In supporting customers recently, I’ve been getting the customer to request help using Remote Assistance. Once the customer gets the request process down (and UPNP routers are being used or a VPN is involved), it’s easy to see what they see and diagnose the problem. An attempt to do this today was foiled by the default Windows XP setup on a Dell PC. Rather than leaving the “Help and Support” option on Windows XP alone, they decided to tailor it to be Dell specific. You can get to the Remote Assistance request links from the Dell specific user interface, but try getting the average customer/user to find something like that over the phone when you’ve never seen the Dell specific screen before!
Vendor’s shouldn’t change the content/location of standard functionality items like the Help and Support screen. Adding a new menu option would be fine. A relative got a Hewlett Packard PC a few years back (Win98 timeframe) and everything was tailored to be “HP-oriented” with a gazillion applications and windows appearing when the thing was first booted. Most of these vendor supplied apps were crappy, non-standard or pushing the user to buy some more software and/or service. Vendor tailoring of the OS setup gone mad!