@Helen427
Helen you don't know where these people are based.
A company......lets say Airbnb, will outsource their support to companies that specialize in support roles.
They in turn advertise for people with expertise to fulfill these roles. They invite likely candidates through places like the CC, Airbnbhell and other sites and put them through a brief aptitude and experience test to become support personnel.
I know, I have been there!
These people become part of a world wide hook-up, but they are not employees.....they do not hop in the car and go to work in the company office each day, they just get up in the morning pour themselves a bowl of cornflakes, turn on the computer and get to work from the comfort of their homes!
They can be based literally anywhere on earth and their knowledge of the company is directly proportionate to their experience with it. Some will be great, some will be downright awful!
You have the professionals that will employ dozens of people to answer questions for which they as principals will be paid handsomely and yet provide a pittance to those who have actually undertaken the work!
Helen, support is a seedy game, and that is precisely why we are seeing so many issues with it here on the CC. Support is not there to help the user, it is there to underpin Airbnb's profits.
The first level of support is right here, the CC! The community Centre is outsources to a company called 'Standing on Giants'! ........SOG is a British company who act as liaison for a number of world wide institutions like Tesco Bank, RAC, Utilita power, E.ON and they act as the first level of support. They do a great job in that many user issues are resolved right here on the CC without having to be passed on to a higher level of support. I saw figures that said 69% of user issues were solved by Standing on Giants intervention. That is a worthwhile plus for Airbnb.
After that we have phone support which is sourced out to Arise Virtual Solutions and you have email support which is outsourced to a company called Directly!
Support is not what you think it is and that is why I continually bang on about taking care of your business so as not to involve support. Be the master of your own destiny, not leave it up to some call centre in Bangladesh or Nigeria, or outer Mongolia!
Cheers........Rob