I've recently started playing with an HTC HD2 (see my fellow ZDnet blogger, Matt Millers post Hands-on with the HTC HD2, most impressive Windows Mobile device to date for more info on the device), a device that is not yet supported in the US. As with any device that's new to me, I've had technical support questions:
An interesting anomaly appeared during the resolution of these support issues. If I went to the worldwide HTC site, selected contact customer service and then selected Email customer service, I received prompt (within a few hours), very helpful responses. If I used the same procedure using the HTC US site, I was told that the HD2 is not a supported device in the US and was basically told "Go away boy, you bother me."
When I tweeted about this on Twitter, HTC's group following Twitter contacted me almost immediately via a private message and asked if they could be of service. After a quick exchange of short messages, I was shown the answer I needed.
Suppliers have already done their best to make it difficult or costly for customers to call a hot line and actually speak with someone. They've pushed people to either use Email and go through a slow motion support call one message at a time. The alternative they offer is to use an online chat systems that also is a very slow exchange with someone who often demonstrates that 1) they are heavily overloaded and trying to respond to a large number of customers simultaneously and 2) English is a second or perhaps a distant third language for him/her. This cost-cutting move clearly has had a negative impact on technology companies' reputations for customer service (see my previous posts on CA, Dell and HP service for example.)
In HTC's case, I found their worldwide support team to be extremely responsive and the US support team to be dogmatic and, thus, unresponsive. HTC's Twitter team was a breath of fresh air and was responsive, helpful and friendly.
Is this a harbinger of the future of customer support?
After doing the hard reset, I had to rebuild the environment which included setting up Email, downloading my contacts and Email from the network servers and reloading three small applications.
Although I hoped that would resolve the issue, the WiFi control bar was still grayed out. So, I sent another Email to HTC.
Here's what I got back from Jennifer in their North American support line
I do understand how frustrating it is to not be able to use your wifi on your HTC HD2. Unfortunately, your phone was manufactured in India. I am enclosing a link to all of the updates on the HTC Website.
http://www.htc.com/in/supportdownloadlist.aspx?p_id=297&act=sd&cat=all
I do hope this helps you. Unfortunately, we here at HTC America are unable to support phones manufactured outside of the US
I was rather surprised by this answer. I was not aware of any devices that were actually manufactured in the US. That being said, it is clear that HTC is a "stove piped" organization and that could create problems for those traveling worldwide.
What do you think the next step should be?