Bad Idea to Outsource MSP Support India Offshore

[markz]

Oh, how Comodo “Itarian” MSP support has fallen. No more Romania support for Level 1 but a lackluster inexperienced team of offshore support located in India that has no customer service skills at all.

I had a call yesterday with a “Silvia” from India that was the worst experience I ever had with Comodo “Itarian” MSP Support. Months ago and I would immediately get a very well informed and charismatic Romanian answering the phone. But things have changed for the worse.

Silvia spoke to me politely at first asking my information. I had a difficult time understanding her but I tried my best. As the call progressed I gave her my info to triage me. Her accent was so thick & heavy I had a hard time understanding her spoken English but I ignored that as I wanted assistance. As the call went on I kept hearing her breathing, it was astonishingly loud into the microphone. With every word she spoke there was a loud breathing sound as if she was exhausted. Similar to when you talk on the phone and you have your mouth so close to the receiver that it causes it to fog up! Like that. I asked her repeatedly to lower her volume or adjust her mic so I could hear her clearly but it just continued like this for the complete call.

She then asked me for my email address for the 1st time which I was happy to provide. And then a 2nd time. And then a 3rd time. And then a 4th time. I answered each time but she kept repeating it incorrectly back. Wow, I was getting worried now that there was a lack of understanding. She then finally figured it out after the 4th try!

After being completely frustrated I requested for either a supervisor or a tech from Romania. She then proceeded to tell me none were available immediately. Without even a thought or a pause, she replied back as if she did not want to think about it. She then asked me for the 2nd time why I wanted a manager. I told her why politely and then requested one a 2nd time, then a 3rd time, then a 4th time.

After the 4th request and being refused, she then suddenly said, “I’m sorry I can’t hear you, if you don’t respond I will need to hang up the call.”. I replied back frantically as I was there and she then hung up on me 2 seconds later.

I then called back a few minutes later and guess what it was Silvia again! I told her I called back and was hung up on and she had no comment but she did ask me for my info again including my email address! I thought to myself silently are you serious? I thought I just gave it to her a few minutes ago. So I then asked her promptly for a manager, “I would like to request a Supervisor”

Well, I then was refused the manager again with an excuse that they were not available so I told her I would wait. I waited for 5 minutes and then “Andy” came on the line. Andy from Romania as he stated was Level 2 support.

I told him about this ‘musical chair’ performance Silvia put me through and how terrible it was and he was very nonchalant and unsupportive in my complaint. I asked him what happened and why it was so difficult to get a hold of a manager and he said he was not sure why and would followup with Silvia. I then told him that due to this bad experience that others should be aware of it and post it on the forum. Well, Andy replied that it would be unnecessary & would not get me any results. I then told him that the only way this behavior will change is if others know about it and speak up.

Andy’s response could have been more professional and caring as we MSPs are the reason Comodo “Itarian” is there. It seems as if Comodo or maybe there known name “Itarian” has lost a sense of customer service and is not putting customers first at all when it comes to MSP Phone support. It is a shame as they have now turned their model of unlimited free endpoints to a paid service over 50 endpoints. I understand they need to turn a profit so good them… but if you are going to start charging for licenses then provide better Level 1 support for those that stay with you. This just makes us want to jump ship.

This problem is noted more eloquently in this article by Forbes linked below where they state “The underlying message was that the company you buy from doesn’t care enough to invest much in responding to you.”.

Forbes.com, Call Centers Return To The U.S. – More Companies Get The Link Between Customer Service And Profit, by Thomas Dichter

I expect & know Comodo aka “Itarian” will be reading this post and hope this helps alleviate this problem for future MSPs. If any other MSPs have experienced this new offshore Level 1 support issue please comment here as I would like to know your thoughts.

Example of typical Offshore Call Center

Sincerely, Mark

[ItarianJoe]

@markz

Oh, how Comodo “Itarian” MSP support has fallen. No more Romania support for Level 1 but a lackluster inexperienced team of offshore support located in India that has no customer service skills at all.

I had a call yesterday with a “Silvia” from India that was the worst experience I ever had with Comodo “Itarian” MSP Support. Months ago and I would immediately get a very well informed and charismatic Romanian answering the phone. But things have changed for the worse.

Silvia spoke to me politely at first asking my information. I had a difficult time understanding her but I tried my best. As the call progressed I gave her my info to triage me. Her accent was so thick & heavy I had a hard time understanding her spoken English but I ignored that as I wanted assistance. As the call went on I kept hearing her breathing, it was astonishingly loud into the microphone. With every word she spoke there was a loud breathing sound as if she was exhausted. Similar to when you talk on the phone and you have your mouth so close to the receiver that it causes it to fog up! Like that. I asked her repeatedly to lower her volume or adjust her mic so I could hear her clearly but it just continued like this for the complete call.

She then asked me for my email address for the 1st time which I was happy to provide. And then a 2nd time. And then a 3rd time. And then a 4th time. I answered each time but she kept repeating it incorrectly back. Wow, I was getting worried now that there was a lack of understanding. She then finally figured it out after the 4th try!

After being completely frustrated I requested for either a supervisor or a tech from Romania. She then proceeded to tell me none were available immediately. Without even a thought or a pause, she replied back as if she did not want to think about it. She then asked me for the 2nd time why I wanted a manager. I told her why politely and then requested one a 2nd time, then a 3rd time, then a 4th time.

After the 4th request and being refused, she then suddenly said, “I’m sorry I can’t hear you, if you don’t respond I will need to hang up the call.”. I replied back frantically as I was there and she then hung up on me 2 seconds later.

I then called back a few minutes later and guess what it was Silvia again! I told her I called back and was hung up on and she had no comment but she did ask me for my info again including my email address! I thought to myself silently are you serious? I thought I just gave it to her a few minutes ago. So I then asked her promptly for a manager, “I would like to request a Supervisor”

Well, I then was refused the manager again with an excuse that they were not available so I told her I would wait. I waited for 5 minutes and then “Andy” came on the line. Andy from Romania as he stated was Level 2 support.

I told him about this ‘musical chair’ performance Silvia put me through and how terrible it was and he was very nonchalant and unsupportive in my complaint. I asked him what happened and why it was so difficult to get a hold of a manager and he said he was not sure why and would followup with Silvia. I then told him that due to this bad experience that others should be aware of it and post it on the forum. Well, Andy replied that it would be unnecessary & would not get me any results. I then told him that the only way this behavior will change is if others know about it and speak up.

Andy’s response could have been more professional and caring as we MSPs are the reason Comodo “Itarian” is there. It seems as if Comodo or maybe there known name “Itarian” has lost a sense of customer service and is not putting customers first at all when it comes to MSP Phone support. It is a shame as they have now turned their model of unlimited free endpoints to a paid service over 50 endpoints. I understand they need to turn a profit so good them… but if you are going to start charging for licenses then provide better Level 1 support for those that stay with you. This just makes us want to jump ship.

This problem is noted more eloquently in this article by Forbes linked below where they state “The underlying message was that the company you buy from doesn’t care enough to invest much in responding to you.”.

Forbes.com, Call Centers Return To The U.S. – More Companies Get The Link Between Customer Service And Profit, by Thomas Dichter

I expect & know Comodo aka “Itarian” will be reading this post and hope this helps alleviate this problem for future MSPs. If any other MSPs have experienced this new offshore Level 1 support issue please comment here as I would like to know your thoughts.

Example of typical Offshore Call Center

Sincerely, Mark

@markz Good evening Mark. After reading through your post I would have to agree that is not up to the standards we are trying to provide here on a support level with Itarian. Though this is not the best feed back, I will say there has been positive feedback and even from my own personal experience working for Itarian/Comodo it is certainly better from where we were even 3 months ago. Is it where we it needs to be? Not according to your post and this is the type of feedback that will only make us stronger and provide the level of support and assistance our customer base deserves.

Mark I am not in support but am one of the partner success managers here and if buttons needs to be pushed or issues need to be escalated that what I can provide. Please at anytime feel free to contact me via email joseph.jaghab@itarian.com with your ticket number or any other questions/concerns on products you may have.

[nct]

@melih you may want to investigate.

[melih]

@nct

@melih you may want to investigate.

Already started. we have to have for ITARIAN FANATICAL TECHNICAL SUPPORT department! That is what we are striving for! We are all here trying to help our partners (MSPs)!

[inspiratechnologygro]

We too have had issues with Itarian support. It takes forever to get a decent response out of them. Thankfully our partner success manager (Joseph) is brilliant and always gets things moving after once he’s alerted to an issue.

But ultimately, he shouldn’t have to. It’s not fair on him that he’s having to constantly chase the support team on our behalf. The level of skill in 1st Line is very, very low (which it shouldn’t be given the fact that the core customer here is an MSP who will more than likely have carried out their own ‘1st line’ troubleshooting.)

[scorsale]

I would like to address the situation that occurred a few evenings ago with @markz and the recent experience with Support. First of all, as the head of Customer Success for Comodo, I would like to apologize for your poor experience. It is not the customer experience we are striving for, from any of our Support teams. I have reviewed the calls and logs from that evening, and I am aware of what you went through. I am currently in the process of handling the situation with my Support team managers.

While some customers may not have a positive perception of a region of the world where a team may be located, I can assure you that our Support teams (both Comodo and ITarian) have always been made up of international agents. They have been well-trained and continually participate in advanced training during their time in Support, no matter the region. Our Comodo and ITarian Support teams are dedicated to assisting our customers through any issue they may be having with our products and providing the best possible experience. However, there could possibly be an off day or a particularly difficult issue or situation which could lead to less than acceptable circumstances at any time. Of course, we are constantly striving to eliminate that outcome.

In the situation discussed above, the call to Support by @markz was for a question with the new license pricing. While this is a valid question to ask an organization, Support unfortunately does not have that information. This is a discussion that needs to happen with our sales teams. I think it added insult to injury as after all this interaction with Support, he did not get the answer he was looking for in the first place. That never makes for a good experience and I am sure that really added more negativity to the situation.

@markz - We appreciate you being a customer and it is my promise as well as the rest of our teams to keep striving for more – a better customer experience along with faster resolution times. Thank you for your feedback as it has and will continue to help us improve. We look forward to assisting you again and showing that one bad experience does not define an organization.