Numbuk wrote:
Some places can and will still connect you to US based support. I know from firsthand experience that Qwest is one such company.
Other companies, like Microsoft, make it more difficult. And their "supervisors" will argue with experts in things they are not in the know. For instance we needed Microsoft to have UPS intercept a package that was being sent to us. Their foreign support supervisor said that it cannot be done. This is when my wife, a person who works for UPS and does intercepts for packages all the frickin' time, intervened. After several minutes of pointless (on his end) arguing and realizing he cannot fight fact with lies and unknowns, he admitted that Microsoft gives them absolutely no power and has no authority to call UPS to request the intercept.
Yeah, that's the issue with the sub/sub/sub/sub contracted phone/e-mail/online support implementations. While a lot of times you know they can do something (technologically), the people actually doing the support have no power beyond reading as script to you, resetting your password, or forwarding your issue on. It's designed to knock out simple issues as quick as they can, and to make it as difficult to get support for complex issues as possible.
(kind of off topic, but this is the same reason Apple puts real apple employees in Best buy, instead of having their stuff sold by "Blue Shirts". They know having a salesperson that's knowledgeable about the hardware/software and actually interested in selling something results in more sales. There's nothing more off-putting than someone asking a technical question "Will this work with my XXXXXX" and receiving that blank stare, or the "I'll have to ask so and so, I have no idea what I'm talking about, I was restocking CD's yesterday and now I'm selling CD's.")