[blindza] Re: A CALL TO A SUPPORT CENTER...
- From: "Boshoff, Deon (GP Health)" <Deon.Boshoff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2011 09:21:08 +0200
I like DELL. "quad-core thing" you said? Sounds better than "Dual" I think
it actually needs Windows 7...
Deon [G. Boshoff, BA[Stell]UDC[Potch]
WESKOPPIES HOSPITAL SWITCHBOARD
Tel: 0123199735
Mobile: 0829699571
Fax: 0123277076
Bleeper: 0123199820, code 0002
E-mail:
Deon.boshoff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx < mailto:Deon.boshoff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
-----Original Message-----
From: blindza-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:blindza-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Jacob Kruger
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 9:09 AM
To: blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blindza] Re: A CALL TO A SUPPORT CENTER...
Funny enough, when my work laptop moved over from XP to windows7, it actually
worked somewhat faster/better - they reckoned it was something to do with
targeting technology or something, but who knows, and it's a dell quad-core
thing FWIW.
Stay well
Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
'...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'
----- Original Message -----
From: Boshoff, Deon (GP Health) <mailto:Deon.Boshoff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 8:59 AM
Subject: [blindza] Re: A CALL TO A SUPPORT CENTER...
Yep, I still use Win 98 on one computer at work, XP on3 other computers and Win
2003 Server on the fith, while my back up laptop, my two desktops and my main
new HP laptop are now all running on XP, with SP2. However, can you imagine
how fast a computer which is capable of running W7, will run XP? I tell you, I
have to chain this thing down some times. The previous laptop I bought, had
Vista on, but, as it had only just enough memory, and so on, to be able to run
Vista, it was a bit slowish, so I downgraded it to XP.... Then it was working
fast!
Deon [G. Boshoff, BA[Stell]UDC[Potch]
WESKOPPIES HOSPITAL SWITCHBOARD
Tel: 0123199735
Mobile: 0829699571
Fax: 0123277076
Bleeper: 0123199820, code 0002
E-mail:
Deon.boshoff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx < mailto:Deon.boshoff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
-----Original Message-----
From: blindza-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:blindza-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Jacob Kruger
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 8:12 AM
To: blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blindza] Re: A CALL TO A SUPPORT CENTER...
I know what you mean, but I am quite happily working on 3 different OSes -
windows XP on my backup laptop, windows 7 32 bit on my work laptop, and windows
7 64 bit on my primary private desktop machine.
Either way, not too relevant, but when I speak to people like this on the
phone, and want to give them an idea of what am talking about, and if they're
using windows at all, I generally tell them to hit windows key + U, to start
narrator so at least they can get a vague idea of what a screen reader doews.
Stay well
Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
'...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'
----- Original Message -----
From: Boshoff, Deon (GP Health) <mailto:Deon.Boshoff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 7:45 AM
Subject: [blindza] A CALL TO A SUPPORT CENTER...
Well, I guess that, if one is working at some kind of "Call Centre" or "Support
Centre", or anything of that kind, all you hear the whole day, must be
COMPLAINTS, COMPLAINTS and COMPLAINTS?
Well, I usually don't do as others do, so here's my story;
About a month ago, I bought myself a new Laptop again, as I do yearly. This
time, I decided to just as well add a few bucks, and buy the best I could find.
So, I went for the HP Probook 4515s, from Hewlett Packard. What I liked about
it was it's full sized keyboard, Dual Core processor, and 4GB of RAM. As all my
experiences with Vista were not as happy as with XP up to now, I still tried
out Windows 7 on this machine. I found Windows 7 much better than Vista. B
During this period, I received a lot of support from my Planeteer friends, at
www.inclusiveplanet.com; I can still remember Surendra's, Sonu's and Avinash's
help with this, so I could at least get J11 talking a bit on my new machine,
with it's Windows 7.
Of course, through all this, NVDA could come up for me every time, so at least
I knew where I was? On Windows 7, which was completely new to me? But NVDA
doesn't have a Video Intercept driver, and this was what the problem actually
was.
But as so many of my favourite programs didn't want to work, I decided to
downgrade to Windows XP. This, I could't do myself, as the HD of the Laptop was
partitioned in such a way that my normal XP CD didn't want to boot it up. So, I
took it to a computer shop, which first made an image of my existing HD, and
then downgraded it to XP. The first problem was the audio drivers, which we
could find on the www.hp.com < http://www.hp.com> website, but still Jaws did
not want to operate correctly. And soon, all kinds of problems developed; it
would suddenly stop speaking, don't want to turn on or off, and generally kept
on hanging, whenever it felt like it. So, I repeatedly re installed XP, and
trying out all the drivers I could find on the Web.
This went on for four weeks, getting worse by the day. No one now has more
experience in installing XP than I do!
First, I need to explain that I am blind, and thus need to use a screen reader,
which reads out to me what's on the screen; otherwise, a computer is just about
useless to me. But, as I have been using these things for so long, I can
nowadays do a lot of things with a computer, as long as I can get it talking.
As far as I know, blind people actually need computers much more than sighted
people, and I can frankly, not imagine a blind person without a computer, so I
believe computers should be made accessible to the Blind. That, unfortunately,
is not always the case, as manufacturers and sellers of computers do not really
know and understand what the problem is, so most of the time, we blindies need
to adapt these things to our own good use.
So, here I was sitting with this grand portable computer, and I can't make it
work for me, leading to a lot of frustration. Many a day, I thought of just
throwing the thing against the nearest wall, and go out and buy myself a
Zo-zo-tronic, or something. I tried to find support on the HP website, but the
one link led me to the next, more useless link. I have some other HP equipment
here at work, too, so, one day, when the HP printer brought up another
unwelcome "Support" screen, which I have to click away every time, I thought of
getting on the telephone.
The tenth number I got from Enquiries; got me through to to someone I could
actually talk to, and tell her about my frustrations. She knew nothing about
screen readers, but at least listened to me, and understood my need for XP. I
think her name was Kalpana.
I told her about all the drivers I tried out, and all the funny kinds of
problems I am experiencing. I'm sure you don't want to know about it!
From what I told her, she suddenly came up with the idea of a "Recovery " CD,
and I immediately felt better, as I understood what that is. With all my other
previous computers that I bought, there came usually two CD's in the box, one
for the recovery of the OS, and the other is usually called "Drivers and
utilities". This time, with the HP, though, there were no CD's in the box; the
recovery data was all on the HD, which was partitioned into 4 parts, of which
most of the total space on the HD was hidden, so useless to me.
Kalpana then promised me, after taking down all my details, as well as the
model and serial number of the computer, that she would "Ship" the Recovery
CD's off to me, within 3 working days. And, when I enquired of her the cost it
would be to me, do you know what she said? No cost to me, can you believe it?
And, even though this was over Christmas time, it still arrived on the fourth
day! And, as soon as I came home, I tried them out, and everything worked just
fine, better than ever before. I must have installed too many wrong drivers
every time, while this CD just knew which ones to install!
So, after, for four weeks of frustration, I was coming to believe that blind
people should not buy HP products, as they seem to be less accessible to blind
people than other, cheaper makes.
However, I can, out of experience, tell you that their Customer Care, or
Support is excellent, and highly professional it must be mentioned that each
user is different, and that I had my own special needs and requirements. This
model wasn't really designed with me in mind, but the After-Service, which I
got from HP Support, made up for it, and more!
So, all you Executive ladies Reception ladies, Secretaries, go out and buy
yourself that lovely HP laptop, you're worth it, and I believe you will have
less problems with it than I had, you will just love this computer. And, all
you Visually Impaired, I can tell you, you can spend a bit of money on a decent
computer, you need it, and you also deserve it. And, remember, in South Africa,
at least, HP has a very good Support Centre.
Yes, I do believe that HP, like all other computer manufacturers and sellers,
should take more interest in accessibility, as many of your customers have
special needs, and no two persons are the same.
I also talked a bit with two gentlemen at this Support Centre, but I cannot
remember their names.
So, let me thank you guys for your curtsy and your professional behaviour
towards me during this difficult period.
And, just watch out what new HP model I will buy next year...
Prateek replied;
Great, salute to your patients and all the work-arounds that you've done with
your new laptop. In fact, if yu ask me what's the most attractive part about HP
if you have to compare it with other companion companies, i'd say is their
excellent technical support. Good that you've got your problem rectified, but i
understand, it was not so easy for you to cope with the kind of troubles you
had. I wish some day accessibility will be a part of training for technical
support staff, not just in hp, but in all the companies in the world. At least,
you can dream like this, there's no harm in dreaming.
Deon [G. Boshoff, BA[Stell]UDC[Potch]
WESKOPPIES HOSPITAL SWITCHBOARD
Tel: 0123199735
Mobile: 0829699571
Fax: 0123277076
Bleeper: 0123199820, code 0002
E-mail:
Deon.boshoff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:Deon.boshoff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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