Has Weber outsourced its customer support?

[Colin]

I've called Weber CS a couple of times in the last year and both were very positive. At least I could talk to someone.

Hey Kamado Joe, GET A DAMN PHONE!!!

 

[Michael Smotch]

I called last year, and was sent new burner tubes. She was US based somewhere. No issues

 

[JKalchik]

I have learned that for many years, Weber has used third-party call center resources to supplement the in-house support staff during peak grilling season when the call volume goes way up.

This is one of the viable use cases for ousourcing a sort of professional position. You keep your experience in-host mostly, and contract for temp front end staff.

 

[RichPB (richlife)]

I looked this one up and added it to the humor thread just for you.

Sad to say, Dan I got from the git go. I should probably post the Tennessee reading test, but it's very oral.

 

[DanHoo]

Sad to say, Dan I got from the git go. I should probably post the Tennessee reading test, but it's very oral.

Y'all should

 

[RichPB (richlife)]

Y'all should

Yeah, the more I thought about it the more I was convinced. You tripped the alarm.

 

[Chad-Burnt to a T]

Well I haven't had a reason to call weber, but we did have to call our insurance company after a derecho hit our town. Nothing professional about it. Someone working from home first call we heard barn animals the second kids being loud. I guess that's the new normal.

 

[John Keefer]

The one time I called weber support was last fall it was a positive experience.

I don't recall specifics but nothing to complain about.

well, my experience with the support people is 95% bad. they don't seem to be trained on the product most of the time I can't understand them
and you can never get the same person twice. i placed an order in March for 7 parts with model & serial number I received 2 orders neither one
complete still waiting on 1 part.

 

[Dave in KC]

Doing a bit of research on this, I've not found any info (so far) that Weber has moved customer support overseas.

I have learned that for many years, Weber has used third-party call center resources to supplement the in-house support staff during peak grilling season when the call volume goes way up.

I got the same bit of info a couple of years ago. During a call w/ a rather
chatty and generous CS rep, she said that they do have outside help
occasionally.

 

[LMichaels]

Well my last call(s) to Weber were in re to my Summit (now Jon's Summit) and while polite they were not positive. But, it's getting like the joke line: Why do I have to press 1 for English and still have someone who can't speak English? I've often wondered if Spanish speakers have the same issue? Press 2 for Spanish and they get Spanish with some weird accent?
Reminds me of a great (true) story. We have some very nice friends who are Dutch. They emigrated to the US for his job. As a treat one night my wife and I wanted to take them to a very nice local Mexican place. Well as do many Europeans they speak multiple languages fluently. So when the waiter came out my buddy, ordered first and ordered everything in perfect Spanish. Funny part was the waiter's eyes looked like saucers. The rest of us were rolling on the floor. Poor waiter had never heard anyone speak Spanish with a Dutch accent It was priceless

 

[JKalchik]

For a long running example...... I've been administering systems manufactured by @Chris Allingham 's former employer since something like 1992, and calling in for support along the way. My personal record for basic data gathering and contact with backline support is around 90 seconds, and the entire call was successfully completed in less than 10 minutes. This particular company did have follow-the-sun support as these are frequently enterprise scale with significant uptime requirements. About 15 years ago, the manufacturer started shifted front line support from the US based centers to off-shore where it's significantly cheaper. Worse, the on-site engineers lost their direct access to support staff, and had to access support data through the same front end I had to use. The last call I placed took nearly 30 minutes just to be able to collect names, addresses, serial numbers, etc., and start to transfer into support.

As long as the customer isn't driven away by this activity, it will continue. In my particular case, I've gone from data centers full of this equipment down to a single rack, and that'll be gone in the next year. There's a lot more beyond customer service in play.

 

[Chris Allingham]

We have some very nice friends who are Dutch.

As someone who half-heartedly took two years of German in high school because my friends and I thought it would be cool but should have taken Spanish instead for its usefulness...I had a chance to speak with many Dutch folks during my IT career and was always impressed at their impeccable English. Wish I had taken foreign language more seriously in school.

 

[LMichaels]

As someone who half-heartedly took two years of German in high school because my friends and I thought it would be cool but should have taken Spanish instead for its usefulness...I had a chance to speak with many Dutch folks during my IT career and was always impressed at their impeccable English. Wish I had taken foreign language more seriously in school.

Many people from western Europe speak English better than Americans do. Yeah there's an accent but I have always been amazed at how well they communicate to us. Many of them also speak multiple languages. Most of the kids we hosted from Europe as exchange students spoke at least 4 including their own. Some even more

 

[John_NJ]

My done did High School Senior year in Germany as an exchange student.

He had taken three years of French before leaving.

His German is pretty good based on what I hear from people who know.

He told me many of his fellow exchange students who had taken German language before had a more difficult time learning how to speak correctly.

Fwiw, not meaning to tread Jack.

 

[Bruce]

I spent five years of my life in the Army in Germany. I also took two years of German in Junior High. That resulted in the First and only "D" I ever got in my life. After that and the two tours in German and some significant travel in the country while I was there, I can speak about zero German today. Even back then I never tried to learn. The locals almost always were way better at english and I took the easy way out every time I could.

 

[John-NY]

well, my experience with the support people is 95% bad. they don't seem to be trained on the product most of the time I can't understand them
and you can never get the same person twice. i placed an order in March for 7 parts with model & serial number I received 2 orders neither one
complete still waiting on 1 part.

It wasn't a Cookbox was it...

 

[Fred B.]

Well I haven't had a reason to call weber, but we did have to call our insurance company after a derecho hit our town. Nothing professional about it. Someone working from home first call we heard barn animals the second kids being loud. I guess that's the new normal.

My daughter is a licensed pharmacist. Once ran a pharmacy in a large supermarket. She now works for an insurance company taking phone calls at home answering medication questions. And makes over six figures doing it. While I have my own frustrations with outsourced phone support not all of it is what you think.

BTW, had to look up what a derecho was.

 

[BFletcher]

Meanwhile at Weber...



I sometimes work from home. Some of mine and my customers most memorable meetings are ones where the cat woke from sleep and was hungry and when I thought I toggled mute and yelled "I love you" when the wife left for work.

 

[Bruno]

Weber customer service always been above and beyond to me. I personally prefer emails and photos.

 

[Bob H.]

Same here Bruce. It is bad enough when we HAVE to talk to someone under those conditions, but what about almost ALL of the spammers that call everyday are the same way.

Joan, why do you answer the spam calls?