By Dan Baldwin,
As more and more businesses allow their employees to "work at home" out of necessity or convenience, more and more businesses are discovering the pain and expense of providing their remote workers with decent computer "help-desk" support.
In order to keep their FiOS residential customers from switching to their cable Internet competitors, Verizon is offering their "Premium Technical Support" service to any FiOS residential customer that needs "help desk" computer PC support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Unlimited PC & Mac "Help Desk" Support 24/7 for Under $15 per Month
This is an absolute screaming deal for any business with a "work at home" employee that they need to provide PC help desk support for. I actually signed up for this service myself and can personally vouch for how well it works.
While there might be many other things to hate about Verizon, there's really nothing but "good" about their "Premium Technical Support" service. Whenever I've got a computer problem I call 866-785-8145 and a human answers the phone. They confirm I'm a customer, assign a trouble ticket and then pass me onto a technician.
The technician asks a couple questions and then gets me to allow him or her to log into my computer at http://expert.verizon.com/. A couple minutes later the technician to "fixing my computer" via remote log-in while I'm reading a magazine.
Supporting Your Existing Business IT Support Staff
I would not recommend that any business fire their existing IT support people or contractors after signing up for Verizon's premium technical support service, but it certainly makes economic sense to have the subscription as a "call these people first with your home computer problems" option to free up your existing IT support staff to work on bigger challenges of your computers at your office.
When I received my "welcome" email to the service the following items were confirmed to be included:
- An unlimited number of technical support calls
- Around-the-clock support, including weekends and holidays
- Virus/Spyware removal tools and assistance
- Assistance with home or small business network configuration
- Firewall support assistance and guidance
- General system troubleshooting
- Support for your PC and many other electronic items you own:
- All your other personal PCs or laptops
- Digital Cameras, MP3 players, Game Systems
- And More! *** If served by your Verizon connection.***
The unlimited service is $14.99 per month. The term is 10 months with a $59 early termination fee. Click here to read the full terms of service. One time support is $89.00 for residential customers and $109.99 for business customers. The "unlimited" service is not available for business customers.
More Information About this Service
Following are other links for this service if you need to check it out:
Service Introduction Press Release
Is This IT Solution Right For Your Business?
Many factors obviously need to be considered before making any change to IT policies and procedures for your business computers and the remote support of your "work at home" employees including but not limited to:
1. What documentation is created for any changes the Verizon technicians make on the computer while "fixing it"
2. How is any proprietary company information or data protected while the Verizon technician is logged onto the employee's at-home computer
If the price seems right for this service but you've got some concerns, give us a call.
We're in the business of helping our customers solve their communications technology challenges whether it's in their corporate office or their home office. We'll share what other customers are doing to solve similar problems and refer you to IT solutions partners that we trust to recommend to our other customers.
Looking for a Southern California based, vendor neutral business communications technology service expert that can help you out with your multi-location telecom or data network problems?
Click here to learn about how we might be able to fix your problem for free, then contact me directly at 951-251-5155 or [email protected].
BaldwinTel helps multi-location businesses across the United States but specializes Southern California especially San Diego County, Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County.
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