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Oh, and another thought: considering that the only technical test (other than the automated online one I took when I applied) that Stream gave me during my interview was to open notepad, save a file to the desktop, then copy it from there to a disk, I think the reason they treat people as untrainable is because they don't have any technical troubleshooting skills in the first place, and thus shouldn't have been hired there.

My old workplace aggressively banned game sites and various diversions, but for some reason Slashdot was never banned. I suspect the IT staff also browsed it on a constant basis and wouldn't let it happen ;^)

When I was working at Stream (a tech support outsourcer), in the beginning about three years ago, we had a Verisign call center. That always struck me as kind of odd, because it was the only contract that had to be cut off from the rest of the building, i.e., the others had windows to the "main hall" whereas the Verisign portion you could never quite see what they were doing. I mean, I can understand (kind of...) outsourcing first and perhaps second level customer service for the desktop division of someone like HP (the contract I was on) but outsourcing the primary customer contact for a security company?

They went internal some time afterward from what I heard but I often wonder if we actually just lost the contract to a lower bidder.

Dude you HAVE to introduce me to the hot redheaded chiquita at Stream... O_O

I worked at Stream last summer...believe me, the QA people listen to lots of your calls.

Being evil to the customer is a surefire way to get fired.

No, because IBM, Dell, and HP will all just use convoluted supply and manufacturing chains, and guard their supplier's identities as best they can.

Well, I do know that HP outsources their technical support to Stream, vCustomer (India), and Sutherland (India), just off the top of my head (you only ever talk to HP personally if you've been escalated to corporate (third level or CEO transfer), or if you call the corporate HQ directly, in which case you'll just be transferred back to us. It should also be noted that Stream has been sold a few times, and while I do not have information on HP's manufacturing, I would wager a guess that a lot of it goes to Solectron, once parent company of Stream.

You know, just in case you were wondering.

I worked for a while for Stream International in Oregon, and I know people that worked for them in Dallas.

And yeah, it was a grab-train-dump situation for the first week, and then you got tossed out on the floor.

I got let go, and no one ever told me why. But the training and experience I got there - supporting Netscape 1.2 and 2.0 - was invaluable in getting my foot in the door at other places. It was a hell of a meatgrinder for me, but I lived...

Sure, its called a non-disclosure agreement. I can't legal talk about what as shitty company Stream is, and how they mismanaged business, and then moved operations to Canada. OOPS I've said too much, the thought police are at my door.

I work for Stream, an outsourcer who handles other companies tech support. I am on a very high profile contract of which if I said the name of the company you would instantly recognize it. We have certain metrics we must attain, such as an average handle time, etc. Most of our techs on my contract are competant. My handle time is less than half of the contract specified metrics and I take double the amount of calls of almost everyone else. Not because I "punt" (as we call it), but because I know what I'm doing and I fix issues very quickly.

These are my big pet peeves when taking a customers call:

1. Rambling on and on about how you're not technical and not computer literate. If you were you probably wouldn't be calling me.

2. Repeating yourself during your explaination. I'm a very smart individual and I generally get something the first time you tell me. You do not have to say it 4 and 5 times.

3. Spending 10 minutes to explain the issue. I don't care if you had five issues before this. No it is not necessary for you to tell all of them to me. No I do not care what you did to fix the previous issue. Just tell me what it is and shut up, if I need information I will *ask*!

4. Going ahead of me and doing the wrong thing. No, I did *not* want you to restart your computer before we changed the sittings requiring you to restart your computer.

5. Bitching about warranty. The warranty starts when you buy the unit. Just because you sat it on your shelf for a year and a half and just started to use it does not mean your units one year warranty is still good. Just because you have never called before in 4 years does not mean the 90 day free tech support warranty does not apply to you.

6. Incompetance. I realize you may not be the most technical person in the world however I do expect you to know how to use a mouse, how to read a serial number and how to count. "But I told you, I don't have a last 6 digits, there are only 14 digits!", "No I never called to get return authorization, I just put it in a box with a letter and shipped it to you, it's not MY fault you can't track it, how am I supposed to know you have to call in first!"

There are many more. If you want to know why tech support is horrible it's because the job is shitty and the support person - in the most part - does *not* want to be talking to you because all he/she ever hears is bitching, moaning, complaining and whining.

-- iCEBaLM