There’s something you should know about big computing companies and their customer support. While you might find what I’m going to share shocking, I’m only aiming to educate you. My goal is to keep you from being fooled and spending money for unneeded services.

The Toll-Free Help Line

If you’ve ever bought a computing-related product, you’ve probably seen the information sheet from the manufacturer. On that piece of paper, there is often a toll-free phone number to call for help. If you’re like many of us and you’ve thrown out that information, you may have gone online to find a number to call.

Let’s say you purchased a printer from a well-known tech company. For whatever reason, you can’t get the printer installed. Even though you might be one of our Remote Technical Support customers, you decide to call the manufacturer for help. Let me share with you an actual example of what often happens.

This Happened To One Of Our Customers

One of our customers purchased a new printer. They could not get it to work. After an hour of trying, they called this printer company’s tech support help line. After speaking with the tech, he told them he would have to come onto our customer’s computer in order to help them.

Once on the computer, the tech opened various windows, looked through system files and spent about 10 minutes perusing the computer. After he was finished viewing different settings, he told our customer that he wouldn’t be able to get the printer working. He explained that the computer had too many errors and other problems. He showed our customer an error log in an effort to gain trust.

When our customer asked what could be done, the help line person told him not to worry. All he had to do was purchase a service policy from them for $300. The tech would then clean up the computer and finally get the printer working. Our customer shared that he couldn’t afford that and the help line person offered to give him a discount. The new rate would be $175.

Finally, our customer said he couldn’t do that and he’d call his computer guy. (That’s me!)

This Happened Next

After our customer logged in to our Remote, I took over. The tech from the printer company was still on the computer! I knocked him off and got to work installing the printer. In five minutes, I had the printer working. There was nothing wrong with our customer’s computer. The error screen he had been shown was a normal event log where warnings and errors appear all the time. All the things the printer tech had said were bad things were not. He simply lied to our customer.

What You Need To Know About Big Computing Companies And Their Customer Support

When you call a computing-related tech company for support, here’s what you don’t know. In a great percentage of cases, you are NOT talking with the actual company. Even though the phone might be answered with the name of the company, you are actually speaking with a third-party service. Big tech companies often farm out what we call “1st Level Tech Support” because they can save money by hiring an outside firm.

Unfortunately, most of these outside firms couldn’t survive in business with the money they earn from big tech companies. In an effort to stay afloat, the techs will often lie about or at least exaggerate what might be preventing your computing device from working. This is all done to persuade you to purchase their service.

What Can You Do Instead?

If you do have a technical issue with a computing device, don’t call the help number of the company. Instead, call us or another reputable computer repair business. Let us, or them, advise you as to what the problem might be. For our Remote Technical Support customers, we do this at no extra charge. Even if you’re not a Remote customer, we’ll still advise you for free. If we actually have to help you, we’ll charge a modest fee and we won’t lie about things being wrong on your computer just so you’ll buy our yearly service ($154.95). Many other small companies like ours will do the same – just ask!

By the way, if you do actually have a problem with the computing device, most companies, like us, have direct lines to 2nd Level support. By being able to call the real company, we can help you get any serious issues resolved.