Microsoft Customer Service – What’s the Deal?

I was speaking to a friend and fellow blogger, Shea, who shared with me a recent experience she had while trying to deal with someone within Microsoft’s customer service and tech support structure.

Here’s what was shared:

It was a pretty basic call – I was at work, installing Office 2003 (yeah, we’re old school) on my newer PC.  I was using a dinosaur and upgraded.  The dinosaur had a license of Office installed, but since that wouldn’t be used any longer, we were just moving the license to the new PC.

The product key was denied because it was associated with another computer, so I had to call Microsoft to explain the situation.  After going through the automated “activate your software” menu, they couldn’t give me an access key (this was expected) and I was transferred to a live person. I didn’t wait on hold for a long time and my call was answered rather promptly, but the woman on the other end could not have been any ruder if she tried.

First, I couldn’t hear her.  She sounded really far away and garbled.  When she sorted that out, she couldn’t understand me.  I had to explain the situation several times until she comprehended the issue – a pretty basic one.  She was incredibly impatient and short, using lots of “What?!”s and “Huh?!”s.  As someone who has spent a good part of my career working with customers on software and hardware issues, it really pains me when I get an unacceptably low level of customer service.  I’m assuming without much doubt that Microsoft outsources their support to India or the Philippines, so there was a bit of a language barrier too.

It was a relatively short call and the issue was resolved, but it was the manner that it was handled that soured me on the experience.  At this point, when it comes to customer care, I’d rather handle an issue via live chat or email.

Like I said, it could have been worse.

Here’s my viewpoint. Why is it that some of the most common causes of calls still required so much explanation of what needs to be done. I don’t think the problem experienced above is that unusual do you?

Secondly, I understand the business need and benefit of outsourcing tech support to foreign countries. Unless people are willing to pay more for what they’re using, there’s always the push on businesses to do more with less and make more profits. But can’t requiring clear communication be an expected qualification?

What’s your customer service experience?