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Tech Support Getting Even Worse
ehiris writes: "Came across an article on CNN about tech support falling out of the useful category. The interesting quote: 'In part, the problem can be blamed on tech companies' attempts to cope with shrinking profit margins and a bad business environment.' Bad tech support makes life hard and new technology becomes undesirable to the general public. Which company has the best support? What are they doing well? What would you like to see improve about tech support?"
Those who almost can, support
Those who can't, teach
Those who really can't, manage.
Last year I had a data T1 fail, so I called the Business Support Group. Got a tech on the line and explained the trouble. He asked if he could put me on hold and look into it; I agreed and he put me on hold.
After 5 minutes or so, my phone rings, so I park the line on hold and pick up the second call.
It's the same tech from Verizon calling to let us know that our circuit was down! I explained that *I* was the one who just called him and he became extremely confused (as if he wasn't before).
That was something else, lemme tell ya!
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Information wants...you to shut your pie hole.
This is an actual quote from my phone call to NextGenTel (Norwegian DSL providers) hotline:
Me: "Hi, I'm having problems getting online here. The router WAN lamp flashes, it can't connect"
Her: "Do you have the correct settings?"
Me: "What kind of settings, it comes with a Cisco router, shouldn't it be preconfigured?"
Her: "Yes, but you have to do some adjustments on you computer as well."
Me: "Yeah, the TCP settings, I know".
Her: "Amongst others, yes. Now click on the start button, and go to Settings.."
Me: (interrupting) "Uh, wait, I don't use Windows."
Her: "What.. Do you have a Macintosh?!"
Me: "No, I use another operating system.. OpenBSD."
Her: "Huh!" (silence)
Me: "UNIX."
Her: "Well, then I can't help. You must send our support group an email describing your problems in detail."
Me: "I would if I could, but I can't get online!"
Her: "Oh, yeah.. that's right.."
Later on I discovered that the problem was their fault: The didn't have enough capacity for all the new users, so I had to wait 14 days (felt like ten thousand years) before my ping requests finally received some echoes.
Maybe a bit OT, but I had to get it out.
-skurk
www.6502asm.com - Code 6502 assembly or.. DIE!!
> What would you like to see improve about tech support?
> How about some training and a fair wage for the poor bastards that work in the call centers?
Heh. I could rant for several thousand words about the 18 months I did at Stream. (It started out as a fairly humane place to work at, & slowly degenerated into a sweatshop.)
But since we're supposed to talk about suggestions for improving things, here's mine: I'd like to submit a list of management-types from Stream who should die a long, painful death. Mebbe that won't improve tech support, but those of us who had to work for these morons at least would believe that there is a God & some justice in the world.
Geoff
I think I see a trend here. Maybe for them it really would be easier to muzzle the entire internet than to produce p
"Oooooh, don't say that, don't even whisper that. The only way for OSS to make money is via support, remember?"
This reminds me of som hilarious Dilbert cartoons
Manager: We're discontinuing technical support for all our products. A recorded message will explain it to the caller this way: "In Order to serve customers better, we've discontinued technical support."
Dilbert: How does that serve customers better?
Manager: We'll redirect those resources to other areas.
Dilbert: What other areas?
Manager: Profits. That makes your bonus larger. Any other questions?
Dilbert: Apparently I'm engulfed in evil.
Manager: That's the spirit!
And here's an even better one:
PHB: Our new strategy is to make defective products and charge for technical support.
PHB (wicked grin): Heh-heh...our user manual is totally incomprehensible. We didn't plan it that way - we were LUCKY!
Dilbert: I'm so proud to be here.
PHB: It all came together when I realised I hate our customers.
I once called their developer support hotline for assistance:
MS: What options did you choose in the AppWizard?
Myself: I don't use the AppWizard. I code everything by hand.
MS: (long pause) You can do that?!!
One man, about 70 years old, would call in about once or twice a week (looking back through the call logs), and he was simply inept at using the computer. This man had been sent a video card, sound card and motherboard. This was a simple case of techs not wanting to deal with this guy and his lack of aptitude.
you mean that if i just pretend to be a true computer illiterate i can get enough free hardware to build additional box's for no cost?
woohoo where do i sign up!
All of my friends have at some point worked for stream. However the only two to actually enjoy it/stay over 3 months were a sadist who enjoyed tormenting the people on the phone, and was the master of the hold button.
("Yes [hold] you f*cking moron [/hold] your network does seem to be down. However, [hold] if you didn't have it shoved so far up your a$$ [/hold] I should be able to fix it.)
The other one was a complete moron, and just read of the script. I seem to remember one of the managers thinking that she was the best employee they had.
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Nothing can be done before the tremendous power!
RabidComics
This is Slashdot: home of the freeloader. I think I can say with certainty that virtually no one read past your title.
I have led other people through the same
:-)
kinds of procedures so often I can see the
screens in my mind.
Does your mind blue screen often?
http://jesus.everdense.com/