Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Dealing With Service Providers When You're an IT Pro?
New submitter username440 writes: So, a lot of us will have been here: You have a problem with your ISP, cable TV, cellphone whatever technology and you need to call the provider. Ugh. Foreign call centers, inane fault-finding flowcharts (yes, I have turned it off and on again) and all the other cruft that you have to wade through to get to someone with the knowledge to determine that YOU in fact also have a degree of knowledge and have a real problem.
Recently I had a problem with my ISP, where the ISP-provided "modem" — it's a router — would lock up at least 3 times per day. I had router logs, many hundreds of Google results for that model and release of hardware showing this as a common problem, and simply wanted the ISP to provide a new router (it's a managed device). I replaced the router with a spare Airport Extreme and the problems disappeared, to be replaced with a warning from the ISP that they could't access my managed device" and the connection is provided contingent to using THIER router. However my point was to prove that their router is at fault.
How do you fare when trying to get through to a service provider that they actually DO know something in the field? How do you cut through the frontline support bull*hit and talk to someone who knows what they are doing? Should there be a codeword for this scenario?
Recently I had a problem with my ISP, where the ISP-provided "modem" — it's a router — would lock up at least 3 times per day. I had router logs, many hundreds of Google results for that model and release of hardware showing this as a common problem, and simply wanted the ISP to provide a new router (it's a managed device). I replaced the router with a spare Airport Extreme and the problems disappeared, to be replaced with a warning from the ISP that they could't access my managed device" and the connection is provided contingent to using THIER router. However my point was to prove that their router is at fault.
How do you fare when trying to get through to a service provider that they actually DO know something in the field? How do you cut through the frontline support bull*hit and talk to someone who knows what they are doing? Should there be a codeword for this scenario?
Shibboleet
Just take it in. Speaking for Comcast, I know that I can take any equipment in at any time and get a replacement. Done.
I come here for the love
When they complain about not being able to connect to their managed router suggest that it might be because it is faulty and perhaps they should try sending a replacement device. ðY
"Hi, I'd like to terminate my service."
I have learned a long time ago that I must have a well working unrestricted and reliable internet connection. To get that you must pay for a business level account. This will usually mean that you talk to more qualified help desk members and even the engineers. Side benefits include static ips, no caps, Higher service priority, etc.
It costs more, but as an IT pro, I consider it a fact of life.
Currently I have a business level account account that I write off 100%. This is the middle tier that runs around 90 a month for 25 down and 5 up. I then have a second consumer grade line @ 120 down and 10 up ( with restricted ports) @ 75 a month. The access point and family crap is connected to that. I then have the consumer connection set up as a second wan on my pfsense firewall.
Expensive, sure until I deduct the business connection as a business expense. This setup also allows me to test things like vpns,etc. This also means that I can experiment with stuff and do not hear the family complain because Netflix is not working.
First level support have a script which their employer tells them to follow. Let them do that or you derail the process.
Honestly, as a last resort, it's not a bad idea. I have a fair amount of ESD test gear at work, including a bunch of static discharge guns and the like that can be dialed up to some crazy levels. I was once stuck in a situation much as you - they controlled the modem/router and it was crapping out every few hours, and they were the only game in town for non-dialup access (this was 15ish years ago). I'd already replaced it with a spare that did not have the issue, but since it wasn't provisioned, the only place I could go was their internal pages.
I spent probably two hours going through L1 support, L2 support, and then had them tell me that "oh, sometimes the boxes just do that". So I took the box to work, fried the shit out of it, plugged it back in to let it power up and do real damage to itself now that half the fet gates were probably cooked, and then called them back to tell them that the box had finally crapped out and started smoking. They promptly sent me a new one, and told me "must have been lightning or some sort of power surge."
Yup, a power surge indeed.
There are many code words... "please", "thank you", "yessir" and the name of the guy on the other end of the phone (take a moment to write it down).
With those jobs, most of our callers have no clue what their talking about - so we won't believe you anyway.. Or the one the killed me was "My son/brother/neighbor's kid is in IT and he says ..." Even if that person really knows what they're doing, by the time it gets to your ears it's usually wrong.
It's very rare to get a caller who knows what they're talking about - so rare, that it's much more time efficient to ignore every caller's suggestions. Sorry, for the insult. Newbie techs who listen to their callers usually run down the wrong bunny trail and waste a lot of time and money.
My advice is to let them go through their motions and if it takes a long time - like you're without service for days - ask for some sort of compensation. Otherwise, you'll be bashing your head in and getting angry at the "idiocy". Drop their service if they refuse - customer retention may give you something.
And one last thing, I have been on the other end and thinking I knew better, the tech came out and solved the problem and showed how wrong I was. It was something I would never have thought of and it was so stupid, too. Arrrrrg!
What is this "competitor" thing that you speak of?
I have actually worked in support. A phone call is the worst possible medium for resolving a technical issue. Either email or chat is far superior. So the reason you are treated like a moron when you phone in, is because you are a moron. Furthermore, since dealing with morons is unpleasant, only the dregs and newbies work the phone lines, and are quickly promoted to chat/email as soon as they display the least bit of competence. Nearly all companies offer chat as an option, since is both cheaper and more effective. So stop using the phone.
We had some guy who set up cacti to monitor his connection and he claimed he went down every evening around 6:00pm. We looked at our monitoring and sure enough every day his modem went off line around 6:00pm. The cable modem right next door to it never went offline. Sure enough on the day we showed up around 6 to look at what the possible problem could be we noticed the cleaning lady had unplugged the whole rack and had plugged in her vacuum cleaner. Then suddenly the 'pro' noticed that his router had a up time of less than twenty four hours. He didn't have any monitoring on that, just traffic. So I would say around 80% of the time when a 'pro' calls us with a problem, its not our problem.
Granted. But if your internet connection ain't working, it's kinda hard to chat/email...the ole "keyboard error, press F1 to continue" problem...
"Your call is very important to us. We have been experiencing unusually high call volumes lately. Your estimated wait time is 2 years, 37 minutes. Please stay on the line." music
That error message is no where near as dumb as most think it is.
It exists for a very specific purpose
http://alphahole.net/?p=1011
Enjoy the story!
Telling them it "Smells like smoke", "It's hot enough to burn myself on" or since I used to work printer support "It's leaking ink/grease/something".
Will skip a lot of the BS and get you a replacement asap, since they don't want to deal with the legal fallout of it setting your house on fire (or staining a new couch) while troubleshooting. At one fruit themed computer call center we had a "Red Flag Word List" in which if a customer used any of the words, it got transferred immediately to Tier 2. They were all words like Smoke, fire, melting, sparks, swelling (batteries).
I can tell you if you have CenturyLink and you get "call-a-me-Bob" when you call up, ask them to transfer you to the US staff. they do so, and you talk to nice folks in Boise who can shift off the script once they know you have done all the tier-zero stuff already.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
http://gethuman.com/ will often give you a decent number to get to an actual human in a lot of organizations. Biased to the US at the moment. The person on the AT&T number has actually asked in puzzlement 'how did you get this number?'. I have no connection with the site, but have had the occasional success with it.
There is a technical solution
I have Verizon FiOS. They require their router for video on demand, program guide, etc. My solution -
1. Force release DHCP on their router.
2. Clone MAC on my pfsense box.
3. Reacquire DHCP via pfsense
4. Create a DMZ with a separate interface that hosts their router (without any connection to my internal network, but open access to the internet).
5. Connect the DVR box to their router
Everything works. Everyone is happy. Their router thinks it's doing the routing. The DVR box thinks their router is its bridge to the WAN and lets me use VoD.
Took me a few days to figure it out