Tech Support Mess
17 June 2009
Seth Godin has written extensively about the ways companies frustrate customers with bad support (do a search on his site for “customer service” or “customer support”). My most recent experience with an organization’s technical support confirms Seth’s findings. Here’s the punch line: it doesn’t end well.
I’m moving all of my data and applications to a new computer and, so far, most of this has gone swimmingly. I have one application, though, that won’t work on the new computer because “Only one machine can be activated with each serial number”–so the web site informed me when I attempted to activate the license. So I e-mailed the company’s tech support to see what could be done. The transcript of the e-mail correspondence between me and the tech support rep at the company follows. The names have been changed to protect the, well, you know.
MG: I received an activation code (xxx***###) on April 23, 2009, for XYZSoftware and I’m trying to move the license from an old computer to a new one. My user account and XYZSoftware will be deleted from the old computer. Please send me a new activation code for use on my new computer.
Tech Support Person: XYZSoftware is a single machine license. Installation on multiple machines will not work. To install on a second system, you will need to purchase another license.
MG: Thanks for the response, Tech Support Person. I’m not attempting to install the software on two machines–I want to remove it from a computer I’m no longer using and transfer it to a new computer. How can I do this?
TSP: It cannot be done. The license only works once (The activation system was set up to stop people from installing their single copy on all 500 computers at work). If you want to put it on another computer, you will have to get another license.
MG: So there’s no way that I can deactivate the XYZSoftware license on one computer in order to transfer it to a different computer? I just did this with all of my Adobe CS3 software and it worked seamlessly. I’d prefer not to spend $40 for an additional XYZSoftware license when I already have one.
TSP: No one is making you do this. The program is working fine. If you are selling the old computer, add $40 to the price and use that to buy another license. If you are not selling it, leave it where it is.
MG: Thank you for the suggestions.
At this point, I figured we were done. Several minutes later, though, the correspondence resumed with this:
TSP: Just for my curiosity, when did you buy XYZSoftware? Our sales records show no sales to anyone with last name Gowin as far as they are online, back to 2002.
MG: I purchased two Things from SomeOnlineRetailer.com on April 14, 2009 (see attached) [I attached a copy of my purchase receipt]; the packaging had an offer to receive a free XYZSoftware license. I believe I used the product serial number from one of the Things [serial number included] to activate the license but, unfortunately, I no longer have the packages in which the Things were shipped. The serial numbers were on the packages (which I no longer have), not the Things (which I do have). Otherwise I’d have attempted to activate the XYZSoftware license with the unused Thing serial number.
TSP: There’s your answer. You bought two devices from Things Producer that each came with a license for our program XYZSoftware. You used one license and lost another. If you need another license, you can buy one from us, or you can go buy another device from Things Producer that comes with XYZSoftware.
MG: It’s an answer, yes, but not really a solution to my problem
Thanks anyway.
TSP: No, sir, it’s not. You got two “free” licenses and want a third one, for a program we want to be paid for. We will support your licenses wherever you got them, but we are not going to give you another one without being paid for it.
MG: Actually, Tech Support Person, I’m not asking you to give me a third license for free. My original question was about deactivating a license on one computer and moving that same license to a new computer. Your company makes a good product and you should be paid for it. It appears, though, that you have no way to verify that a user has deactivated a license on one machine in order to move it to another. Since I successfully moved all of my other applications from my old computer to the new one, I thought there would be a process to do the same with XYZSoftware. Regrettably, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Thank you for letting me know.
So, yes, I should have saved the package with the serial number and then I wouldn’t be in this situation. That said, I wasn’t trying to do anything that would cost this company a sale–I simply wanted to move a license from one computer to another. I was not asking for a third license; I asked how I could deactivate a license on an old computer and then re-activate the same license on another computer. Evidently, however, technology and policy were two insurmountable obstacles. Lesson learned.
Observations for XYZSoftware Company:
- How hard would it have been, though, for TSP to simply say, “We don’t normally do this, but I can see that you’ve paid for your Things and here’s a license code you can use to install XYZSoftware on your new computer. Have a nice day!” Instead, they’ve created bad-will for a customer.
- If your tech support personnel have the potential to get snarky with customers (as happened in this case), keep them off the front lines. I know that tone is difficult to read in e-mail and online mediums, but I kept an even, unemotional tone throughout this correspondence; it’s not clear that TSP did the same.
- You never know when your customers or potential customers might take a customer service exchange public–and I’ve been kind to protect the identity of XYZSoftware here. Others may not be so gracious. This is called accountability and the social web makes it possible.
Filed under: Computing, Marketing by Michael
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