My October 2010 comments on "Firefox & Software Update Madness" didn't address Microsoft and the need to continuously update their software.
Microsoft created Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 (Win7), the latest version of their operating system back in April or so. I happen to own three computers running Win7. My wife has a new laptop running Win7 64-bit Home Premium. I have an old home built computer running 32-bit Win7 Home Premium. I also have a computer running Win7 64-bit Ultimate, which I consider my primary computer.
When SP1 came out I was hesitant to install it based on past experience. I had learned the hard way that you should always let others do the initial late-beta testing that seems to be necessary after Microsoft initially releases a service pack. I chose to try installing SP1 on my 32-bit Win7 computer along with the other monthly updates. I started getting Blue Screens of Death (BSOD) randomly Eventually, I managed to track down the problems with help from Microsoft's update support and the computer started running normally after resorting to a cloned disk backup. To play on Dirty Harry, I felt lucky and installed it without problems on my wife's new laptop. Then I decided it should be safe and tried installing on my 64-bit Ultimate computer. I regretted the decision for the next four weeks.
The install went poorly and hung at 16% after rebooting. Tom's Hardware web site gave a suggestion to go ahead and turn the computer off and then turn it back on to go ahead and finish the install. The suggestion worked and the install completed. I began to suffer BSOD's both while running and even more scary during the boot sequence. I would be presented with a recovery screen after the boot failure which invariably said it failed. That's when I first contacted Microsoft for the new problems. The problems continued and I contacted MS support again the next weekend. The problems continued after this second contact with MS support so I called them yet again. After this I noticed things were still not right. The AMD Vision Control Center crashed immediately. Media Center crashed immediately, yet Media Player worked fine. I got a notice about IE8 shutting down unexpectedly, even though I'm running IE9. It mentioned an event number and I thought I would look at the event.
When I tried bringing up the Event Viewer it said that the Event Viewer snap-in could not be displayed and that it may not have been installed correctly. OMG, this is part of the operating system and I decided to call MS support once again. After explaining the new problems, the MS support idiot asked me whether I could boot without crashing. I said yes, and this idiot sent me back to another MS drone to get a new ticket number for this latest problem caused by MS SP1. That's when they told me they were going to charge me to fix this "new problem". I went ballistic and the MS drone eventually hung up on me. My only indication they were not there was a dial tone.
I decided to hell with Microsoft and their incompetence. I called a local computer repair guy to come to the house and figure out what's wrong. The repair guy came by the house and looked at the 64-bit system and decided to uninstall Win7 SP1 manually since according to Windows Update it had not installed completely. Once he did that he installed it again. All the symptoms are now gone. Best $100 I've spent in a while.
LESSON LEARNED: Most MS Support people are nice (not that last set of idiots) but they blindly follow a script which might only hide the true problem. The first three calls were to foreign support people. The first was in the Philippines and the second as well as the third were from India. The foreign support people were respectful, patient and easy to work with, even if they couldn't solve the problem. Only the American MS support people, if I remember right in Oregon, appeared more interested in ending the call than helping a customer with a problem caused by a update to their software. Nasty, nasty people.
Showing posts with label support. Show all posts
Showing posts with label support. Show all posts
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Toshiba DVR Support a Big Disappointment
In 2006 we bought a Toshiba RD-XS35 DVR while we were living in an apartment in Nebraska. The DVR worked fine and did as promised while we lived in Nebraska. Late in 2007 we moved back to our house in Colorado. After the move we found the DVD tray would open and not close whenever power was applied. Of course I found our warranty had expired and I had to pay to send the DVR back for repairs. Everything worked fine until early last year, around June 2009. It was then that I noticed the TV Guide on-screen had stopped working, making programming the DVR annoying at best. After trying to re-setup the DVR numerous times I finally decided to try contacting Toshiba technical support. This started my long term relationship with the Advanced Services Group (ASG) at Toshiba.
First contact with Toshiba ASG occurred on September 11, 2009. We stepped through the key sequences to do a low level reset of the DVR and they told me to call back if that didn't fix the problem. It didn't. I even checked with Comcast after the first call to see if they were blocking the necessary TVGOS analog signal. Comcast said they were not blocking any analog signal. I've contacted the Toshiba ASG by phone three times since and each time resulted in stepping through the same sequence to capture diagnostics and then resetting the device. Each call ended in a promise that they would pass the diagnostics to "The Engineers" at Rovi (Macrovision) and get back to me. After not hearing anything from Toshiba ASG I would call again and go through the same ritual.
Now on April 9, 2010, the problem with the DVR is still happening and I've heard nothing from Toshiba ASG. So I sent them an email trying to explain my frustration and receive a reply that says, "My team here in Advanced Services Group have done everything that we have been asked by "Rovi" (Macrovision) and I understand that this has to cause frustration on the customer's behalf, especially when there seems to be no resolution. Since this is a third party affiliation, it is hard for us to do much when we are at the mercy of another company and the programming." Toshiba ASG didn't seem to understand that expecting me to call back, e-mail them or otherwise follow-up after providing them the requested information is unreasonable. Communication is two-way and the protocol required a response from them. The matter is closed and I will never buy nor recommend another Toshiba product under any name.
I am reminded of an episode with a 1986 Chrysler Voyager mini-Van. The van suffered from vapor lock and eventually in the mid 90's became totally gutless which is fatal living in mountainous country. I kept taking this van back to Chrysler over and over, eventually I only dealt with the manager when I would drop the van off to have it looked at. On the last visit, the eleventh, the manager had the moxie to tell me as we stood looking under the van's hood that, "those Mitsubishi engines always were crap", and then incredibly walking away toward the showroom said, "interested in looking at a new van?"
What that Chrysler manager and Toshiba ASG don't understand is that I didn't buy anything from their suppliers, either Mitsubishi or Rovi. They each made the design decision to buy something rather than build in-house. Even more important, they made promises to their customers about the capabilities and functionality of their products. These are not the failures of individuals within the companies, but instead a statement on poor quality products and lack of support capabilities. These things cost money for stock holders, so they are willing to drive customers away.
The Toshiba DVR issue is closed, not by Toshiba, but Comcast instead. On the same day I e-mailed Toshiba this last time I received a letter from Comcast telling me that to "improve my digital experience" they were going to require that any TV (and other devices) would need either a set top box or digital adapter to receive their service. So the Toshiba DVR will become a very expensive DVD player and I will never buy another Toshiba product. I guess Toshiba is the winner here since they managed to not fix their product at the expense of only one lifetime customer. Makes you wonder how long they can keep doing this kind of support.
First contact with Toshiba ASG occurred on September 11, 2009. We stepped through the key sequences to do a low level reset of the DVR and they told me to call back if that didn't fix the problem. It didn't. I even checked with Comcast after the first call to see if they were blocking the necessary TVGOS analog signal. Comcast said they were not blocking any analog signal. I've contacted the Toshiba ASG by phone three times since and each time resulted in stepping through the same sequence to capture diagnostics and then resetting the device. Each call ended in a promise that they would pass the diagnostics to "The Engineers" at Rovi (Macrovision) and get back to me. After not hearing anything from Toshiba ASG I would call again and go through the same ritual.
Now on April 9, 2010, the problem with the DVR is still happening and I've heard nothing from Toshiba ASG. So I sent them an email trying to explain my frustration and receive a reply that says, "My team here in Advanced Services Group have done everything that we have been asked by "Rovi" (Macrovision) and I understand that this has to cause frustration on the customer's behalf, especially when there seems to be no resolution. Since this is a third party affiliation, it is hard for us to do much when we are at the mercy of another company and the programming." Toshiba ASG didn't seem to understand that expecting me to call back, e-mail them or otherwise follow-up after providing them the requested information is unreasonable. Communication is two-way and the protocol required a response from them. The matter is closed and I will never buy nor recommend another Toshiba product under any name.
I am reminded of an episode with a 1986 Chrysler Voyager mini-Van. The van suffered from vapor lock and eventually in the mid 90's became totally gutless which is fatal living in mountainous country. I kept taking this van back to Chrysler over and over, eventually I only dealt with the manager when I would drop the van off to have it looked at. On the last visit, the eleventh, the manager had the moxie to tell me as we stood looking under the van's hood that, "those Mitsubishi engines always were crap", and then incredibly walking away toward the showroom said, "interested in looking at a new van?"
What that Chrysler manager and Toshiba ASG don't understand is that I didn't buy anything from their suppliers, either Mitsubishi or Rovi. They each made the design decision to buy something rather than build in-house. Even more important, they made promises to their customers about the capabilities and functionality of their products. These are not the failures of individuals within the companies, but instead a statement on poor quality products and lack of support capabilities. These things cost money for stock holders, so they are willing to drive customers away.
The Toshiba DVR issue is closed, not by Toshiba, but Comcast instead. On the same day I e-mailed Toshiba this last time I received a letter from Comcast telling me that to "improve my digital experience" they were going to require that any TV (and other devices) would need either a set top box or digital adapter to receive their service. So the Toshiba DVR will become a very expensive DVD player and I will never buy another Toshiba product. I guess Toshiba is the winner here since they managed to not fix their product at the expense of only one lifetime customer. Makes you wonder how long they can keep doing this kind of support.
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