What is up with the product questions?

[chrestomanci]

What is up with product questions?

Most product pages on the scan website have 'Submit Question' and 'Submit Solution' buttons. In the past I used these and the questions or answers appeared fairly soon on the product page.

Recently, when I have asked questions, they have disappeared into a black hole never to been seen again. What is going on?

The questions are genuine product related stuff eg what is the weight of a laptop? how long is a cable etc.

[itswesty]

Yep, I have the same problem, I submitted a question about a motherboard and received no reply, this was a fortnight ago. Oh well.

[ChrisP]

The Knowledge base system is for information you already have about a product, confirming the weight of an item or cable length wouldn’t be acceptable product knowledge as this information is readily available for either our site or the manufacturer’s site.

If you have a query about a product the system you need to use would be http://web6.scan.co.uk/Support/Query.ASP?QueryType=S or our forum.

[ExceededGoku]

I have posted helpful info before and it has not shown up, so I don't bother any more... It's not really that important anyway

[Lee @ SCAN]

The knowledge base is really designed for the issues that arise with incompatability issues and known "updates" you need to do to get items working correctly rather than just generic does "X" work with "Y" questions which the OLQ system was designed for.

I hope this information helps

[JohnS]

Firstly Thanks to Matt for relocating my login details.
Right to business..... to explain the Knowledge base as it stands against our OLQ (Online Query) system.

Prior to January this year the KB was unsure where it was headed and what use it had it was a very confused Knowledge and was making the products seem untidy with stacks of KB entries that really shouldnt be attached to the product. January came and with it a new year and a new KB, the database was reset and the decision was made that only "Product specific Questions relating to Products in a technical fault/configuration/Driver/BIOS support manner and hopefully, were possible, the resolve to fix the issue" would be authorised, it is after all designed to help customers fix any issue that we have been made aware of without the need of one to one support or (Where possible) fixing the issue prior to a return.

The types of issues that make it onto the product and give a bonus point for content are KB entry's such as

Question Board X:
When installing windows onto a mirror *or* a stripe the board and operating system work fine but when using a stripe and mirror the Raid fails.

Answer:
The BIOS needs to be updated to rectify the issue and will allow a mixed raid, the BIOS and the release notes can be found here: WWW.Download_me_here.com

This is a knowledge base style entry that offers a fault and fix directly related to the product and any customer with that board wanting to used a striped mirror will now be free to do so without spending time and money on support calls.

Question NF7 DDR400 Firewire USB 2.0 AGP NForce 2:
Will this work under Linux kernel 2.2.26 with all my other modules? will all dependencies be met?

This is not a Valid KB entry neither would "Does this work with my 3210 mobile or my Nokia 6260"

Compatibility as in will A work with B is a standard Sales/Product question
Does it come with this and that is once again a product question and would be best answered via an OLQ in the support section as these are answered directly to your mailbox and do not need to be authorised to the website clogging products with questions that more than likely nobody will need to know or would likely ask about again.

With faults that are not product specific i.e My system bought as scan parts powers but does not give a display which could be any one of the main components and is quite a regularly reported fault would need to go into the Returns/Technical OLQ system so we can do diagnostics with yourselves via the OLQ system as the KB only puts the Question to the website/product and allows for an answer.

The OLQ system can be located under the support section of our site
http://web6.scan.co.uk/Support/index.asp

The options available are:

Sales Queries
Need some information about our products? Whether your requirements are retail or corporate, our pre sales technical team are at hand to answer your query...

Technical Queries
Having technical issues with components bought from us? Contact our team for assistance on any hardware related issues you may have...

Customer Service Queries
Contact our team for any non-technical service queries such as order tracking and amendments, courier issues, damaged or wrong parts and general Information...

Returns Queries
Need info relating to a return of parts? Here you can log a query to obtain assistance in the issuing and processing of returned items.


Knowledge Base
The Scan Knowledge Base, a new technically-driven database service designed to share knowledge on product problems and solutions.

As you can see the support section offers many solutions depending on what it is that you are after as well as parcel tracking returns tracking my account and others and a description of what each one is for.

I have tried to be as informative as i can as to the KB and how its intended *But* if i have removed a question from the KB pool that you feel was valid and shouldnt have been deleted with the above content in mind then please resubmit the question with **Hexus** at the beginning and i shall have another look at it after all "to error is human"

If you have any other questions or points on the Knowledge base then feel free to reply (no doubt youll dissect my post in true forum fashion) and ill do my best to help answer/rectify the issue.

Peace out

[chrestomanci]

In the past I have asked questions where I wanted to know, and I thought the information should be part of the description or specification provided by Scan.

For example the weight of a laptop, Yes that information might be on the manufacturer's website, but often it is not, and there are often many different varants with differing specs. As you (scan) obviously fill out the description pages by copy pasting from the manufacturer's spec sheet, if it is not on the description page, the chances are it is not easy to find. meanwhile You have a stack of them in your warehouse, so you can obviously answer the question by opening a box and weighing one.

In the case of other scan branded products, yours is the manufacturer's website, and there is no other source of information. I was asking questions via the knowledge base, as I thought it fairer on scan and other customers, than to bother telephone support when it is not urgent, and no one else will see the answer. If there is another channel where I can report omissions from the product description, and request that the information be included then I will use it.

[ChrisP]

I was asking questions via the knowledge base, as I thought it fairer on scan and other customers, than to bother telephone support when it is not urgent, and no one else will see the answer .

The knowledge based system is available for consumers to “Provide Knowledge”, ( John's post) " Product Information" is available through the info link. If a question is being asked then you are not providing information therefore the KB system would unsuitable.

The best and quickest way of getting a reply to a question would be the OLQ system this will be transferred directly to the sales dept and can be replied to via E-mail, if the info is missing this can then be updated immediately and displayed in the Product Information.

So you can obviously answer the question by opening a box and weighing one

This is not the case as we cannot open sealed units just to weigh the item. If the requested information is not available on the manufacturer’s site then we can contact the manufacturer directly for you.

If there is another channel where I can report omissions from the product description, and request that the information be included then I will use it.

The OLQ system can be used; if required we can create new fields for any products information.

Hope this clears any confusion up about, which system to use.

Regards