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ot/ fluke sucks now

tnmgcarbide

tnmgcarbide

Diamond
Joined
Jul 6, 2004
Location
N. GA- 33.992N , -83.72W usa
called the tech support line.... the dumbshit told me
i should take my meter to a service station. how in the
world is that tech support? i asked if he could just
tell me how to take out the board to clean the switch? i took out all the fasteners.it's out of spec.

it's a mystery.but i don't want to destroy my meter.
sure, my keithley is nicer, but it also plugs into the
freekin' wall. that's what happens when corporate
nonsense infects us.

too bad .

fluke used to be cool.

there was a time when you'd call a tech company, and
some geeky dude knew all about your problem a hundred
times over. his name was tim , or joey or whatever...
 
I think in all fairness its like asking a car dealship how do I change my timing belt.
Theres a point where they will help and a point that you need to bring it in, 99.9% of people today cant even check the oil in the car.
Im sure you are capable but they dont know that and are not in the buisiness of doing repairs on the phone.
 
model 111 .

i would never go near a car dealership to fix anything. little old ladies and rich assholes with money to burn get their car fixed at the dealer or pep-boys or some other turd garage. . i have spoken
to fluke people 10+ years ago and they were helpful
and professional. the company changed hands. that's it.they don't want to care . just a name.


the point is that "tech support" used to be an educated tradesman, not someone who just answered the phone.
 
I agree....but I gave up on any sort of phone support years ago.

Then, too, I always try to put myself in the other guys' shoes (no one does that anymore, either). Look at it from the manufacturer's standpoint...."I'm gonna hire someone smart - which means benefits and high pay - to sit behind a desk all day fielding calls from a nation of dumbasses. Day after day after day. He's going to hand out advice that might or might not be correct (since he doesn't actually have the meter in his hands) to people who more than likely won't follow it, or even worse get pissy and be rude to the guy. Almost all of the problems they call in with will have been the result of doing stupid shit, too, over which I have no control. None of this will affect my bottom line, so it's all 'wasted' money that would otherwise be called 'profit'."

It's easy to see why support has gone the way of the dodo.

Keep in mind, before you tell me indignantly that you're not a dumbass, that 99% of the people who call in will be dumbasses. so while you, per se, are not a dumbass, you are part of a group - callers - who are 99% dumbasses.
 
tnmgcarbide said:
model 111 .



i would never go near a car dealership to fix anything. little old ladies and rich assholes with money to burn get their car fixed at the dealer or pep-boys or some other turd garage. . i have spoken
to fluke people 10+ years ago and they were helpful
and professional. the company changed hands. that's it.they don't want to care . just a name.


the point is that "tech support" used to be an educated tradesman, not someone who just answered the phone.
Click to expand...

Well you called Fluke not a repair shop.
They are the dealer!
 
redlee said:
I think in all fairness its like asking a car dealship how do I change my timing belt.
Theres a point where they will help and a point that you need to bring it in, 99.9% of people today cant even check the oil in the car.
Im sure you are capable but they dont know that and are not in the buisiness of doing repairs on the phone.
Click to expand...


Someone purchases a "top of the line" electronic meter to service and repair electronics, said meter manufacturer expects owner to not work on meter but rather pay them to........

I have a couple Flukes including an 87, I will likely never purchase another one. There are comparable cheaper meters out there and way higher end ones also.
 
Keep in mind, before you tell me indignantly that you're not a dumbass, that 99% of the people who call in will be dumbasses. so while you, per se, are not a dumbass, you are part of a group - callers - who are 99% dumbasses.

i just said they used to be a good company.

if i call ps audio, i can speak to an engineer who designed my preamp , and he'll say.... change the dip-switch or the capacitor needs to be changed.. not

'call somebody else"
.
 
It really comes down to profitability.

On one hand, it could be argued that 'greed' is the driving force, and in many cases it is. Choose any cell phone company or any of the big software makers - pure greed.

On the other hand, it could be that the company would otherwise go belly up if they ran the place like it was 1975...it's a different world now, like it or not.

I always like to think you can look at the house, and car, owned by the head of the company and you can get a pretty good guess as to which category they fall into.

Also....imagine you were a guy with experience and smarts and knew meters inside and out, as well as their applications. Would you really want to sit on your ass 8 hours a day talking to fools? There are precious few people alive that fit that bill.
 
I think this is typical of most everything today. "Tech" support is manned by call center operators who have just enough training to read the script. Number one answer is "Send it in" or "bring it to a service center".

Years ago I had one of their older side-key DMMs develop dark spots on the LCD display. I called tech service and bought a new display along with a new "tiger stripe" conductive elastomer connector. The person on the phone gave a rundown on the replacement process. Won't happen today.
 
A lot here on why a company does not want to have a tech. on call. My answer to those reasons is that if it is a well designed product that is properly made, then there would be very few calls and those calls could be routed to the actual design engineers. That is a win, win, win. The customer wins. The company wins because they have a quality product. And the design engineers win because they NEED the feedback on what the actual problems are.

But precious few bean counters can appreciate this. So we have shit products that are not supported and the company goes down the tubes after a suitable period. And the CEO, the directors, and that bean counter are just scratching their heads without a clue about why.
 
that's the thing . fluke, tektronix ,accurite, mitutoyo, should ,be well beyond reproach. they are (were)the big names that we respect, and rightly so. they make(made) the good stuff.it just sucks when they get dumbed down to we don't know whow(whom) to trust.
 
tnmgcarbide said:
model 111 .

i would never go near a car dealership to fix anything. little old ladies and rich assholes with money to burn get their car fixed at the dealer or pep-boys or some other turd garage. . i have spoken
to fluke people 10+ years ago and they were helpful
and professional. the company changed hands. that's it.they don't want to care . just a name.


the point is that "tech support" used to be an educated tradesman, not someone who just answered the phone.
Click to expand...


They'd rather sell you a 115 for 165 bucks. I love flukes (I have an 87-V, and an 8022B). Fell in love with them in Germany in 1980, when I dropped one when walking an i-beam 10 meters above a concrete slab. Think it was an 8021. Worked perfect: no damage. Sigh.

I think these days "tech support" is more youtube videos than what the company provides.
 
Glug said:
Fluke was bought by Danaher in 1998. Their specialty is buying quality companies, extracting all the money, and then off-shoring everything. Their brown thumb ruins all that they touch, and the list is all too long.


Fluke Corporation - Wikipedia
Danaher Corporation - Wikipedia
Click to expand...

Yep, I just googled it -- as part of Apex tool group now (I thought the name Danaher looked familiar) all owned by Bain Capital now. Which is owned by Mitt Romney last I checked. Its really really depressing to see all the great old names destroyed slowly from within like this... take a look at all the other brand names they own...

FWIW I've completely boycotted them for a long time now... most of my stuff was used when I bought it, and made in USA.
 
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