Tech Support, like the IT industry in general, has gone through massive change over the last several years. The most visible transition has been the seemingly wholesale offshore migration of many tech support functions. India has been a primary beneficiary of these changes. Many, including myself from time to time, argue that the American consumer more often than not is the loser in this “new age” of technical support.
There was a time, not so long ago really, where I would argue that Dell, and other American hardware companies, had a distinctive point of difference because of their generally timely and knowledgable technical support group. No more. If you want to speak to an American technical support analyst at this company, you either have to pay a premium or establish that your issue is such that it warrants being “bumped up” to a second, usually, third, tier support group for resolution. In all fairness, Dell has very recently received overall positive comments in the areas of service and reliability in PC Magazine’s annual Reader Survey. If you are considering purchase of a desktop or notebook, or even an ISP (Internet Service Provider) this review is highly recommended. Readers of this magazine tend to be IT Professionals with extensive industry experience. (Just a quick notice, eMachines didn’t fare well at all so if you are considering this brand, be aware that Tech Support isn’t likely to help you out should you need it.)
Now for the rest of the story..... I had a significant issue, largely of my own making, with this blog a few days ago. While attempting to update significant elements of the PCMG Consulting web site, files critical to thie blog’s functioning were inadvertantly overwritten with files from an older version of Expression Engine software. This effectively rendered the blog unviewable to public eyes and I had in fact lost access to the software’s Control Panel. Visions of many hours lost work in site design and content creation danced through my head.
Now Expresssion Engine is not freeware (although there is a free trial I believe and pricing depends on usage-- personal or commercial). This software is not out of the box simple to install. I say this having originally purchased the software based on a review in Lockergnome which touted this blogging solution as a quick, flexible, development environment allowing you to have a blog up and running in an hour’s time. This comprehensive chart details a wide variety of blogging software and is well worth reviewing if you are considering jumping into the world of online web logs (BLOGS).