Monday, February 27, 2012

I just tried to placed a support call to IBM, and I had to spell Lotus to the person answering the phone!!

Needless to say it was a complete waste of my time.... I am stunned.

6 comments:

Anthony Holmes said...

Hi Adam,

I'm not excusing what happened, but bear this in mind: On the first phone call you will have been dealing with Level 0, a level that simply records the details of your entitlement, your contact details and a brief description of the environment and the problem. They play no part in technical resolution of your problem. Once your entitlement is confirmed, the call is handled by Level 1 and higher: all of whom can certainly spell Lotus. Unless they are dyslexic. :-)

You could avoid Level 0 entirely by opening a PMR electronically via IBM Service Requests. This often makes sense because it lets you type out a problem description in your own words and upload files.

(Although to ensure a fast response, phone to Level 0 is needed for Sev 1 issues).

Brendan Long said...

There's a good justification for changing the product names to IBM - much easier to spell!

Unknown said...

I have been initiating all standard support calls on-line. I completely bypass the level zero conversation and I have experienced decent turn around time. Usually, I get a call back within the hour and rarely does it take more than two hours. Anymore, the only time I would make the phone call is if I had a level one issue and need to talk to some one immediately.

Susan Bulloch said...

As one of the people in the Level 2 organization, I have to second the suggestion to use the online service request. We get the requests equally fast, sometimes faster - you can add much more detail than ever gets through to us initially in a call, and you can add initial screenshots, error logs, etc. If its not a server down issue, it helps us all get to a faster solution.

Go here to use the online system

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/support/servicerequest/quick_start.html

You can get a call back, email or you can work using the web - you get to choose!

Adam Osborne said...

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

I originally tried to log the call electronically but there is something wrong with the customer's site number. Getting that resolved is also proving very difficult.

I tried to do business the old fashion social way, by calling on the phone.

Hans Bornich said...

As a business partner, I can't understand why I need an electronic agreement with the customer in order to open a PMR on the web on behalf of the customer. On the phone I can easily open a call on behalf of the customer. A lot of our customers don't even have an IBM ID.
Maybe Susan can answer this one?