Xbox ditches its tech support staff for volunteers rewarded with prizes

[sXeth]

https://www.polygon.com/2018/5/29/17406254/microsoft-layoffs-twitter-support-xbox-ambassadors

I have no idea what the prizes in their skinner box nightmare tournament for the volunteers, but having worked in tech support, I can't imagine its worth it.

The trade-in of actual employees for whatever random schmuck is willing to do it for free for some reason, is of course competing well with the "Replace it with an AI bot" (which they're also testing out) as trends go. But the whole paying-them-with-digital crackerjack prizes or whatever is a bit of a new twist.

The whole thing where its setup like a game or those chocolate bar sales you did in elementary school where you got tickets for every 10 boxes and entered a raffle for an actual prize seems weirdly targeted at children too, though I imagine if they were taking below employment age volunteers for this it'd raise a much bigger stink.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I'm not surprised. They seem to have ditched QA testing team for Windows 10 and are relying entirely on insiders.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

So they're cutting back on expenses, either to free up cash immediately, or for a financial report or the Xbone is dying and they need to keep it on life support long enough for a new generation to start.

 

[sXeth]

So they're cutting back on expenses, either to free up cash immediately, or for a financial report or the Xbone is dying and they need to keep it on life support long enough for a new generation to start.

Well, they're trying to float their new cloud streaming game thing.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/15/17123452/microsoft-gaming-cloud-xbox-future

Several interesting points in that is they've been picking up engine makers (Havok and Simplygon) for awhile now, and apparently want their new service on PS4. So their trajectory does seem to be stepping back from the "console war" to just investing in multi-platform digital infrastructure.

Wouldn't really surprise me. It'd be ignorant to call any of the Xboxes failures. But at the same time, they've never been able to be the top player in any of the generations they've thrown their hat in. So pulling out of the hardware space to double or triple your reach rather then hanging out only on your own patch of grass isn't the worst idea.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I've also worked in tech support and yeah there is nothing they could offer as "prizes" to make the experience worthwhile. This is an incredibly stupid idea and I foresee it ending badly. Very badly.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

So they're cutting back on expenses, either to free up cash immediately, or for a financial report or the Xbone is dying and they need to keep it on life support long enough for a new generation to start.

Well, they're trying to float their new cloud streaming game thing.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/15/17123452/microsoft-gaming-cloud-xbox-future

Several interesting points in that is they've been picking up engine makers (Havok and Simplygon) for awhile now, and apparently want their new service on PS4. So their trajectory does seem to be stepping back from the "console war" to just investing in multi-platform digital infrastructure.

Wouldn't really surprise me. It'd be ignorant to call any of the Xboxes failures. But at the same time, they've never been able to be the top player in any of the generations they've thrown their hat in. So pulling out of the hardware space to double or triple your reach rather then hanging out only on your own patch of grass isn't the worst idea.

That's actually really interesting. I guess instead of Xbone vs. PS4, Microsoft wants the Xbone to be the go-to console for streamers and youtubers and basically anyone who needs to post on social media that they're playing.

 

[bluegate]

Wouldn't mind playing Twitter Tech Support for them a couple of hours a week if they'd buy me some PS4 games 🤷

 

[tippy2k2]

Yeah, what kind of an idiot would work for free!?!?!?

*cricket noise and awkward silence

OT: I did tech support for two years (iPod if you were wondering); you could offer double my current salary and I'd say "Thanks but no Thanks". Tech Support suuuuuuuuuucks.

Although it does look like it is online only with chat or email so that wouldn't be that bad but that does seem weird that they would trust what seems like a semi-important job to a group of volunteers.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Yeah, what kind of an idiot would work for free!?!?!?

*cricket noise and awkward silence

OT: I did tech support for two years (iPod if you were wondering); you could offer double my current salary and I'd say "Thanks but no Thanks". Tech Support suuuuuuuuuucks.

Although it does look like it is online only with chat or email so that wouldn't be that bad but that does seem weird that they would trust what seems like a semi-important job to a group of volunteers.

How bad was it for you to refuse double your current salary?

OT: I'm not tech savvy, so i have no idea how hard the job actually is, but it could be interesting. Except the " prizes" thing make me think of real life lootboxes .

 

[tippy2k2]

Yeah, what kind of an idiot would work for free!?!?!?

*cricket noise and awkward silence

OT: I did tech support for two years (iPod if you were wondering); you could offer double my current salary and I'd say "Thanks but no Thanks". Tech Support suuuuuuuuuucks.

Although it does look like it is online only with chat or email so that wouldn't be that bad but that does seem weird that they would trust what seems like a semi-important job to a group of volunteers.

How bad was it for you to refuse double your current salary?

Bad enough that I wouldn't take double my salary to go back there

Granted, part of that is on me as I can't stand to be on the phone. If it were through email, a chat system, or even in person, I'd probably have enjoyed it a lot more than I did. For whatever reason, I just hate being on the phone.

But yeah, I hated that job. You get yelled at quite a lot (I don't know if it is just Apple people or I'm guessing everyone but there are a lot of people calling tech support that are just plain pissed off and have no problem with using you as a punching bag even as you are trying to help them).

If you've never worked in a call center, you wouldn't know about Metrics (and if you have worked in a call center, you likely just had a shudder go down your spine and you made the sign of the cross). Things like "You should have your call last six minutes no matter how complicated the situation is; get them off the phone at that six minute mark", "Try to sell them on the extended warranty before you fix whatever is wrong with their device", "Follow the script even though it makes you sound like someone who is very unhelpful and reading from a script" and "So help me God if your half hour lunch is thirty one minutes long..." kind of thing.

If it helps for reference as well; there were approximately twenty-five people in my training class. One year later, there were three of us remaining.

I haven't worked there in almost a decade. A common nightmare I have is that I have been fired from my current job and somehow through dream logic am required to go back to that tech center job...

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Yeah, what kind of an idiot would work for free!?!?!?

They're called interns.

 

[tippy2k2]

Yeah, what kind of an idiot would work for free!?!?!?

They're called interns.

I was trying to make a Mod joke but I guess I swung and missed on that one

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Crowd-sourcing labour now, eh? That's even worse than paying people in exclusive Microsoft vouchers. Hmm, anybody wanna volunteer to sort my garden out? I got some fruity teas and you can probably take home some chocolate bars or whatever's left at the bottom of the cupboard if I can muster enough good will before leaving on my carbon monoxide hot-box adventure.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I wonder if trolls will apply and cause trouble.