support department should provide, especially since XFX does not sell toasters, but premium-segment high-tech products such as PC graphics cards and motherboards.