Posted: 04th Sep, 2009 By: MarkJ
New research from comparison site
Moneysupermarket has revealed that 37% of Brits have called a tech support line in the last 12 months. However, on average, people have had to make two calls to the helpline to fix each problem. It might be easy to see why when you look at the top tips they give.
The top three solutions offered by the support staff are:
• Turn it on and off (38%)
• Check cables and connections (33%)
• Uninstall or reinstall software or hardware (4%)
The comparison site suggests that most consumers will try turning their computer, modem or router on and off before they call, thus they do not need someone on a premium rate line telling them to do so again. Fair enough.
However, in having worked closely with IT support lines ourselves, you would be surprised by the amount of people who fail to try the most obvious things first. It is therefore fairly standard practice to cover the basics and not really any great surprise.
The study also warns people to be careful about calling a support lines from their mobile; costs to 08 numbers can be up to 40p a minute. It points out that this can become a serious problem if both your broadband and voice line fail or are incorrectly disconnected.