Qwest Support: Macs 'Obsolete' → ... And as an ISP Tech support manager...

All of our technicians use Macs at home (I am typing this on my "obsolete iMac G5") and we pride ourselves in actually offering better Mac support than PC support for our customers. Our biggest weakness is Vista. If Qwest wanted to be more accurate they could have said that Vista is obsolete!

And if somebody called in with Linux, FreeBSD, or any other *nix based OS we will do the best damn job we can to get them up and running.

"And as an ISP Tech support manager...
All of our technicians use Macs at home "

Really....You clearly are paying them too much!

Hob

I guess I didn't specify...

Mac Mini Core Duo machines that were purchased off Craigslist for $500 each.

Did you get them to hack'm into Core 2 Duos yet? Or do the Sata to eSata trick and boot off faster external drives?

Too bad the onboard video isn't better...I've gotten one to tinker with.

No you wouldn't. You would follow the script like a good little monkey.

Script? I only hire people that know wtf they're doing. It saves in training and customer service costs. That's why we have 2 tech support reps for 1800 customers, and the phones stay quiet for the most part.

1800 customers?

I guess 2 would be all you could afford!

Hob

1800@$45/month average on the wireless side. There's still colocation, dialup, etc., and as you can see based on those numbers that there's still plenty left over. 2 phone support technicians works out great. Much less, there's still 1 1/2 field techs (one part-time), an accounting person, and the manager over business development and a manager over operations. It's not a bad business, and we're now looking at more people to help out in the field to help with the installation count.

So it makes more sense to provide support for an OS used by the minority rather than provide better support for the majority who use Windows?

The problem with offering support for a linux-like OS is there's so many configurations. So many different network connection managers. So many different names for interfaces. So many customers who are going to have a network card that doesn't even work. Not to mention the problems so many people run into just trying to get their wireless card working. I think it makes a lot more sense to provide support for the majority, plus it's simpler to say "Click on the start menu, then network connections, and double-click on 'Local Area Connection'."