March 28, 2010

Tech support as it should be done - MSI

From The Register:
MSI tells 97,000 customers to 'Read The F***ing Manual'
Late last week, global hardware manufacturer MSI informed the over 97,000 people registered with its support forums that its reps were "fed up" with repeating information easily found in user manuals. The company even went so far as to say that it had installed an "RTFM" chip on its hardware boards to determine whether users had read their manuals and that anyone who hadn't read them would be banned from support.
A bit more:
"The MSI-forum and MSI-support team are fed-up with explaining you what can be found in the manual," read an email message from the support team, which apparently went to every person registered for the company's support forums, including customers, vendors, and press. "I mean, come on, how hard is it to read a manual? They are printed on paper so you see them."

The so-called RTFM chip, the email went on to say, had been monitoring the behavior of users for "some time."
Wonderful -- but unfortunately:
The email went out on March 25, and the company's support team now says it was an April Fools' joke. "We are sorry people took this for prank for serious [sic]," reads a forum post and email message from the company's support team head. "We thought of this prank after answering the many posts where people ask the obvious that is already in the manual.
Posted by DaveH at March 28, 2010 6:33 PM