Tech support tanks — when we need it most

One thing I already miss about the good old PC era — this sounds so quaint — is that PC companies actually used to compete to provide the best tech support.

I haven’t conducted any surveys to determine to what degree the struggles of the PC industry have affected support, though I think I can assume a decline (imagine all those Windows 8 users jamming the support lines). But I seriously wonder if it could be as bad as my recent experience trying to get support for my Samsung Android tablet.

[ Also on InfoWorld: Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 shines bright | Get used to it: The post-PC employee has arrived | Subscribe to InfoWorld’s Consumerization of IT newsletter today. ]

See, I happen to be a big fan of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and its S-Note application. I fell in love with the S-Pen — because the drawing and note-taking felt natural and finally offered something I could do with a tablet that I couldn’t do with a laptop (for a review, see “Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 shines bright“). So I went out and bought the Note 10.1.

I loved using it. I spent a lot of effort customizing everything just the way I wanted it. I became attached to the thing.

Bits of trouble

Then a few weeks ago I downloaded and installed Android “Jelly Bean.” This was not a seamless process. Back when I bought the tablet, I had had to encrypt the device to use it as an Exchange client for work — and to install “Jelly Bean,” I was forced to decrypt and then encrypt again. Not a huge deal, but it was annoying.

As it turned out, a new version of S-Note had come along for the ride. When I tried to use the S-Pen, resting my hand on the screen spontaneously caused S-Note to zoom in without warning. My favorite app — a big reason I had bought a $500 device — had just become unusable.

I immediately started searching user forums to see if others had encountered the problem, and sure enough, they had. There was no way to turn off the zoom; one guy suggested using a fingerless glove as a fix. Although I bike to work and happened to have a biking glove handy, I didn’t feel like wearing it to scribble on a tablet.

I tried Samsung’s Web-based tech support and started a chat session, which led me nowhere. Then I tried phone support and asked if I could downgrade to the previous version. No way. Did Samsung have a fix? The tech replied curtly: “Samsung updates its software all the time.” Then he pulled out a support script for dummies, so I thanked the guy and hung up.

On the third try, when I explained the problem, the tech put me on hold for 10 or 15 minutes — but at least he came back with an answer. Samsung was aware of the problem and engineers were “working on it.” But there was no time frame for a fix.

The dark side of consumerization I realize it’s unfair to generalize from this one experience. Perhaps Samsung is better at supporting other devices. And hey, I hear Apple has a bar you can go to where actual geniuses fix stuff. But you gotta wonder: With the explosion in mobile devices and software updates rolling out “all the time,” how on earth can tech support ever keep up?

It’s a serious issue. My tablet is a business device, but I bought it, so it’s up to the vendor to support it if something goes wrong that I can’t fix. What happens if the next update bricks the thing? I’ve enabled an option that automatically backs up data to “Google servers,” but I’d need another device running S-Note for that backup to be usable if the tablet failed.

On the one hand, consumerization has given us unprecedented freedom of choice. On the other, it’s put us at the utter mercy of vendors. And as those who found themselves on a road to nowhere a little while ago discovered, even Apple makes mistakes.

This article, “Tech support tanks — when we need it most,” originally appeared at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Eric Knorr’s Modernizing IT blog. And for the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld on Twitter.