May 5, 2007 4:09 AM

The location of the call center really means nothing about the quality of support. I've talked to people in other countries who were excellent, and people in the US who knew less than I did. (OK, so I often run into tech support people who know less than I do about their own products - but I'm an uber geek. ;-)) The point is, it is more about the individual and the training and resources they receive than their nationality.

-MegaZone, Sling Media Beta Manager
Slingbox Pro, HD Connect, TiVo Series3, TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(I also run GizmoLovers.com)

May 5, 2007 4:49 PM

I think you should not do those comments, even when you have the right to express what you want, you should respect that there is a lot of people in here that belongs to other countries, and as TRUE and MEGAZONE said if the customer support is good there is not reason to worry about.

May 5, 2007 8:47 PM

The language barrier can often be a problem..  The simple solution is if you have trouble understanding someone's accent, ask to speak to someone else..

I work in the southern US and there are people here that I can't understand half of what they say...

My sister worked for CS for Cingular in Oklahoma and that call center service people in NY/NJ.  She had people she couldn't understand all the time..

 

Slinging Tivo Series 2, Tivo HD, and TW cable from a Pro. Slinging Tivo HD from a Solo, Slinging Humax DRT800, and TW cable from a Classic to Sprint Mogul, AT&T SX66, N62, 8525, and Dell Inspiron 8600 with Sprint EVDO over Windstream DSL.

May 7, 2007 8:59 AM

To True:  I appologize if my comments came across as "skewed."  That was not my intention, nor do I care if they are from a different country.  But I've called a few times and got someone down there that didn't even sound as if they cared. 

To jp-phc-pxx:  Everyone know what "speaking American" means.  You being from Canada should know that most of all, eh.  Speaking American is an easier way of saying we speak english or bad english.

I just hope that will electronic technologies constantly changing and the Slingbox being such a great product, I sincerely hope that they can keep up down there.

 

 

November 30, 2007 6:59 PM

I phoned four times in Costa Rica and was very pleased with the service they gave me.   Unfortunately I still cannot get my television when I am away from home.   I am working on it.  

I am still working on it.

January 14, 2008 12:32 PM

I dont know what is wrong with Slingbox, but they farm out their support to forign countries instead of hiring American, and then everything gets screwed up.  I sent in my slingbox pro once it broke, they sent me back a slingbox av.  I told them about the problem, and it has been a month and finally they say they will send out the slingbox pro.  I need new IR cables and they sent me a power cord... I cant figure out this company and they are losing money by having poor customer service.... all I want is my slingbox pro back and working... but they are really screwed up at Slingbox!

/Gerald Witt

April 6, 2008 6:32 PM

I think it is a little bit far-fetched to say support will be of less quality when it is moved to Costa Rica. The company that handles the support is American and the official language of the company is English. You can expect people to know proper English most of the time.

Also, some people seem to be annoyed by foreign accents without actually trying to listen properly. There are a lot of people who speak English well, but people do not get the opportunity to learn all the possible English accents in the world. The world is bigger than America, try to get used to it, you will be hearing lots of foreign accents in the future.

By the way, people from the UK seem to be quite tolerant of foreign accents. Most of the time they have no trouble understanding me with my crappy Dutch accent :) 

I too don't like outsourcing that much. It limits the knowledge of callcenter personnel, people are judged on statistics rather than in-depth technical knowledge and people will be less motivated because they get average compensation and do not actually work for the company that sells the product.

Sling Media cannot be singled out as a "bad" company because almost every other company outsources support to be able to compete in the market.

This whole process actually starts with the customer wanting to buy a product cheaply. If people paid more attention to what they are buying, outsourcing would be less attractive to companies. People seem to think that any product, regardless of its price, comes with high level technical support, while in reality this is one of the first things companies try to cut corners on.

(Please note that my opinion applies to companies in general, not neccesarily Sling Media.) 

May 12, 2008 11:09 AM

You know Doughboy0507 took the words out my mouth, if the people has problems with being supported for a "third world" person, than just do it your self and stop crying, I've been in Costa Rica before, and even Mel Gibson an Hillary Swank have a summer home on that country, definetely the're more educated and human than a lot of US people, I've called and contact different tech support all over the years and found everything, good, bad, terrible, and terrific support, but I can't state that "third world" people are the same, if a company like SlingMedia (Echostar subsidairy now) invest on a contry like Costa Rica, is because they really know what they're doing, so I'm sorry Slinginator, but I think that your first message is the path that you must take, go and sale the Slingbox on eBay, and pray that you don't need support never again for the Slingbox, you might need to call a person from Costa Rica. This is the century 21 and still find people like Slinginator with superiority fellings, and with racial preferences... I just can beleive it.

Viper