technicalsupport
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T-Mobile tackles lousy customer service with 'Team of Experts'
It's no secret that a lot of carrier tech support is lousy. It's not just that you have to wade through menus -- it's that you're often pushed between support agents who only have the foggiest idea of your service history and are encouraged to get you off the phone quickly. T-Mobile thinks it can do better. It's launching a "Team of Experts" initiative that's meant to get you in touch with people who can actually deal with your problems instead of passing the buck.
Apple plans to add 20,000 jobs, new campus in the US
Apple is determined to show that it's investing in the US economy despite its tax moves and foreign manufacturing. The company has announced a slew of investments it claims will pump a total of $350 billion into the US economy, highlighted by its focus on (what else) jobs. It expects to spend $30 billion in capital expenses that will create more than 20,000 new positions over the next 5 years, both at its existing buildings and a new location (to be unveiled later in 2018) that will initially focus on tech support.
Google Assistant can help troubleshoot your Pixel 2 phone
Plenty of companies offer chat support to troubleshoot problems with your phone. But do you really want to talk to another human for what could be a simple fix? You don't have to... if you have a Pixel 2. Android Police has discovered that you can ask Google Assistant for help with battery issues. Ask why your battery isn't charging properly and the AI companion will not only run a diagnostics check, but look for particularly power-hungry apps. It offers to connect you to Google's chat or phone support if it can't answer your questions in one shot, although problems in the AP test suggest this component isn't ready for prime time.
Verizon partner exposes 14 million customer records
If you've had to call Verizon customer service recently, you might want to keep a close eye on your data. ZDNet has learned that an employee at a carrier partner, Nice Systems, exposed 14 million residential customer records from the past 6 months on an unguarded Amazon S3 server. As long as you could guess the web address (which reportedly wasn't that hard), you had free rein to download whichever log files you wanted. Each record included a name, cellphone number and account PIN, and only some of it was masked. Thieves would not only have personal info they could abuse elsewhere (such as social accounts that use a phone number for authentication) -- they could impersonate you if they called Verizon later.
FTC cracks down on internet tech support scams
The Federal Trade Commission isn't letting up in its quest to rid the world of tech support scammers. Officials have launched a legal campaign, Operation Tech Trap, in a bid to crack down on frauds that rely on a mix of web pop-ups and phone calls to frighten you into paying up. The effort includes four fresh complaints (in Alabama, Colorado, Florida and Ohio), two settlements (in Connecticut and Florida) and charges against seven people -- two of which have already pleaded guilty. It's as much a public show of the FTC's might as it is a significant bust, but many of the perpetrators were particularly insidious.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me support my mother-in-law's iPad
Dear Aunt TUAW, I currently provide remote support for my mother-in-law's 15 year old PC, frequently using TeamViewer to watch what she is doing rather than try to decipher garbled descriptions of what the screen is showing. This Xmas we are planning to buy her an iPad and so I wonder if there is an equivalent program that will allow me to continue supporting her and retain my sanity. Your loving nephew, Dave A Dear Dave, There are similar apps, but they aren't remote and only offered on jailbroken systems -- not a good match to your MIL's needs. On the other hand, most cats can operate an iPad. I'm pretty sure your MIL is smarter than a cat. Hugs, Auntie T. Dear Auntie, My MIL is smarter than a cat but most cats do not insist that she is incapable of learning something new ;-). We shall see. Love, Dave Dear Dave, You cannot solve relationship problems with technology. Your devoted, Auntie Auntie, Indeed, although the iPad has broken through my wife's resistance on the subject, I now have to ask permission to use it. Just hoping it does the same with MIL. Hugs, Dave
Momentus XT hybrid drive causing headaches, Seagate working to fix
All's not well in hybrid solid state storage land, as owners of Seagate's Momentus XT are facing serious issues with their drives -- despite glowing initial reviews, a number of long-term users claim that the drives chirp, crash, stutter, and freeze with alarming regularity, particularly when installed in a Mac. Seagate forumgoers speculate these are symptoms of the XT's magnetic platters spinning down inappropriately, due to an overzealous power management scheme. That's the bad news -- and it sounds pretty bad -- but the good news is this: Seagate's owning up to the issues, and is actively involved in getting them fixed. So far, a pair of new firmware updates have addressed some symptoms, a third is on the way, and a Seagate engineer known only as STX_NB is proactively chatting with affected customers about possible fixes. That's what we call technical support -- take notes, tech companies.
Apple support profile lists purchase history, sign up for VoicePass and SMS
Apple quietly released My Support Profile, which offers a hardware purchase history and access to Apple's VoicePass, its trademark filed shortly before Christmas. Once I signed in, I set up my iPhone to use VoicePass and receive SMS messages (available only in the US) from Apple Support. VoicePass will link Apple Support to your product history and allow them to provide personalized service. The right side of the page features a list of repairs and products that you've purchased and registered with Apple. You can also add nicknames to your purchases. The purchase history area is a bit spotty -- it registered my very first Apple product (15 GB 3G iPod from 2004), but missed the 5.5G iPod purchased two years later, iPhone 4 and iPad. But, it's easy to add your other products. Clicking on the product will show you if it's still under AppleCare and extend your AppleCare if it's available. The support profile is a handy place to update your contact information with Apple as well. It's worth taking a few minutes to go make sure your Apple profile is up to date and remind yourself of some of your past Apple purchases and repairs.
App Store Lessons: Picking an application name
iPhone developer Dan B. wanted to know if Apple would reject his application based on the name he wanted to use for his app. So he did what you'd expect a sane developer to do. He wrote Apple. He used one of his technical support incidents to speak with the Apple Developer Technical Support teams and waited for them to reply. They were quite prompt in answering, redirecting his question to the iPhone App Review Team. Thank you for contacting Apple Developer Technical Support. We provide support for code-level questions on hardware & software development, and are unable to help you with your app naming question. Please contact the iPhone App Review Team for assistance. You can contact them directly at [address redacted]. While you were initially charged a technical support incident for this request, we have assigned a replacement incident back to your account. I hope this information is helpful to you. So Dan contacted the App Review team. And they wrote back too. Thank you for contacting the iPhone Developer Program. This email address is for inquiries regarding status of application submissions. Apple is not able to provide pre-approval to developers for proposed application submissions. We ask that you please review the Program License Agreement details against the specific application you wish to develop and submit any applications for App Store consideration in line with the application submission processes for the program. If your application does in fact get rejected by the app review team, then we will notify you on what appropriate corrections/changes should be made. So what's a developer to do? It seems like the only way to vet an application (let alone an application name) is to submit it and see whether Apple rejects it or not. If the name is used in the application art, you might have to redesign your screens. If the application idea is not okay, you might end up throwing away all your development costs because Apple would not give a preapproval before starting serious development. Dan's problem reflects a wider problem with Apple's App Store black box. Developers should be able to pay for support incidents for exactly this kind of situation. It appears that Apple does offer this high level of consultation to partners and other companies that they work with (even to the point of having Phil Schiller call Google directly to discuss the progress for the Google Voice app review). Shouldn't they offer a similar kind of service to smaller developers? Have you been able to get these kinds of answers out of Apple? If so, how did you approach the matter? Let us know in the comments...
ZeeVee technical support: now open at really weird hours
For anyone's who has tried to connect ZeeVee's ZvBox, we commend you if you've managed to avoid calling technical support at least once. Although we're (mostly) kidding there, there's no denying that the aforesaid unit is one of the more complicated devices to install and get running. Thankfully, ZeeVee has inked a contract with Inforonics to provide extended hours of tech support, meaning that you really can get your install issues dealt with at 3:17AM. As always, YMMV when calling in at such bizarre hours, but at least you'll have a warm body to talk with even if the troubleshooting is a bust, right?
A fix for those "Pairing Record Missing" errors
Here's an annoying problem with a surprisingly simple solution. After upgrading to 1.1.3, many users found they could no longer properly sync their iPhones. If your iPhone or iPod touch develops a missing pairing record problem, you can fix things by...rebooting your computer. If this saves anyone else an hour or two of head-scratching, tech support and google-fu, then my job is, as they say, done.
