Call the support desk

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LOVE that every product seller has a support desk these days; a toll-free number to call with questions and problems. There is almost no chance of getting a real person in the first few minutes. Knowing the keystrokes to get to the right Department of Customer Satisfaction is only gained by trial and error. And you must listen very carefully and repeat your words several times.

This post will not actually tell you anything you don’t already know, by the way. But maybe we can sob on each others shoulders…

Do companies that sell things provide enough support? That might depend on one’s expectations. What do you know now and when did you learn what you don’t know?  or is it – who do you know? Reminds me of that phrase… “Do you know anyone else?” Are there enough tech-smart folks that can help us seniors with this stuff?

My favorite gray area is the gulf between my internet provider and my computer operating system & browser. It’s a virtual grand canyon, to coin a phrase. The young geek person confirmed how hard it is to know where the problem is coming from, between those two.

Internet pages slow in loading? I am now on my fourth WiFi device from the BIG V phone company and only now hit my 2 year anniversary. What was wrong with the other 3 and why do I still experience slow loading web pages?

Some adware snuck into my laptop, on one of the partitions, messing up my computer performance. I took it in for a tune up and 4 days later I picked it up. The first thing I had to do was a full back up from the hard drive. But lots of things were changed so that took some time.

Previously, Java all by itself required hours and hours (NO exaggeration!) of deleting and reloading current versions just to make a New Mexico real estate forms program work. Help Desk indeed! A client asked me if I could just pull a form from the forms library at the office. No such library exists these days; everything is online.

Today I am working with a WiFi device that seems to stay on all the time and a freshly scrubbed computer that is only 18 months old. So what is the problem? I think the problem might be internal. It might be me that is the problem. I don’t have a computer problem or a YOU problem, I have a me problem.

Way way back, when I graduated from Darth Vader U. (sales associate training school at AT&T), I aced the computer systems test, creating a little buzz. I set a new land speed record or something. Now I can’t seem to tell a bit from a tweet, or Bitcoin from PayPal. Woe is me for not taking refresher courses every year or so.

It seems most of us just need a person to call. Ghostbusters – or whatever they call themselves – to integrate all the software and hardware. Little old me wants it all to work smoothly, to insure a pleasant cruise down the superhighway of information.

Getting Chrome to work with Adobe to work with Firefox to work with DocuSign to work with Java to work with Windows 8 to work with iTunes to work with wireless connections to work with  free downloads to work with my  literal brain is a challenge. Call the support desk. Have your product release serial tag ID code item inventory numbers handy. And relax for the duration.

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The writer is a 68 year-old young man engaged as an active REALTOR (associate broker) with Keller Williams, in real estate sales and management in the Santa Fe NM market area. My career has been in and around the real estate industry for more than 35 years, ranging from mortgage lending (interim, commercial, residential); residential property management and leasing; shopping center development and leasing; real estate sales; sales training; title insurance as an executive and an escrow officer; various management positions; consulting and other related activities. That plus a bunch of banking experience including our family-owned Bank of Santa Fe in the 1980s. Where has the time gone?
My background means you have my working knowledge of the entire transaction process at your disposal. That comes with honesty and no bullshit.