My customer support experience with Intel.
Yeah, as the title suggests this little shortish blog post is about my customer support experience with Intel. Yes, yes, I know that it might be boring or whatever, but I think it’s pretty cool and it shows how big mega-corporations can also not be dickheads, as rare as that is these days.
So recently, a couple days ago I upgraded my CPU to the i9-13900K, and resolved to also say goodbye to my years old and incredibly bloated and slow Windows 10 install, begrudgingly replacing it with a completely clean Windows 11 install, which I really didn’t want to do, but I am more or less forced to since I want to take full advantage of this unique hybrid of a CPU.
However, before I did that, I tried to tinker around with it for a bit using Intel’s overclocking software called Extreme Tuning Utility, will be referred to forwards as XTU. But when I tried to boot up the app I got some weird and nebulous “unable to start because of a system incompatibility” error, along with a few troubleshooting steps it told me to do with a few links for Intel’s own guide and some documentation, both of which I opened and proceeded to follow. To no avail.
That is where I finally decided to give up and contact Intel support. So after jumping through a bunch of hoops and having to dodge literally broken websites and being unable to login on their website because of it, I managed to somehow open a live chat with an Intel support representative who was very nice and attentive.
After briefly explaining my issue to him and having to wait for a few minutes a couple of times, he gets back to me with more information and such, upon which he asks for mine regarding some troubleshooting steps, which didn’t work. He then offers to connect remotely to my PC and check for, and gather some stuff himself, which I allow him to do. After a few minutes of that and his fixes not working either, he stops.
After that we talked back and forth for a bit more, he asked me to verify my name and phone number, which I did. And then told me that he would make a ticket on my behalf and then escalate it to higher support in hopes that maybe they can figure out what’s going on, and assures me that he will get back to me “on or before May 25th”.
But of course right after ending contact with him, the issue literally fixed itself after I had just said “screw it” and just wiped my C drive and installed a fresh copy of Windows 11 instead. While still of course verifying that the conflicting and problem causing options both in my BIOS and the OS itself were disabled, after which I downloaded XTU once again, and it worked.
The next day he emailed me back showing me some images he captured during his remote connection to my PC, and said that he had talked with their higher ups, and got back to me with some more troubleshooting steps and requesting a couple more photos of my BIOS, which I provided but also told him that the issue fixed itself right after I moved to Windows 11, but was still open to help them with the issue.
In a completely unexpected and funny twist, WHILE I was tinkering with my CPU in XTU, and having JUST emailed them my reply with their requested info, while on a voice chat with a friend I get a phone call from Sacramento California. Not going to lie I instantly put it off as a scam, but for funnies I picked up and said “Hello.”, and the moment I heard someone with a foreign accent replying back I instantly hung up thinking it indeed was a scam call or something.
However, right after doing that it dawned upon me for some reason out of nowhere that “Sacramento California”, isn’t that where Intel’s freaking HQ is or something? So googling it, I did find out that their HQ was in fact in California, but not in Sacramento, rather it was in Santa Clara which was a bit away, however a division of theirs was in Sacramento, and right after realizing that I got called back by the same number.
Picking it up again, he tells me that it in fact was Intel calling me back regarding my ticket, and it turned out to be a colleague of my pleasant support guy. Throughout that call he repeatedly told me that they were very thankful that I contacted them about the issue, because as it turned out, they happened to work in what I could assume is Intel’s software division or something, and actually worked on XTU.
And the crazy part and main reason I am writing this blog, basically what he told me is that freaking ME, SOMEHOW, managed to cause an actual god damn fuss over there, in a mega-corporation who and who’s products I use and respect quite highly. I don’t know if I come off as a dickhead or something but for some reason it just feels fucking awesome to me that not only could I have such direct contact with such a huge and influential company, but also be able to have a direct impact on their operations and be able to directly improve it, especially considering that he asked me a couple more things regarding my issue, and then proceeded to tell me that my issue was actually quite an unique one.
He then once again proceeded to thank me for bringing it to their attention, and kindly asked if they could keep my ticket open and talk to me a bit more about that issue because they really valued my input, and their product XTU, and wanted to make sure it was better able to serve me and other customers. Both of which I more than happily agreed to needless to say. After that call we exchanged a couple more emails, where the former support guy told me to allow them about a week’s time to conduct more research and then get back to me, saying they will do it “on or before May 29th”.
So yeah, and that’s where it ends currently, I offered my full support and cooperation with their issue. I understand that this is a 110% some nerd type blog post, but I still think it’s a pretty cool and interesting read, as well as like I mentioned in the header, serve as a reminder that not every mega-corpo out there are dickheads, at least not entirely. Will update this post with more details if they turn out to be cool, looking quite forward to interacting with them again not going to lie. Again, it’s not every day where you get to have such a direct contact with a giant and influential company that you value and respect like Intel, much less get told that you actually managed to cause a bit of a fuss internally haha!
Update May 23rd: Intel finally got back to me about their investigation, and here’s what they said:
”Hello Pearu,
Thank you so much for waiting, Pearu.
First of all, your report truly helped us with the investigation, and we confirmed that the troubleshooting you did confirm the solution you've found.
Also, I would like to inform you that our team relayed this to me approximately at the end of the month of June: there will be an update for the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. For now, I would like you to wait for the official release and stay tuned for any updates from our Intel Newsroom, and constantly check our Intel download center for the tool.
Once again, the information you've provided has greatly contributed to the investigation and the release of the update.
Please be advised, you may receive an invitation to take a survey in a few days. We value your feedback and look forward to hearing about your support experience.
Once again, thank you for contacting Intel Customer Support via chat. I'll close the case now. If you need assistance with your Intel products or devices in the future, please contact us and we will assist you as best we can! I look forward to speaking with you again soon.
Best regards,
God damn! I guess the upcoming update to the XTU software to fix that bug, will have me as a major contributor hahaha! Without even really trying, all I managed to do was brick the thing after I upgraded my CPU, and then it fixed itself soon afterwards. And then have a brief and pleasant conversation with them about it. It was genuinely a huge breath of fresh air to see, let alone be able to speak with such a massive company on such a personal level, and be able to witness myself as to how serious and passionate those people were about their jobs in keeping XTU reliable and free of issues for customers like me, big ups to Intel!
