Trados customer service (or customer service in general)
Since it just came up on the Trados mailing list again, I just like to post my rant here too.
A lot of people complain about how bad Trados is and even more, how horrible their customer service is. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have had my share of issues with Trados and their service, but in all honesty - it’s the same at almost every other company.
I think one big part of the Trados support issues is that most translators need and use Trados 8 to 10 hours a day and that many rely on Trados for their livelihood. At the same time, many people are not willing to pay for support (Trados PSMA costs 20% of the product cost). Has anyone ever looked up how much support people make? Last time I checked, even jobs labeled “Support Specialist” (ie. not call center) earned well under $40,000 a year. If you know a lot about computers and if you have the required experience, do you want to listen to customers on a support hotline 8 hours a day for that money? Yeah, me neither…
Here are some of my past support experiences:
- Comcast: their service is horrible and I dread having to call them. Every now and then you get someone who actually knows their stuff and the conversion is pleasant. Most times, they don’t know anything, read of solutions from a script and put you on hold forever.
- Best Buy: the bulb of our fairly new projector blew after 90 days even though it was supposed to last 3000 hours on eco mode. Since projectors are fickle little things, we had actually purchased the extended support warranty for $180. We wrapped up the projector and went to the close by Best Buy to get the bulb exchanged. Well, not so much. They said we have to go home and file the claim online. We could also call support; the number is also on the web. Say what? So we went back home and I called customer support. I talked to someone who had absolutely no clue and kept asking me for the screen size of my projection TV. I kept telling her it is a PROJECTOR not a REAR PROJECTION TV, and she gave up and connected me to someone else. That someone else told me, that the bulb shouldn’t blow that fast (Duh!) and I should better contact the manufacturer because it is still under their warranty. We ended up having to send the projector back to Optoma (UPS insured for $60) and “just” two weeks later, we had our device back. And that was service we actually had paid for.
- Dell: I just had one brief encounter trying to change an order for a monitor after it all of a sudden showed “out of stock” with a delivery time of 4 weeks. My call was routed all over the world. One call I just had to hang up because I could not understand the person and apparently, he couldn’t understand me either because my request to transfer the call was ignored. One woman I talked to said she was from the Philippines, another one probably from India. They were trying to be helpful and they were nice, but their scripted answers are just a waste of time. If I have a problem bad enough that I can’t solve it, their script most probably can’t and I get the dreaded “You have to format your hard drive” answer.
- KIA: my husband’s remote key was in really bad condition. The buttons were punched through and the door release didn’t work. So, for his birthday I took his car, went to the KIA dealer and asked if I can get a new remote key. The guy looked it up and said they have one key - costs around $80, but they can’t cut it. He sent me to a locksmith that they had a deal with to get it cut. After that I have to get back to get it programmed. So I paid for the key, went to the locksmith who cut it for free and went back to the dealer. They sent out a guy (reeking of last night’s party) with a little computer who clearly didn’t know what he was doing. First, he couldn’t find the location to connect the computer to the car. Once he found that he started punching the keys while quietly cursing. After ten minutes, he said it doesn’t work and that it is the car’s fault. I asked him what to do now, and he said I have to get the car repaired - and with that he turned around and left me standing there. I went back in trying to explain that this key is basically worthless to me now, since the remote opening function was what I was looking for. Now, since it was cut I couldn’t return it, and since they couldn’t tell me what was wrong, the repair cost was “undetermined”.
- Airlines: I don’t believe I have to get into this - do I? I haven’t had a trouble-free flight for at least 5 years. In those 5 years, I have been stranded over night in Manchester (New Hampshire), Dallas, and in Chicago. They have lost my luggage on the way to Germany; I have missed flights because of delays. I was on standby even though I had a ticket in Philadelphia, I spent hours sitting in a plane that wasn’t moving or circling the tarmac and of course I had plain old delays. And you know what? I don’t even travel much!
Now, I have to add some positive notes, the customer support at T-Mobile (my cell phone provider) and Medion (for my laptop) have been pretty good. T-Mobile has the friendliest support staff, and I am not talking the usual fake support friendliness but people who are cordial and who actually are able to crack a little joke every now and then.
In the end, I am happy that I don’t have many computer problems, and that I can solve most of my computer issues myself. At times, I actually enjoy doing so and playing computer surgeon, but I know it is not for everyone. But if that is the case, you may have to pay someone.