The ubiquitous For Dummies books and videos have a new sibling. Tech Support for Dummies, however, is neither. It’s a real-person-staffed help service.
How many of us have struggled with trying to transfer files from a digital camera to a PC, setting up a personalized firewall, or installing parental control measures on web browsing?
Have you had integration and connectivity issues when connecting a media device to your PC or network? Tech Support for Dummies promises to walk you through the maze.
Say goodbye to twiddling your thumbs over a weekend or holiday waiting for a fix-it shop to open.
Launched in July, the service is open 24/7, 365 days of the year, with technicians always available by phone. They will even help you remotely to install and configure any Internet and VoIP service.
Three companies have joined together to provide what they tout as an affordable and reliable service to make consumer electronics easier for the general public to manage. Wiley Publishing, licensor, 4D Global Partners, the sales and marketing arm, and CSS Corporation offer help whenever and wherever you need it. CSS Corporation, located in North America, Europe and Asia should be able to deliver the promised 24-hour availability.
The support services include installation, configuration, troubleshooting, upgrades, connectivity issues and basic feature support. Dummies can get support by phone, online chat or remotely to their computer. They will troubleshoot PCs and Macs, printers, smartphones, digital cameras, wireless networks, Internet, email and popular software. Service plans, pictured below, include various one-time only or on-going unlimited support with a money back guarantee.
On their website they pride themselves with vendor neutrality and independence, underscoring they don’t claim to be "approved / endorsed by any of the OEMs that we may or may not support."
Thus, they aren’t claiming to have received training from the source, such as graduating as a Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) which enables the holder to successfully troubleshoot desktop environments that run on the Windows operating system. Nor do they indicate that they have completed training as an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE).
Nonetheless, CSS has global success in the field of technical support, more than your local two-man shop can offer, and they are open on Sunday. What else could you wish for?
Put simply, you can’t but help believe in a company that began in 1991 with the legendary DOS For Dummies.
You remember DOS, the disk operating system, a version of which dominated the early PC marketplace. Well, regardless of the topic, booksellers initially thought the "For Dummies" title would insult readers.
At first, they refused to carry the helpful book with the ridiculous name. Since that rocky beginning, the Dummies brand has grown to 1,600 titles, and sold 200 million books in 30 languages with topics ranging from health to history, music to math, sports to self-help, technology to travel.
Their books cover from A ? Adopting a Pet for Dummies which helps you choose the right animal for your circumstance, and how to feed, housetrain, obedience train, and care for your pet, even if it is older or a rescue animal from a shelter; to Z ? Zoom Functions on the TI-83 Plus Graphing Calculator which contains a cheat sheet indicating how to use ZBox, ZTrig, and other functions on the drawing, financial, and probability menus.
Over the years, the Dummies business has grown to include how-to videos and articles on Dummies.com to help the consumer understand without industry jargon getting in the way, and shown them how-to-do in simple steps. In this regard, Tech Support for Dummies service promises to be yet another helping hand for the technologically challenged.
If you are feeling lucky, go to their website for a chance to win a free year of Tech Support and an Apple iPad. Tech Support for Dummies will be showing at CES in booth #35780 in the South Hall Upper Level of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
