Microsoft has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising trying to make sure Windows 10 is a success.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t spent enough time making sure its manufacturing partners send the same message.
At least, that’s what appears to be the case according to a new report from our friends at Laptop Mag.
That magazine runs an annual feature where they contact tech support from various manufacturers and pretend to be customers. The team then reviews the overall level of service received from the manufacturer.
This year, Laptop Mag got some surprising feedback: namely, the magazine encountered multiple agents who “weren’t exactly sold” on Windows 10.
Dell Doesn’t Like Windows 10
In a call with Dell on how to change the touchpad scrolling direction on an Inspiron 15 5000 that was recently upgraded to Windows 10, Laptop Mag reported that a rep named Jalvin claimed to have received a lot of calls from Windows 10 users regarding this issue. Thus, that rep recommended switching back to Windows 8.1.
Later in this same call, the Laptop Mag editor was transferred to another agent who claimed that Windows 10 had a lot of glitches.
The funny part about this whole issue with Dell? The scrolling direction problem isn’t even related to Windows 10.
HP Doesn’t Like Windows 10 Either
Laptop Mag spent 57 minutes (!) talking to HP in an effort to find out how to enable the CoolSense utility on a Pavilion x360 that had recently received the Windows 10 upgrade.
During this call, HP customer service rep “Kate” remotely took control of the customer’s computer to take a look. Kate wasn’t able to get the utility running and recommended that the customer revert back to Windows 8.1.
Kate eventually tried to perform the rollback herself, but she ultimately failed. Kate ended the call by stating that she does not recommend customers upgrade to Windows 10:
“I really don’t recommend [that] customers upgrade to Windows 10” – HP Support Agent
Lenovo Wants You to Pay $20 to Fix Windows 10 Problems
Lenovo had the weirdest experience of them all.
In a chat with Lenovo’s customer service, a Laptop Mag editor asked how to enable Cortana’s always-listening mode.
That customer service rep recommended they turn their microphone setting to “Always On”. Unfortunately, there’s no such setting in Windows 10 (Laptop Mag knew this already).
To fix this issue, the rep said that the customer needed to spend $19.99 per month on a software support program to get the answer.
Dell and HP Stand Behind Agent Recommendations
Laptop Mag later contacted the HP and Dell to see if these experiences were unique. HP and Dell both stood behind their customer service agents – but not because they hated Windows 10.
Instead, HP VP of Customer Experience Mike Nash said that the agent’s first goal is to get the PC running. Since the customer was not going to solve the problems on a Windows 10 PC, the agent justifiably recommended the next best option.
Nash later added that given the scenario, it might have been the most expeditious thing to get them back to a known good space.
You can read the full story on LaptopMag.com here: http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/support-reps-diss-windows-10
