{"id":1541,"date":"2017-06-24T03:37:25","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T03:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ber10thal.com\/blog\/?p=1541"},"modified":"2017-06-24T03:38:13","modified_gmt":"2017-06-24T03:38:13","slug":"cisco-the-worst-pre-sale-support-ive-ever-had","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/cisco-the-worst-pre-sale-support-ive-ever-had\/","title":{"rendered":"Cisco the worst pre-sale &#8220;support&#8221; I&#8217;ve ever had"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We needed to\u00a0replace our aging small business router.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/KR12120-600x400.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1545\" src=\"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/KR12120-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"kr12120-600x400\" width=\"282\" height=\"115\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/KR12120-600x400.jpg 591w, https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/KR12120-600x400-300x122.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 282px) 100vw, 282px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I called pre-sales support to get information on a router we wanted. I told them I had a pre-sales technical question. I wanted to know if the new\u00a0router had this functionality\u00a0the old one had. They said I could be connected to someone, but they needed information first. Name, \u00a0business name and email. They also wanted to know, when I would be making this purchase, how much I would be purchasing and what my future purchases were going to be. I provided this information and I was told it would be between 3-5 days to get a call back from someone that could help.<\/p>\n<p>For reference, four years earlier when I originally bought the equipment I was able to speak to someone that had a technical background right away and it was very helpful and reassuring.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/excited.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1547\" src=\"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/excited.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0246\" width=\"168\" height=\"182\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nThree days pass and I get a call from Cisco, I&#8217;m excited, because we need to make this purchase. It&#8217;s the same woman, she wants my business address. I was hesitant to provide this because I have a home office, but I provided it. I confirmed that my information would not be given or sold to a 3rd party.<\/p>\n<p>Four days pass, I realize that I don&#8217;t have a reference number, so if I have to call back I couldn&#8217;t reference my earlier call. I decide to call on the fourth day to see if I&#8217;m still in the waiting queue to get a call back. I bounced around in the phone system and finally got someone. I gave them my information, but they had a hard time finding my records. Finally they found it and said i was still in the queue for a call and that he wanted to help me.<a href=\"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/calvin-reading-writing-confused.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1548\" src=\"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/calvin-reading-writing-confused.jpg\" alt=\"calvin-reading-writing-confused\" width=\"178\" height=\"230\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I asked about protocols and features of a couple different routers. Not being technical he looked at the same spec pages and read me the same information I had access to. We settled on one that seemed to have everything I needed. He also said that we should still confirm this with someone technical and they he would expedite my call to next day.<\/p>\n<p>I waited a day and finally without getting a call back and not wanting to call Cisco for a third time made the purchase. Very shortly after receiving the router I realized it wasn&#8217;t\u00a0going to suit our needs. I had been given bad information. In frustration I started the search again. This time I decided to try Cisco&#8217;s chat support.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/frustration2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1544\" src=\"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/frustration2.jpg\" alt=\"frustration2\" width=\"234\" height=\"260\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I was connected almost immediately. They seemed pleasant and asked how they could help. I distilled my question down to two short sentences. They said that they could get me an answer. I was thrilled. However, first I had to give them some information. Company name, and email. I provided this and they made it seem like I was finally going to get an answer. They came back to the chat after a short period and told me first they had to get more information before we could proceed. When I was I going to make this purchase. How many units I needed. What equipment in the future will I need to be purchasing. I&#8217;m fuming mad at this point. I told them I only need one router to replace our existing one. I explained that I had gone through this before, gave all my information answered all their questions and never got a call back or any answers after going through this exact process. That&#8217;s when I was disconnected from chat.<\/p>\n<p>Even writing this now I&#8217;m still pissed about this. I still have to send back this unit and will incur shipping costs. I&#8217;ll never, ever attempt to buy anything from Cisco again after this experience. I will not recommend it and I will make every attempt to purchase equipment from any other company other then Cisco.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We needed to\u00a0replace our aging small business router. I called pre-sales support to get information on a router we wanted. I told them I had a pre-sales technical question. I wanted to know if the new\u00a0router had this functionality\u00a0the old one had. They said I could be connected to someone, but they needed information first. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/cisco-the-worst-pre-sale-support-ive-ever-had\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Cisco the worst pre-sale &#8220;support&#8221; I&#8217;ve ever had<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1541"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1551,"href":"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1541\/revisions\/1551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ber10thal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}