In a nutshell, here's what's been getting a number of my Tablet PC buddies pretty riled up:
-
Eric Mack's Toshiba Tecra M4 crashed while he was on the road. Windows said it needed the original XP CD inserted to effect repairs.
-
That, of course, isn't likely to happen since Toshiba doesn't supply Windows XP CDs. They, like most OEMs these days, ship a Recovery Disk which is essentially a disk image that "restores" your PC to the its original state out of the box - which is to say it's out of date, loaded with software trials you didn't want, and features a truly cluttered desktop covered with icons leading to ISP services and the afore mentioned trial software.
-
So Eric, intrepid road warrior that he is reverts back to a legal pad and figures he'll deal with this when he gets home.
-
He gets home.
-
Tries his Recovery Disk (which, I believe, he had to make from an image on the Tablet - can you say cheap?).
-
No dice.
-
Gets an immediate response from someone who really would like to help.
-
This someone tells Eric he needs to go purchase something that isn't available for purchase - a Tablet PC OS installer!
-
Eric explains the nature of things.
-
Support person replies "Well go buy a regular XP Pro disk - that should work".
-
Eric prepares to rebuild his Tablet since no other options seems available. I can't blame him - why on earth would you spend $200-$300 for an XP disc when you already have a license for i?
-
Warner Crocker rises to Eric's defense and posts a couple of rather angry posts. Feel for him, he has covered this ground before.
And so there you have it. The whole sorry tale. My reaction to all of this?
-
Toshiba has been doing this to its customers for a long time. It's stupid, pennywise, and has and will continue to lose them customers.
-
Most other OEMs do exactly the same thing. So ultimately, I have to point to the one common factor in all of these OEM's worlds - the supplier. That's right - Microsoft. They, and they alone, can fix this. Make it mandatory that actual bootable XP media be included with every PC sold that includes Windows. I'd prefer a complete installer CD but even a bootable disaster disk with the Recovery Console and a few other utilities would be a huge step in the right direction.
-
Toshiba is not the only OEM with clueless, poorly trained support people reading from decision trees. It's nice that they're pleasant. It would be nicer if they actually knew what they were supposed to be supporting. Trust me Warner - this is so. Every company I've ever dealt with has had both good and bad ones. Usually you have to escalate past the bad ones to get to the good ones. This is not a problem exclusive to any one company.
-
Eric remains guardedly optimistic as is his nature - it's one of the reasons I hold him in such high esteem and have such affection for him - he is a good soul. He will rebuild his Tablet PC and begin anew his quest for that blissful acronymic state known as YABHTU.
And no, I will not even consider trying to pronounce Eric's latest acronym: TCFDTLAIDBWFS (Tablet Customer Frustration Due to Lack of Adequate Install Disks But With Free Spamware).
1. Marc,
Great post, Marc. I can't disagree with any of your reactions and in my opinion they each put an exclaimation point on the problem. (although I'm dissappointed that you won't give the acronymn a try) :->
I'm the king of escalation when it comes to dealing with support personnel, very rarely even having a conversation with the first person to pick up the phone. I usually ask to go to a level 2 support person immediately. I'm very aware that some of these folks are in many cases doing the best they can. It's the folks above who short change the customer in such a short sighted manner.
Eric is indeed an optimistic soul. I am too. I'm optimistic that this sort of penny pinching behavior can be changed if customers just don't stand up for it anymore. I don't worry about Eric (or you, myself, jk, or any of our other buddies getting back up and running. We can (and have) all figure it out. It's the non-geek that is the problem.
The learning curve and apprehension factor will always be there, but it needs to be flattened out a little so that for most folks out there it doesn't resemble a learning mountain.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Ballmer is comfortable looking at the Tablet PC as part of a premium edition. Aim it for geeks, folks with IT support in the vertical markets and the like, and stay away from the little guy. I'm "optimistic" that this is not the case, but it smells awfully niche market to me if these practices continue.
Posted at 6:17AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Warner Crocker