Third-Party Tech Help Finds Growing Demand
from the as-long-as-they-stop-bothering-me dept
Most tech support that comes with a computer you buy is pretty weak. Lots of people can tell stories of how they called up their tech support only to have them come up with excuses or point fingers at someone else ("oh, that's a Microsoft problem..."). What usually happens is that people end up calling up a friend or relative who has some tech knowledge and making them their de facto tech support. Some companies are realizing this is a business opportunity, and more and more third party tech support operations are popping up. They basically act as your local tech friend... for a price. The best part is that they don't look to go blame someone else, but figure out how to actually solve your problem. Some of the companies use human techs, but some are looking at doing some automated work to diagnose and solve the problem (if possible). Apparently, business is booming. Of course, it's too bad that these types of services are necessary - but first-party tech support for computers these days is so bad that it's about all that's left. I wonder if any computer OEMs will start to outsource their tech support to these companies over time.
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