Hi. I do phone support for the RCN Corporation's cable modem and dial-up customers. RCN bought out Erol's Internet a few years ago, split some of it's market with Pepco's Starpower, and now offers service from Maine to North Carolina, and in California.
Phone tech support jobs are rough because you're the only outlet for customers to vent about corporate policies and decisions that you have no control over. Besides that, most of the people who call are ignorant about computers. Though this Jupiter report says tech support is getting worse, they don't mention the fact that PC sales are exploding and newbies join the Internet each day. And, believe me, many of these people are IG-NANT! They don't know the difference between a banner ad that looks like a Window's pop-up and a Window's pop-up. Some don't even realize that you have to turn on a cable modem for it to work. Others lie through the entire call in an effort to get you to help them with something we don't support. Most customers are great, but it's the bad ones that make the job tough.
Another phenomena of tech support is callers who are insane. I'm not kidding. We get calls from about a dozen individuals who are certifiable. I think they are so lonely that they use the tech support 800 number as a lifeline to another human being.
The Jupiter report really bashes tech support, but at RCN I can honestly say it's good. We're open 24/7, give full refunds for documented outages, and have a large, competent staff. The only thing that's aggravating about working there is a weird policy that requires techs to use a program called 'Primus solutions explorer' during EVERY call. This is supposedly to 'ensure' that the tech is using the right solution. Well, if you've taken over 81,000 tech calls like I have, you have every possible solution stored in your brain, or you know how to find it. The Primus requirement came about because the former manager's boyfriend was the head Primus developer. Since no one used his product his job was in jeopardy, until it became a pointless requirement.
(Sigh) Does this type of stupidity happen in all corporations?
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Hi. I do phone support for the RCN Corporation's cable modem and dial-up customers. RCN bought out Erol's Internet a few years ago, split some of it's market with Pepco's Starpower, and now offers service from Maine to North Carolina, and in California.
Phone tech support jobs are rough because you're the only outlet for customers to vent about corporate policies and decisions that you have no control over. Besides that, most of the people who call are ignorant about computers. Though this Jupiter report says tech support is getting worse, they don't mention the fact that PC sales are exploding and newbies join the Internet each day. And, believe me, many of these people are IG-NANT! They don't know the difference between a banner ad that looks like a Window's pop-up and a Window's pop-up. Some don't even realize that you have to turn on a cable modem for it to work. Others lie through the entire call in an effort to get you to help them with something we don't support. Most customers are great, but it's the bad ones that make the job tough.
Another phenomena of tech support is callers who are insane. I'm not kidding. We get calls from about a dozen individuals who are certifiable. I think they are so lonely that they use the tech support 800 number as a lifeline to another human being.
The Jupiter report really bashes tech support, but at RCN I can honestly say it's good. We're open 24/7, give full refunds for documented outages, and have a large, competent staff. The only thing that's aggravating about working there is a weird policy that requires techs to use a program called 'Primus solutions explorer' during EVERY call. This is supposedly to 'ensure' that the tech is using the right solution. Well, if you've taken over 81,000 tech calls like I have, you have every possible solution stored in your brain, or you know how to find it. The Primus requirement came about because the former manager's boyfriend was the head Primus developer. Since no one used his product his job was in jeopardy, until it became a pointless requirement.
(Sigh) Does this type of stupidity happen in all corporations?
-- Taibunsuu