Outsourcing - A Horror Story With a Happy Ending

[PT]

This morning, I turned on my Dell computer, and received an error message:
"NTLDR is missing. Press any key to restart". After several attempts at
pressing the "enter" key and getting the same message, rebooting several
times and getting the same message, I called Dell Phone Support.



The technician somewhere in India told me that this was a relatively common
problem, and required reinstalling the file in the I386 folder. He then
went through a long sequence of steps to try to reinstall the file from the
Windows XP reinstallation CD. He kept running into problems, getting the
message "Access denied" when we tried accessing the I386 folder.
Eventually, after about an hour on the phone, he told me that several files
had been corrupted, and the only thing left to do was to re-format the hard
drive, reinstall Windows, and try to rebuild the system. I was told that
the process requires about 2 - 3 hours to complete.



I decided to do so using a local computer servicing company which had
previously installed Ghost and made a backup image of my hard drive. I
started out by explaining the NTLDR error message. The following is a
nearly verbatim transcript of our conversation"



Local Tech: "Do you have a floppy in the floppy drive?"



Me: "No --- Wait a minute - yes I do! I guess I should remove it?"



Local Tech: "Yes, then reboot"



Me: "It's booting correctly - Is that what the problem was?"



Local Tech: "Yes - That's the message you get when you try to boot from the
floppy drive - It's a standard cryptic MS error message.



So how to I rate the advice the Dell Indian technician provided?



1.. Not only didn't he know the simple and apparently obvious solution to
what is an extremely common problem - a badly designed Windows XP error
message.


2.. Not only did he waste an hour of my time on a fruitless exercise when
a knowledgeable tech could have solved the problem in ten seconds.


3.. But - if I had blindly followed his advice, I would have at best, lost
all the programs, data files and everything else I've added since purchase.


To summarize - this incident has severely shaken my faith in the quality of
Dell support service, I should mention that when I told the local tech of
the procedure that the Dell support tech had followed, and the
recommendation he gave - the local tech told me "those guys don't know very
much - they just follow scripts, and rush you into replacing equipment and
software."

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

If you have a problem with Dell support, then contact
Dell support!

Welcome to Dell Support
http://support.dell.com/home.aspx

Welcome to Dell Community Forums
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| This morning, I turned on my Dell computer, and received an error message:
| "NTLDR is missing. Press any key to restart". After several attempts at
| pressing the "enter" key and getting the same message, rebooting several
| times and getting the same message, I called Dell Phone Support.
|
|
|
| The technician somewhere in India told me that this was a relatively common
| problem, and required reinstalling the file in the I386 folder. He then
| went through a long sequence of steps to try to reinstall the file from the
| Windows XP reinstallation CD. He kept running into problems, getting the
| message "Access denied" when we tried accessing the I386 folder.
| Eventually, after about an hour on the phone, he told me that several files
| had been corrupted, and the only thing left to do was to re-format the hard
| drive, reinstall Windows, and try to rebuild the system. I was told that
| the process requires about 2 - 3 hours to complete.
|
|
|
| I decided to do so using a local computer servicing company which had
| previously installed Ghost and made a backup image of my hard drive. I
| started out by explaining the NTLDR error message. The following is a
| nearly verbatim transcript of our conversation"
|
|
|
| Local Tech: "Do you have a floppy in the floppy drive?"
|
|
|
| Me: "No --- Wait a minute - yes I do! I guess I should remove it?"
|
|
|
| Local Tech: "Yes, then reboot"
|
|
|
| Me: "It's booting correctly - Is that what the problem was?"
|
|
|
| Local Tech: "Yes - That's the message you get when you try to boot from the
| floppy drive - It's a standard cryptic MS error message.
|
|
|
| So how to I rate the advice the Dell Indian technician provided?
|
|
|
| 1.. Not only didn't he know the simple and apparently obvious solution to
| what is an extremely common problem - a badly designed Windows XP error
| message.
|
|
| 2.. Not only did he waste an hour of my time on a fruitless exercise when
| a knowledgeable tech could have solved the problem in ten seconds.
|
|
| 3.. But - if I had blindly followed his advice, I would have at best, lost
| all the programs, data files and everything else I've added since purchase.
|
|
| To summarize - this incident has severely shaken my faith in the quality of
| Dell support service, I should mention that when I told the local tech of
| the procedure that the Dell support tech had followed, and the
| recommendation he gave - the local tech told me "those guys don't know very
| much - they just follow scripts, and rush you into replacing equipment and
| software."
|
|
| --
| PT
|
|

 

[Guest]

Sounds similar to the techs at Microsoft...totally clueless

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Yes, the old floppy in the A: drive causing the standard "NTLDR
missing" error message is a very common event. And it has been so for
many years, since the advent of WinNT. In fact, this solution is so
common and so obvious that perhaps the telephone tech simply didn't
want to offend you by suggesting that you could have possibly
overlooked it?


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[PT]

Of course the problem never would have arisen if MS had kept the earlier and
very understandable Windows versions' message - something like "Insert
Bootable media".

--
PT
Greetings --

Yes, the old floppy in the A: drive causing the standard "NTLDR
missing" error message is a very common event. And it has been so for
many years, since the advent of WinNT. In fact, this solution is so
common and so obvious that perhaps the telephone tech simply didn't
want to offend you by suggesting that you could have possibly
overlooked it?


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Actually, to those experienced with WinNT and its boot process,
that's pretty much exactly what "NTLDR (NT Loader) Missing" means.
If you're just transitioning to NT-based operating systems, you'll
have to expect a bit of a learning curve.


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[noitisnotme]

It is a shame that companies like microsoft and dell are
outsourcing jobs to other countries but I have found a
solution that would put a stop to this if everyone did it.
Whenever I call a company I ask up front where the person
is and if they do not say USA I ask to be transferred to
someone in the USA. If that does not work I ask for a
supervisor and in 99% of the time I then get transferred
to someone in the USA.

 

[wojo]

Problem there is, in most cases atleast, tech support here doesn't know
anything either. I have had three of my buddies at different times work for
tech support for a couple different companies. They are taught to look the
problem up in a book and read the responses in the book. One of my buddies
didn't even own a computer and here he was tech supporting.

 

[anon]

Sounds like the people at Bigpond ?????

-----Original Message-----
Problem there is, in most cases atleast, tech support here doesn't know
anything either. I have had three of my buddies at different times work for
tech support for a couple different companies. They are taught to look the
problem up in a book and read the responses in the book. One of my buddies
didn't even own a computer and here he was tech supporting.




.

 

[anon]

Too logical for the average user "insert bootable media".
Must make it more complex so we have a good reason to
update our skills and expect a learning curve adjustment.
LOL

 

[wojo]

More like the people at pretty much any computer company. Hire some schmuck
for $6.00 an hour to read script.
anybody remember Packard Bell? LOL

 

[zulu]

Why would I do that?I'm in the UK...........;-)

It is a shame that companies like microsoft and dell are
outsourcing jobs to other countries but I have found a
solution that would put a stop to this if everyone did it.
Whenever I call a company I ask up front where the person
is and if they do not say USA I ask to be transferred to
someone in the USA. If that does not work I ask for a
supervisor and in 99% of the time I then get transferred
to someone in the USA.

 

[Papa]

Yes, and perhaps he did (although he didn't say). Nevertheless I'm glad he
reported the incident here as well because it helps the computer user to
realize that certain tech support centers do not always know what they are
talking about.

If you have a problem with Dell support, then contact
Dell support!

<snip>

 

[D.Currie]

That message isn't any easier for people to understand, it's just what
you're used to. If it was REALLY friendly, the message would say:

"Excuse me, but you've put a non-bootable floppy in my drive, then told me
to boot from that disk. Do you really want to do that? If you take that disk
out, I will boot normally. Or you can find a bootable disk...look! there's
one over there on your desk! And if you give me that disk, I will happily
boot from it."