I am a patient guy, I let things go. But one thing has really bothered me recently, and it was the process of getting my laptop repaired. I put the original call in to my computer manufacturer on September 6th, 2010. I was having a problem with my laptop that was not fixed when it was sent in for service, so they decided to provide me with my Next Day Business Service. They assured me my laptop would be repaired in 2-3 business days, taking into account that shipping would take about a day for the repair parts to reach them. Great, this issue would finally be resolved and I would be able to use my laptop. How wrong I was.
The package was sent to the technician the next day and received at 9:30 am on September 8th, 2010. It was shipped via Fedex with a tracking number of “468362237305” This is where things begin to get ugly. I do not receive a call from anyone on the 8th, even though it was signed for by someone (I’m not joking- look at this tracking link http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?language=english&cntry_code=us&tracknumbers=468362237305). So I call the 9th, and talk to someone at the computer manufacturers. They put me in touch with someone from the dispatch department. And the guy from Worldwide TechServices says this: “Oh yeah, Next Business Day Service means we call you the next day, not that it will be fixed then.” So now it looks like WorldWide TechServices is not in the business of honoring contracts. I guess this is foreshadowing for what happens next. I end of talking to a manager because I wasn’t going to be available the next couple of days. He tells me he’ll try his hardest to get someone out here that night. I think he did try, and he gave me a call back where he said he was unfortunately unable to do that. But he reassured me that I would be called first thing the following morning.
I did not receive a call. Not the next day. Not even in the next week. I lost one of my mentors over the next week, George N. Parks, so I lost sight of getting my laptop fixed and went on living my life. On Saturday, September 25th, 2010 I called my computer manufacturer again. They were very helpful. The gentleman on the phone looked it up,and what did he find? WorldWide TechServices had said they had come out on 9/13/2010 and actually fixed the laptop., a blatant lie This immediately set off warning bells when I realized that my computer manufacturer had been defrauded. It left me wondering if they then just sold the parts that were sent to them and kept the money. It turns out I had been dealing with an unethical company all along.
The parts were sent out on Monday, 9/27/2010, and received by the technician. I received a phone call at 9:45 am on 9/28/2010, from 413-306-2909. It was from a gentleman named Brian who was to schedule the repair of my laptop. I gave him a call back at 10:00 am and let him know that 9/28/2010 was probably the best day of the week as I didn’t have night classes in grad school. Brian never called me back that day. In fact, he didn’t call me back at all until I called him two more times, One at 3:03 pm on 9/28/2010, and one at 3:45 pm on 9/29/2010. He gave me a callback at 3:59 pm on September 29th, and said he will only do the work in the mornings, that’s when he’s in my area. That’s bizarre, I thought to myself, because he is supposed to come to my area when it’s convenient for me, not when he doesn’t want to potentially be driving home after 5 pm (I know, Scary to have to work until that late!!). He mentioned he was from Westfield, which is further proof he doesn’t want to have to drive home after 5. What a loser.
I then received a call from 413-687-0203 at 8:33 am today, 9/30/2010 from “Mike Safari” who wanted to set up service for my laptop service call today. Finally! I called back at 8:55 am, and again this technician said he would only do the work in the morning. I told him I’m at school until that time, but apparently WorldWide TechServices only hires people that don’t want to work ever. Awesome! He told me he would call me back this afternoon. I just put another call into my computer manufacturer. They were extremely apologetic, and called and talked to a supervisor. My computer manufacturer told WorldWide TechServices to come out and fix my needs. They assured me that I would receive a call back. It’s been an hour and a half now, and no call or answer whatsoever. What a terrible customer experience and customer service on the part of WorldWide TechServices. I’m actually in contact with the computer manufacturer who is very interested in this story, as it relates to in the future, and whether WorldWide TechServices will be even considered. I hope they all lose their jobs, because they sure as hell have wasted a lot of my time.
Here’s a picture of their website. Very indicative of their work ethic. (Note the guy not fixing the laptop)
Worldwide TechServices, I can be reached (if you want to even resolve this) at (617) 855-5293.
Well, I def. can see where you get off on being extremely upset with WWTS. I have been with the company however for over a year now, handling over, on average 6 calls a day. This said, some of us do actually work, work with the customer and enjoy what we do. Do not hold a grudge towards “US” as a company hole, granted there are plenty of the techs employed with WWTS that take advantage of the scheduling and “freedom” we have has technicians but you can rest assured that these men/women are weeded out quickly and effectively so that this problem does not reoccur.
well thats not too bad i had the geeksquad lose and not recover my computer i went at them for months untill they finally said opps that it got lost and gave me a comp like the one i had. all i know is i never go there again, and as for wwts, every company has a fe bad techs. and heres the things i learend.. unless you buy hundreds of comps from the manufactor nobody cares what your issues are. sorry but its true
I too am a tech at Worldwide Techservices. I can say I am sorry that this happened to you. We do have many good techs, and there are some that aren’t so good. I can say I do my best to schedule an appointment with someone the day the call comes in, but it is not always possible. It is not like we only get one call a day, we get several. There are days that my calls are a 4 hour drive apart. It is impossible to schedule everyone when it is convenient for them, but I try to.
One thing I can say, you did have a bad experience with the tech that was assigned your call. I am sorry to hear that. Most of the techs with WWTS work hard, and we work long hours. We do our best to keep the customers happy. And as said before, the techs that don’t work with customers do not last long.
It does upset me a bit to see that this happens. It does make us all look bad.
Blame, your computer manufacturer, while WWTS does suck as a company, in this case it is also partly your computer manufacturers fault. In order to be guaranteed service after 5PM the manufacturer has to sell you a special service on your warranty, if you didn’t have that on your warranty the tech is not obligated to come after 5. Most techs try to avoid after 5 calls because DELL recently stopped paying extra for these calls (night and weekend calls), and thus so did WWTS. Techs generally work 9 to 5, you asking them to come late, at no benefit to them is a long shot.
The tech should have made all this clear to you, but again, he has no motivation to do so, techs are paid per call, they are paid for nothing else, so everything they do outside of fixing your computer and calling you to set a time to do so after picking up the parts is unpaid overtime as far as they are concerned.
Perhaps Dell should pay a little more to see to it that a higher quality service is given to its customers.
I think hourly employees would perform much better than these per call techs that they are using now.
A per call tech just wants to get as many calls done as he can between 9 and 5, nothing else matters.
Ugh – I was just looking them up while considering getting a laptop and came across your post – which manufacturer was it…would like to avoid the same scenario…
that happens only because of stupid service calls assignment politics and people shortage in wwts.
On Dec. 18th, 2010, I bought a 60 inch Sony tv from Sam’s Club. Right out of the box there was a problem. The tv turns on and off by itself. Called Sam’s and spoke to a Service Tech. We were on the phone for over two hours and tried everything to resolve the problem, including making sure that ALL the timers were turned off. The Tech said that I would need a service call and that he would have someone call me. I got a call from WorldWide TechServices and got an appointment date of Dec. 30th between the hours of 2 and 5 PM. So far things were okay. On Dec. 29th I got a call to cancel the appointment because Sony did not ship the parts. I called Sony to see what the problem was. They told me they didn’t have the parts at that time, however, they just got them in and would ship them , Over Night, the next day. On Jan. 3rd I called WWTS to see if they got the parts and was told that Sony did not ship them. I called Sony and they told me that the parts were shipped over night by FedEx and the gave me the Tracking numbers. Now I called WWTS and told them about that and they told me they did not receive them. I then went to the FedEx website to check on the Tracking numbers and the site showed me that the parts were indeed shipped on Dec. 30th and were received at the local WWTS office on Dec. 31st at 9:26 AM signed for by a D. Reed. Called WWTS and gave them that information and was told that the parts were not there. Called Sony and again they told me the shipping information was accurate. Called WWTS back and again I was told that they did not have the parts and that Sony was wrong. It is now Jan. 6th, 2011 and I still have a tv that turns on and off by itself, as much as 7 times in 5 minutes, there is no pattern to this problem. In my opinion, if WWTS was a solid item I think it would be a “COPROLITE”.
I used to be a field tech for WWTS’s predecessors; they were called the BancTec ITSM division, which later was bought by Qualxserv, which even later changed their name to WWTS.
Field techs are forced to start work well before 9am because WWTS’s Dell contract demands all calls be updated by 10am (meaning all customers must be called and messages left on answering machines or voicemail by 10am). If all the calls are not updated by 10am on Dells website, WWTS is given a penalty by Dell (something like 20% of the price of each late updated call is taken away from WWTS). Therefore, a tech is forced by the Dell contract to start work at 9am (or earlier) and call all customers, and update the calls.
WWTS does not provide a “late-shift” employee base; all the field techs that start work at or before 9am are the same ones that perform after-hours and weekends work.
Because of this, WWTS field techs do not want to work after hours or weekends. It’s bad enough they are paid $22 per call with no hourly, averaging 4-5 calls per day (if they are lucky). For this pay, 12-hour workdays plus Saturdays and Sundays (mandated by Dells Nights & Weekends contracts with WWTS) are out of the question. If you want premium service, start paying a local computer repair tech some premium rates for after-hours and weekends…usually starting at about $100 an hour which includes travel-time back and forth from your residence. I have denied calls to end-users that demand after-hours and weekends, but that was long before Dell forced field techs to start working longer than 40 hours a week with no overtime.
It sounds like you obtained a dishonest tech. He should not have closed the call as repaired when in fact nothing was done. But when a field tech earns a non-livable wage, driving around with two dozen Dell parts that are each individually worth more than two weeks of his pay, you start to get a lot of dishonesty (and you start to see a lot of these parts on ebay).
We had a tech come out to our office to replace a hard drive in a desktop June 2011. It does not get much easier than that. The tech showed up and never replaced the drive? He had the part? He ran no test and didn’t bother to leave an note as to why he didn’t replace the drive. The WWTS Chicago techs are treated like slaves. They pay these guys like $22 per call, no insurance, no gas expense and rarely more than 6 calls a day more like 2-4. That depends if your on the managers good side or not. This is why clients receive such substandard service. They give these guys 3 calls and run him across the city for peanuts. The district manager they have running the Chicago area never returns techs calls when they need crucial information to properly service the client, he overlaps calls sending 2-3 tech to the same location on the same day! The only time you get this manager to call you is when he needs you to bail him out. Then he has a short memory when is comes to throwing you under the bus when his ass is on the line for improperly managing the area techs. They called him the “angle of death” when he worked for Banktech.
It’s a shame because before they became WWTS and joined the obviously failing staff from Banktec they were Qualxserv and a much better group of people to work with. It’s clear that this company is in decline and they will not be around much longer as they have already lost the contracts they have with Dell and are rapidly losing Lenovo/IBM support. IBM has not been honoring the 24hr service and bringing the repairs in house lets guess why.
I just got a call from WWTS asking if I would come to work for them. The recruiter said I would get free Dell, HP, and Hughes Satellite certifications, 100% travel reimbursement, paid overtime (probably Chinese overtime if I had to guess), and a company cell phone.
The official job title is listed as Worldwide Technician II. Pay supposedly ranges from $22 / call for pc stuff to > $100 for satellite calls.
Any opinions? My biggest concern is that I am currently working a steady 30 hour / week job @ $16 / hr (which is peanuts, I know), and I cannot afford not to be paid at least what I net now (~$850 bi-weekly). My wife has the job with the medical/dental/vision/life insurance, so I don’t have to worry about that.
My second concern is this position covers a fairly large geographical area. I’m not sure I’d actually be able to hit 5-6 calls / day.
@main post
I understand your feelings, I am currently a tech at WWTS and it angers me when I look at the client reviews for some of our techs. Currently, as a employee I am overly angry at the company. They make the numbers sound all flashy with 22 to 35 dollars per call, but the amount of calls is where they get you. I have been with the company for 3 years now; I was promised a min call number of 10 a week at a rate of 35 per call. At first it was AWESOME I would get up to 20 calls a week, sometimes even more and we were paid weekly! The job is freaking simple. Go out there, look over the system and determine if the (refurbished) parts need to be installed, then install them. Motherboards took about 10 to 15 mins at most and the company does not do software.
Now however, I am lucky if I get 1 to 5 calls a week. Dell is trying to make us sell their products (And our company is agreeing to it) our pay was cut from 35 to 31.50 and we lost our bonus for working on weekends. The company is tricky with it’s mileage reimbursement and unless you are traveling across state it never makes a difference. And to top it all off, they switched us to Bi-weekly pay, as if we did not have to go long in between pay checks as it was.
@Ziggy
Don’t do it, plain and simple the company is a sand trap. It sounds nice, but you will only see those 5-6 calls a day in the beginning; also if you do plan on doing it…here is the thing…if you do your job how you are supposed to, you know, actually make their unit work and last(As techs should) you officially just LOST a client, why? because their computer is not gonna break again for at least 6 months.
On a final note, just to restate the obvious, yes, we are worked like slaves, we get no benefits and they mark us as “temp part time” rather than “part time”. No tech that works for this company, likes this company, unless they are just starting out or are so well off they do not care about the pay check from this. At this point, I would rather work at mcdonalds than this job, but hey, fancy that…mcdonalds is not hiring at the moment. Because of things like that we are forced to stick with this company.
From 2007 to 2009, I worked for BancTec, Qualxserv, and Unisys.
They were all horrible for both the technician and the end-user.
Unisys quietly encouraged technicians not to report overtime.
Thank you INTERNET.
1st off I apologize for your bad experience.
I am with WWTS and while things have gotten to be a real head ache I do enjoy my job (fixing things) a big problem with wwts service is that from 1 week to the next different customers become priority, example one week dell complains that their customers aren’t getting service NEXT day SO WWTS makes ALL dell calls priority for a week or so and tell techs DELL must be done 1st, but then Sony is like HEY your neglecting our calls SO for the next week or two Sony calls are to be serviced 1st, THEN Hughes or lexmark have the same issue and so on and so on.
I told my TS that ALL my calls are priority for me. when i 1st started I handled 35 mile radius which moved to 80 miles then 130 miles as I was willing to take on more calls and more systems Dell, Sony, IBM, APPLE, Lexmark, Hughes but now I cover a 300 mile radius (can you say holy shit)
now I am not defending the tech that would not work with you BUT you also have to be willing to work with the tech, I am willing to work at your place of business (work) or if your in school I am willing to come to your school get your system worked on it and give it back to you ( you on the other hand have to be willing to have me come to your work or school and have two quick five min interruptions of your time…pick up of pc and return of pc) IF you refuse to work with me on HELPING YOU then I know for a fact that you will NOT get service after hours by me. if you live 2+ hours from my home and I try to work with you on scheduling but your not flexible with me then NO i am not willing to take my time (and yes it is my time as i get paid per call, no mileage reimbursement, and no overtime) and do after hour times for YOU. you have to remember that while you may have a contract with dell/ sony/ ibm/ apple/ lexmark we tech’s cover large area and many many customers. if I have a call in 1 area and 4 calls in another area then the 4 calls will be done 1st then the 1, however in my case that only puts customers off for a max of 2 days (all my customers are a priority).
if we get 50 calls who comes 1st???
I am currently a tech for WWTS also. How ever I am a Full time tech. If your lucky enough to get on full time, you get comp van, gas card, credit card, laptop, cell phone and all home office supplies through WWTS. You also get full benefits. How ever, our work load is VERY heavy and service area is HUGE. Worth it? I have 53,000 (dollars) a year that says yes it is.
I’m having somewhat of the same problem with this company. I bought a brand new Dell laptop and the hard drive died, fine hard drives do die at anytime. I figured I would have no problem getting a new hard drive and dell approved it so I’ve been waiting and waiting on World Wide Tech Services to even call me back. I can’t even get a call! I keep contacting Dell and they keep telling me that a tech will be out, but I’ve never received a call or seen anyone show up here. This is a complete joke. I work in IT and could easily do this myself but I wait and wait. Dell needs to seriously reconsider who they use for their inwarranty work if this is the service people are going to be getting.
Worldwide strikes again! After 2 service calls to replace a part in my Sony TV and a follow-up it’s still not fixed & Worldwide still charged me almost $500. What a racket they have.
@Jason
I’m sorry to hear about your experience w/Dell and WWTS. This is very rare and is disappointing that you got the lazy techs.
@Ziggy and Bradley
I’ve been a WWTI I tech for 5yrs on the IBM side and went from full-time to part-time/pay-per-call. This was initially great, but has turned into no work (and no pay) for over 2 weeks now.
WWTS IIs DO travel a lot; after all, they have to pay you regardless, so working you non-stop is a no-brainer.
While I have some gripes with WWTS, especially regarding mileage, I LIKED seeing different places, working on different machines, not having the same old grind everyday. …I’d like the stress the likED part.
IBM has tried to set appointments in the past, having no knowledge of our other appointments or parts-delivery. Parts have been on back order sometimes for months; of course, the customer remembers that their next-day service has take far longer than just sending to depot so already has preconceptions about the tech. Unless the tech performs magic to fix the computer (some serendipitous moments have had it where the computer DOES turn on when it originally didn’t), he will likely not get a perfect 10 from the upset-customer. IBM looks at certain performance scores overall for an area, so even if some of us did an excellent job for …I don’t know, say 5 years…we ALL get screwed over when the contract is ripped away. I think IBM used any excuse they could find to deny us service calls (and hence from having to pay WWTS).
Seeing how IBM calls are practically nonexistent and Dells are continuing to drop, I have no recommendation for either of them. However…many of us may forget that we’re temporary ‘part-timers,’ and elect to take payments for a diagnosis and repair…
The problem here is that the customer expects thing to be done on his schedule and his alone…he must realize that he is an ant in a an ant hill…he is unimportant .. when the tech calls u u make arrangements to fix the computer on his schedule .. next business day repair is only possible if u fit into a techs schedule if not it can be days ….DELL gives your repairs to WWTS that doesnt take care of its techs so the customer will suffer ..
Sony XBR 70″ Projection LCD repair call log:
…well here’s one for the books…I called Sony to request a service repair call for my XBR, 70″ projection LCD TV, which up till now had been a remarkable trouble free TV. Apparently the heat from the projection bulb is causing the Bulb cover access doors and internal wires to overheat and/or melt with the possibility of a fire, occurring! So much so, that …Sony extended their warranty to cover this issue which has included the need to replace the TV, at times…three days after my call to Sony, I got a call from “Mike” from “World Wide TechServices”, who calling to set up “quasi” service call. He intimated that he was coming to just take a picture of the melted door panel and/or the related problems caused by the overheating. After some conversation, He went on to say he zero experience working on TV’s! When I asked him if he was a service TV repairman. He said “NO” and continued on to say that he had “never taken apart a TV,” but “everyone has to start somewhere!” Yikes!!! I thought! This can’t be so…Naturally; I refused to have him come out. After 38 minutes on the phone with Sony, I was assured they would have a “qualified” Tech coming out and they would be calling me back within 24 hours…the saga continues…stay tuned….BTW this TV, cost over $8,900.00 new…can you imagine having a “Dell Computer Tech” saying he had to start somewhere! As he attempted to set up an appt with me. BTW…he drove school bus during the day and couldn’t accommodate my schedule, as a result….all that money for the “SONY” name…just incredible… just as I was finishing this posting I got a call from WWTS “Larry-in New Jersey” saying he wanted to have another gentlemen that was an “Expert” come out instead…after some conversation I learn from “Larry” that the “Expert” has seven months experience! He ‘s qualified because he’s take on line certifications, none from Sony, as I understood him to say…he went on to ask me if the “Mike” could come along with the “Expert” to learn how this is done…just amazing, I thought…when I said do you have anyone that does this full time, he said “NO” we are a computer service call company and we just too this type of work on a little less than a year ago…I said I would call Sony again, in an effort to have a “Professional full time Expert” certified by Sony, to come out and investigate the issue…BTW, Larry went on to ask about the repair work that would be need to correct the problem…his description of what’s involved was akin to brain surgery…let’s see I thought- a seven month “Expert” is coming out to dissect my TV, and they want me to help move it around because thy can’t get tow guys out here to do it…the saga continues…stay tuned… I am calling Sony back now…reached Herman again, nice guy…set me up with a “qualified” and “Certified” Sony tech reapir company called: “Pinnacle Service Solutions” from Haverhill MA, located 7, miles from my home…got switched over to Alex, he confirmed all my info and called them to set up a service call for me…after another 29 minutes on the phone I was told by “Alex” that he forwarded my file and that someone would be calling me in 2-3 business days to set up an “evaluation” call…interesting choice of words…back to the waiting game..
I searched for almost an hour just to finally FIND WWTS to try and find a job there (heard mixed things about them, good and bad). I’ve read these posts from some very unhappy campers and alot of them seem to have some legitimate gripes. Many, however, are just whiners who think they’re supposed to get their behinds kissed until they go all a flutter. I’m seeking new employment because the company I’m currently with can’t seem to schedule out the work assignments properly and wind up scheduling me with a bunch of tickets that the customer has already requested rescheduling (to meet with THEIR timetable, not MINE) and so won’t put any paychecks in my account at all. I travel all over the place and put over a hundred miles a day on my vehicle to try and appease everyone but there are those who won’t be happy no matter what you do. These particular individuals are upset for one reason or another that has nothing to do with me but I’m the person they’re going to take it out on. Did you know….when a customer decides they need to reschedule their service call because of any reason….it costs the tech assigned that call money even though it’s not that tech’s fault? All you whiners need to grow up and think about someone else besides yourselves for a change.
I have been a WWTS tech for over 6 years and, just to let you know, things have gotten worse not better. Current reimbursement for mileage is .33/mile, which is a joke. They recently bought an independent contracting company and are reassigning the majority of the work I used to see to these “independent contractors”, people with little to no experience that they pay LESS than their full time techs. I fully expect the downhill slide to continue; management is concerned about the almighty dollar, not quality service. Oh yeah, sure they harp on quality at every opportunity, then they make it clear that, though quality seems important, money is the real driving factor. It would be nice if someone at the company read this, but if they did, it likely wouldn’t result in any positive changes; rather it would result in a determined hunt to find the “instigator”. Good techs are hard to find and they are getting harder, thanks to policies at WWTS.
Until today, I was a “contract employee” with Worldwide Techservices with no love for this company for what would have been 2 years next month. And I can tell you your case is NOT isolated.
To be fair though, the parts are not shipped to and signed by the receiving technician. They go en masse to a central receiving area in the technician’s territory, either the regional WWTS orifice or a drop center such as a FedEx Hold for Pickup location or authorized FedEx independent business.
Now me, I’m trained in customer service and I’m an A-Plus certified technician, I know what I’m doing, I know how key client relations are, and I may have been the only one in the WWTS Sweatshop who understood and practiced it. They’re right in what they told you, ALL calls ARE next business day unless the client paid for 4-hour or 2-hour response time, and the terms of your agreement when you purchased your service agreement may entitle you to weekday 8AM – 6PM or 8AM – 9PM full-week service including Saturdays and Sundays. Your assigned tech either got lazy, was overwhelmed with pre-scheduled work (no excuse, but happens sadly), or had no clue how to work on his own. I’ll also point out that the pay with WWTS is so low that if you were the only call on his plate, he would have taken a loss to run a single call in a day. And if something comes up, which sometimes does, and he’s not going to meet his assigned time with you, he’s duty-bound to call you to explain and reschedule.
Sorry you had such a lousy experience dude; this happened before I joined that chicken outfit and if you’d been in my western PA territory you’d have been taken care of promptly. I may have been their only sucker — er, technician — to be able to make that claim, still ……
i worked there six miserable yrs no raises more duties harrasssment from my manager
Yes, after reading your issue within your concern, it’s just shady techs that WWTS has hired over the years. WWTS has always been pretty good as a whole, but in 2009 when they bought out BancTec, they have gone downhill since. You have not seen nothing yet, they will be collasping as a company soon. Did you knot know that WWTS follows the “world system”. Alot of folks that work for them do not realize this, and they are ignorant of it as well. in the mean time they continue to “slave and cheat” their employess. I’ve been an employee for close to 5 years, and I have seen it progressivly get worst. Me personally, dont really care. If a company that continues to do wicked things, they will fall into themselves, and at thats whats in the process of happening. can it be stopped. Yes, but hiring people with good morals. I think thats what they call “Christains”. I think God, that I have other oppertunities and position that I make elsewhere. So in a nutshell, if you happen to have WWTS as a Service Provider, cross your fingers and pray you get a tech that cares about its job. If not, expect this kind of service and lack of care. And if you plan on working for WWTS, know before hand that it’s a company that has one thing in mind, MONEY, MONEY,MONEY. It’s been written. But if you know this before hand, come on in, and do a good, and watch the show unfolding, it’s itresting to be apart of an company that has few morals, especially with it’s own employess, and watch them collaspe. Makes you wonder whom the spys are. Did’nt the good Lord send in spys? Remember, not to follow “the world” for they do this, and not know it.
peace brothers
To end users desiring service: these companies are sweatshops that abuse and underpay their employees/contractors, so you wonder why you get crappy service? I know, it sucks but that’s the way the warranty repair biz is these days. Been there/done that won’t do it again… $22 a call? ya right 🙂 Freakin obscene for a qualified tech to be expected to work for that kind of money, much less flat rate…
To techs: stop working for these sleazeballs. They will wither and die eventually if nobody will work for them. They ALL suck, they may start out good, but decline rapidly… I’ve worked for some of the worst, Barrister, Syntech, and others. I have a few select ones I work for now, and get paid well for what I do. I won’t work for bottom feeders like those companies…
Not only does the company misrepresent itself to clients, it also misleads anyone looking for a tech job that has posted a resume on a board. I was “hired” without having ever applying and had numerous phone calls harassing me wanting to know my training status and demanding I begin servicing customers. No kidding! This company also represents itself as “F2Onsite” and a number of other names. The last phone call I received, it was clear that the person calling had to scan the list of company names to say who was calling. I’m posting this here because they’ve obviously seeded their ratings and reviews on most job boards and Glassdoor. Any company this dishonest with their clients and employees should be avoided!
Hi Jason,
The exact same thing happened with me. My technician was some Jeff Tumen and he called me in the morning 7:30AM saying he was going to come with the part to fix my Dell laptop. So I called up my office and said I’ll be home for my laptop’s support. At 10:00Am, the guy calls me again and says that I am sorry your part didnt came in today, So I cant come today, I’ll give you a call tommorow.
I said can you first confirm and have the part in your hand instead of assuming it will come tommorow because I cant be home daily to make myself available. I already was home today. So this guy says “i can give you a call only between 7:30 AM and 8am, and when I do, you have to be available whenever I am available to fix your laptop”. I requested, since i am already working from home, my office wont allow me frequent changes without prior notice(I have to inform them atleast a day earlier and I already used my unplanned notice today). So if he can make it between 3:00PM to 5:00PM, then he said no, he’ll come when he can, he cant make it to the time I request.. and blah blah.. was very rude and not ready to give his name or his supervisors number.
It’s sad to have a single customers believe the experience he had is indicative of the entire company. A generalized statement makes me wonder if this is the true reasons for posting a comment such as his.
However, I am a WWTS EII employee who has run into difficult clients in the past and I understand Jason’s frustration and don’t want to pass them off as trivial.
The manufacture of his equipment has several contracts with WWTS. Depending on the client they can have a range of solutions. As mentioned Jason claims that “Next Business Day” option was offered to him. It is unclear if he paid for it but typically computer clients don’t give away this service for free.
In the past some helpdesk clients have made comments that put WWTS in a bind. Guaranteeing services and deliveries not contracted for.
However, when a service ticket is issued WWTS does not drop the ticket until parts are shipped. Once shipped the ticket arrives to a technicians bucket to be worked. Now given the territory and the number of available technicians you may or may not be in a list of 13 or more calls in that bucket on a given day.
If you were the only ticket in that bucket and had a NBD contract then the technician has the opportunity by contract to contact you between 08:00 – 10:00. He should never contact you before 08:00. If his first attempt to reach you fails he then he is to call you twice more before noon.
Again unless you are in a bucket of 13 but we are assuming you are the sole ticket in this bucket. He or she (technician) should have left a message to give him a call when available. If you don’t have an answering service then it becomes more difficult to reach clients. It is expected that clients also have alternate ways to reach you. Those who don’t have an alternate number listed or correct phone number (this happens often – due that the clients files are not accurate with the most recent information). Then you may be out of luck.
Now Jason did the right thing contacting the company from whom he bought the computer. They in turn should have given him an escalations number for WWTS to resolve his issue. From here it becomes unclear why WWTS did not make its commitments. I can only assume there was a lack of commitment on the technicians part and on the clients to work out a comparable solution. If Jason was not going to be available for any period of time the protocol is to instruct Jason to call the host company back when he is available. The reason for this is the inventory process does not permit keeping the parts more than 5 days. If in a 5 day period the client does not respond the parts are shipped back and the ticket is closed.
As a footnote typically all our business partners would have offered to have the computer returned to DEPOT for service by the host company. Why this was never done nor Jason never mentioned the computer manufacturer by name seems rather odd. But again the customer is always right and he should have had service within the allotted contractual time frame offered and purchased.
WWTS has gone under company reorganization and district reorganization twice since this period. This process lead to the removal of contractual employees who were not meeting the goals of the company. As for Jason’s other issues those are not relevant nor the cause of WWTS and he should have more respect than to digress from his issue by adding his emotional baggage.
WWTSII
Jason said ” I thought to myself, because he is supposed to come to my area when it’s convenient for me”
That is not completely true. Service should be performed the next business day if the service call was placed before 5pm. That would be anytime the next business day that works best for both parties.
If a time is not convenient for both parties the next business day then both parties determine the next best convenient time.
What would happen if WWTS had 2 customers 50 miles apart and both wanted service before noon because it was most convenient for the customer?
Depending on mileage some technicians will service up to 10 computers in a day. Typically around 5-7. Committing to provide service for all of those customers in one day that is most convenient for only the customer would cause the technician to zip zag all over the city. The technician can service more customers each day by grouping his service calls by area. It that does not work for a customer then the customer can choose another convenient time on another day.
WWTS has reorganized again, this time moving most of the Dell next business day service calls to full time techs and have less contractors.
I expect to see a lot less of these issues.
“WWTS has gone under company reorganization and district reorganization twice since this period. This process lead to the removal of contractual employees who were not meeting the goals of the company.”
Only four years have elapsed, and a company which was founded in 2010 must perform two reorganizations? Only one axiom with Dell third-party sub-contractors is true: “Everything changes, but nothing changes.” It’s all just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
In 2003 WWTS’s former name was BancTec, and they attempted the same thing; they re-organized and sub-sub-contracted their entire Dell field work force…..with dismal effects. BancTec fired all w2 field technicians and re-hired them as 1099 independent contractors. The IRS was not amused, classified all these “independents” as employees, and BancTec was re-reorganized.
In 2005 BancTec “re-organized” from a per-call rate of $32 down to $23. Many techs left…some stayed on. BancTec hired temps to fill the void at $28 per call, paying 20% higher than their loyal w2’s who stayed on after the paycut. Six months later those temps were rewarded for their hard work with a w2 job and a $5 per call pay-CUT; the temps that refused the pay-cut were let go. The company somehow continued to thrive.
In 2006 BancTec “re-organized” from a flat-rate of $23 per call to $8 per call and $10 per hour, but kept a few employees as $23 per call techs. This quickly backfired because hourly techs sat on the couch, collected the hourly running a tiny handful of calls, and gave most of their calls to the $23 flat-rate techs. This was quickly “re-reorganized” in 2007 back to the $23 per-call flat-rate for everyone.
In 2008 BancTec “reorganized” as a merger with Qualxserv, and in 2010 “reorganized” as WWTS. And in 2011 “reorganized” accessing workmarket.com to find 1099 contractors similar to the re-organization of 2003; attempting to remove their w2 workforce.
The “independent contractors” referenced in the previous two comments were accessed via Work Market (workmarket.com), known in reputable-technician circles as “Waste Management” due to the similarity of the two company’s logos, as well as other similarities. WWTS paid a rate of $40 per call to workmarket 1099 contractors, which apparently was too much money and didn’t “achieve their goals”. So now they have “re-reorganized” back to an employee base willing to work for less.
I can only guess that a 1099 willing to work for $40 per call is not reporting it on their taxes, or the entire amount is deducted on an 80-mile round trip at 50 cents per mile and they enjoy repairing their car every weekend of the year, have their house and kids college loans paid off by winning the lottery, and don’t have any other expenses, like food. WWTS did them a favor by letting them go…but fear not, they will re-reorganize in another year or two and bring them on board again in another reincarnation.
I loved being a field tech; I loved the independence. I loved seeing places that I never would have visited working at an office , even though they were only 30 miles away. I learned about the history of these locations and met the people, who 90% of the time were welcoming and friendly even after going through outsourced Dell tech support. I loved the contacts I made, and the extra money on the side from independent work. I loved only seeing my boss two, maybe three, times a year.
What I hated above all else…and what made me leave the industry…were the RE-ORGANIZATIONS.
I worked for the predecessor of this company (Qualxserv). Started with (ISC Systems Corporation).
Over the years I was there I witnessed a steady decline in the service quality this company provided (Qualxserv) at that time..
At the time I quit the company I was working on average of 70+ hours a week. Calls coming in from dispatch and management at all hours of the day and night. Rarely was I allowed to sleep more than 4 hours at a time for over 2 years.
I was injured on the job and denied workmens compensation to cover my medical bills. Overtime not paid and vacation time refused and then had those vacation hours taken away.
Even after I quit with the standard two weeks notice I received harassing late night calls from the district manager for over a month until I was forced to change my phone number. Ten years later was still receiving calls from managers requesting that I return to the company
My advice to anyone considering working for WWTS is don’t walk away. RUN as fast as you can!!!!
The only thing that “changes” in this business is the name of the sleazeball companies, but it’s the same old game. Screw the techs as much as possible while fattening your own bank account.
I started with Workmarket (AKA Wasted Management LOL) a short time ago and have been INUNDATED with underpaying jobs a ridiculous distance away from me. Like I’m gonna drive 50 miles in EACH direction for a FLAT $40? BWAHAHAHAA.. retards… I delete 99% of the emails I get. And getting paid is getting SLOWER there… and a LOT of the techs get screwed and “Wasted Management” (Workmarket) turns a blind eye to it and just spews out crap about “working it out” yet does NOTHING.
I was working on Field Solutions for a while, was a GREAT platform, but they just got bought out by Field Nation. Now THAT really sucks BIG TIME. Field Nation is the SLOWEST paying platform out there. Sucks worse than Workmarket. Field Solutions used to pay EVERY Friday like clockwork and direct deposit was SAME DAY. Field Nation took 7 days to direct deposit my money recently.. WTF???
@ long time computer tech,
You should know not to post those platform names or mention them so casually in public forums or speaking to non techs. This is how pizza techs come in to ruin the industry.
Did you even get an A+ cert? Because when you go to your CompTIA account looking for the job info, it mentions two platforms and says to keep this info strictly confidential. That is because people who actually study, learn, gets hands on experience and knowledge to prepare themselves for a career in technical work should not end up being undercut by careless uneducated people that sit around imagining they are experts and hear about platforms then decide they can do it all. We all have been screwed for a long time because that is what is happening. If you are a long time tech, how many times have you spread around job board info so willy-nilly to non-techs and on public forums?
Also, when was the last time you found work at $100hr ? Probably never because you can’t even maintain code to protect the livelihood of the industry and fellow techs that need to eat and pay bills too.
You said “because he is supposed to come to my area when it’s convenient for me”
That is partially incorrect. It is when it is convenient for both parties. You both are supposed to keep checking off dates until you both find one that works for both of you. These techs have more then just 1 customer and making them all happy just is not possible. Especially when both of them want the same window of service time frame.
I used to be a tech at WWTS/QualxServ. There are some good techs and some terrible techs who work there. I was one of the good techs that actually try and help you out as much as I could. But WWTS doesn’t pay their techs what they are worth. They pay their techs $14/hr and if you have ‘specialty’ certificates, they may pay a buck or two more, but only for those particular jobs. I was with them for a couple of years, with no raises and I was PART TIME with no indication that they would ever make me a full-time tech. And a lot of those certifications are CHEEZY. They are incomplete and worthless, in my humble opinion. And the worst part of the job is that us techs have to ‘beg’ for the highest rating or we will get dinged for giving ‘bad’ service. Hey, at least they pay for the mileage. When I was with them as QualXServe, I got paid $25/job and no mileage. All in all, they screw their techs which in turns screw the end users.
I work for WWTS and have for 8 years. We don’t get paid per call because of the issue of “bad techs” pulling crap like mentioned in this blog. To all the customers out there, I can only speak for myself, it is a juggling act to schedule calls. I log in in the morning and have twelve calls in my bucket and three of them are 200 – 300 miles away, some companies have higher priority than others, oh lets not forget even if I get your call scheduled (I do two hour windows) I might get a 4 Hour SLA Server call and then that throws my schedule out off. I contact every single customer every single day to assure them I may not get you today, but will set the appointment for the next day. We are certified on every major PC, printer and TV accounts. I work on Robots, Teleconferencing systems and more. I am retired from the military and know what hard work and stress is and believe me this line is stressful, especially if you truly care about customer service. I average 90K miles a year. I say this to the original poster: You got really bad service from your local tech. I am truly sorry for that, but don’t belittle the company or profession in whole because of a few bad techs. Believe I followed around techs in those days and know that some of them pulled games just so they could get ten calls in per day. But and the majority of techs didn’t. After all some Doctors are better than others, I promise you no matter what PC you buy, its a good chance if you need onsite repair it will be WWTS coming to fix it. Now you could by an Apple, because they don’t do onsite repair anymore (I know I was Apple certified). No use replying to my post I will not be back to check it.
I wasn’t with them for 8 years, I’m amazed I was with the WWTS sweatshop for 8 minutes.
I agre with what you say, tech field service is a serious juggling act. But making excuses doesn’t make customers happy. That’s assuming anyone is even still reading this blog, how many years ago was this thread started anyway? Over 6 years ago.
All I can say is you’re obviously very easily pleased or you’re a paid lapdog for the company. I’ve never been happier to be disconnected from anyplace.