IBM Support

OMFG I hate IBM tech support!! Ronnie's (the big boss) laptop has been having some problems, so Matt has been looking at it. Anticipating the worst, he asked me to contact IBM and get some recovery discs sent out to us in case we need to format the machine. So I look on the IBM website to see if they have them available to download, or an online order form. Of course, they don't! So I find the right number and call them up. I was on hold for maybe only 3 minutes, and then I got a very nice, english speaking guy who was very helpful and set a ticket up for me. He then transferred me to product department, with a ticket number and the product number of the CDs I need to get.

So I think to myself: 'Perfect! All I need to do is give the guy my ticket number, he'll pull it, get all the information and say 'Thank you Mr. Winch, the CDs have been shipped to you'', but no, instead I give him the ticket number, and he asks how he can help me (I don't even think he looked the ticket number up). So I tell him that I'm looking for recovery CDs, and he asks for the product number. I give it to him and he asks me to wait while he pulls up information. He then tells me that the CDs will cost $39.95. So I tell him that according to their webpage, if the product is still in warranty, then we get the CDs for free ( by the way, I should probably mention that these are CDs that would normally be shipped with the laptop if you buy from anybody else, like Panasonic). He tells me that I need to talk to somebody in the warranty department, and set up a warranty order. I'm a little bit annoyed right now, and get even more so when he gives me the number to call, but doesn't transfer me like everybody else does.

So I call up the next person I'm supposed to talk to, and tell them that I'm looking for recovery CDs for a laptop still under warranty. She tells me that I need to talk to a different department, gives me the number and transfers me.

The next person comes on, and I tell them the same thing: that I'm looking for recovery CDs for the laptop under warranty. She then asks if I'm looking to buy the CDs, and I tell her: 'no, the laptop is under warranty, so I get them for free'. She then basically acts like I'm an idiot, and has called the wrong place and that I'm wasting her time. She tells me to get in touch with the PC help line, gives me the number and transfers me.

While I'm waiting to be transferred, I notice that the number I'm being transferred to is the original number I called. After about ten minutes of listening to the hold music, I realize that there hasn't been any messages like 'All of our representatives are currently busy, please stay on the line and waste your day while we finish playing our online poker games' or 'Your call is very important to us, but we have 500 more important calls that we will deal with before we see you'. I think that the lady that 'transferred' me actually just put me through to their music channel. So I hang up, and call the number back, and get through in about 2 minutes. I then tell this guy my story, and he got confused I think (or he just didn't care) cause he asked me why I was calling (even though I just told him). So I tell him the usual replacement warranty deal, and again I'm asked if I want to purchase them. So I'm getting kinda annoyed right now, and I tell him (kinda angrily) that no, I get them free because the laptop is under warranty. So he asks whats wrong with the laptop, I tell him it's performing slowly, and we may want to do a recovery in the near future, and thats why we want the CDs. He asked if I've done an F11, and I tell him no, cause I have no idea what that is (it actually sounded like he said S11). He then proceeds to tell me that they can't send me the CDs until I do an F11, and that I need to call them when I have done one so they can walk me through the recovery process, which he then proceeds to explain to me. When he's finally done, I ask him if there is anyway I can get the CDs sent to me, and he says that ' that's not the way we work'. He does the usual 'is there anything else I can help you with?' I say no, and he does the 'thanks for calling' thing, to which I reply ' yah, ok' and hang up. The funny thing is that I've ordered recovery CDs from them before, and I had no problems! I hate tech support sometimes!!