RANT: Working Helpdesk Support SUCKS!

[brunswickite]

I am not one to complain, but this morning i have been getting the Dumbest most inept users ever, I think its when the weather gets warmer, their brains begin to fry.

First caller "My internet does not work"
"ok, See the icon labeled Internet Explorer?"
"No"
"It's right on your desktop."
"Where?"
"Right on your desktop next to the icon of your computer that says 'My Computer'"
"What? I don't see that, either."
"You are retarded, and have the mental capacity of a 5 year old, I hate you.
"oh I see it, its right there Ok, I am in, the web doesnt work"
... (insert 30 minutes of mindless troubleshooting)

Second caller "My email does not work"

"(greeting) How may I help you?
"Is there something wrong with the email system?"
"No, actually there is not, what seems to be the problem?"
"My email does not work"
"Hmm. Could you be a bit more specific?"
"Um, uh."
"Well, what email program are you using?"
"Wndows xp, I think."
"That is your Operating System. What do you use for EMAIL?? Outlook Express? Netscape? Eudora?"
"HMMM?"
Now this is when i realize I am in trouble and am dealing with someone who has the mental capacity of a 5 year old
"Ok, what little picture do you clickity click on to get your email?" Yes, I said that.
"It says Outlook Express 6."
"Yipee we have made some progress"

By the time i got them in to all there settings, i was literally telling them what keys they have to type to login
apparently there is a missing connection between their fingers and their brain.
WHERE it says "LOGIN", TYPE IN "XXXXXXXX"
WHERE it says "PASSWORD", TYPE IN "YOUR PASSWORD"
the person took 3 attempts to get it right, they must have been a crack baby or something

Any other techsupport people out there that can vouch for this type of sh1t?
I work in my Universities helpdesk, and for some reason I thought you need some type of intelligence to get into a 4 year College, it amazes me that these people walk among us and can function in society when they cant follow simple directions.

Note: I do not make fun of people that dont know anything bout computers or how to use them and call Tech Support(thats why were here), just the morons that cant follow directions and are angry at ME, make me want to strangle them with the fvckin phone.

 

[guyver01]

Learn patience. If you get stressed out because the person isn't a rocket scientist or as smart as you think you are, you're in the wrong job. I've worked Help Desk technical support for 5 years, and have never had a problem customer.

you are paid to handhold these people thru their problems... not be a manual.

 

[40oz]

YES IT DOES-- However on a lighter note we have remote desktop (landesk) and it makes things a lot eaiser "sit back stfu and watch -- this is how to open your email this is how to chage the view so you can see all the folders"-- etc.

 

[Encryptic]

Originally posted by: guyver01
you are paid to handhold these people thru their problems... not be a manual.

Unfortunately, not many customers have learned the meaning of "RTFM". Sigh...

 

[guyver01]

Originally posted by: Encryptic

Originally posted by: guyver01
you are paid to handhold these people thru their problems... not be a manual.

Unfortunately, not many customers have learned the meaning of "RTFM". Sigh...

good... keeps me employed while many of my ex-colleagues are out slinging french fries at Mickey D's.

 

[err]

Well I do handle some degree of helpdesk support at my job as well. You're absolutely right, there are 2 type of users:

1. Users who are very apologetic, and say things like "sorry computers isn't my field", "sorry to bother you", "sorry to be so slow at this thing"

2. Users who don't know anything and sounds rude to make them feel not-stupid.

I hate the second type user. It makes me want to shove up the phone up their azz. I mean come on, its ok to be beginner in computer, and its even ok to be computer illeterate. But you don't have to be rude and mean to make yourself feel not stupid.

Well, I am just adding to your rant I think of all the calls I get, maybe about 10% or so callers are rude and sucks.

eRr

 

[err]

oops. double post

 

[brunswickite]

Originally posted by: err
Well I do handle some degree of helpdesk support at my job as well. You're absolutely right, there are 2 type of users:

1. Users who are very apologetic, and say things like "sorry computers isn't my field", "sorry to bother you", "sorry to be so slow at this thing"

2. Users who don't know anything and sounds rude to make them feel not-stupid.

I hate the second type user. It makes me want to shove up the phone up their azz. I mean come on, its ok to be beginner in computer, and its even ok to be computer illeterate. But you don't have to be rude and mean to make yourself feel not stupid.

Well, I am just adding to your rant I think of all the calls I get, maybe about 10% or so callers are rude and sucks.

eRr

well said

 

[MegaloManiaK]

Yup, Did DSL tech support for 2 years, I hated every minute of it. Fortunately its been long enough now im starting to forget the milder stories, hopefully someday ill forget the major stories. I remember one lady who told me she couldn't plug up the telephone jack because she had never done it before and would have to wait on her husband. Even the people we employeed to do onsite work were morons, I had a tech call once with his laptop plugged into the telephone company side of the equipment with a laptop and not be able to surf, after troubleshooting the network for 30 mins (all the time telling him to do things and having him say ok to them) i tell him to try another modem and he says he can't becuase he's not actualy on site but instead calling from hom because he KENW it was a network issue. Geez man, now you got me started, must go to corner and curl up into a ball for an hour mumbleing "start, settings control panel" over and over.

 

[waylman]

Originally posted by: guyver01
I've worked Help Desk technical support for 5 years, and have never had a problem customer.

God, do I envy you. But somehow I just can't believe in 5 years, there hasn't been 1 loser that you have wanted to reach through the phone and strangle to death. (happens to me every day!)

 

[Encryptic]

Originally posted by: MegaloManiaK
Yup, Did DSL tech support for 2 years, I hated every minute of it. Fortunately its been long enough now im starting to forget the milder stories, hopefully someday ill forget the major stories. I remember one lady who told me she couldn't plug up the telephone jack because she had never done it before and would have to wait on her husband. Even the people we employeed to do onsite work were morons, I had a tech call once with his laptop plugged into the telephone company side of the equipment with a laptop and not be able to surf, after troubleshooting the network for 30 mins (all the time telling him to do things and having him say ok to them) i tell him to try another modem and he says he can't becuase he's not actualy on site but instead calling from hom because he KENW it was a network issue. Geez man, now you got me started, must go to corner and curl up into a ball for an hour mumbleing "start, settings control panel" over and over.

Ugh. Gotta love those people. I had some lady call me once from her cell phone......while driving. WTF? How am I going to help if you're not in front of the computer to begin with, much less if you crash the damn car because you're yapping on a cell phone?

The absolute best story I've got from almost 4 years of tech support (and counting) is this one though. I swear this actually happened.

I do tech support for a small software company along with some web design. One day, some lady gets transferred from the sales department, because she wants to get some more info about the program she's buying. She's being kind of bitchy at first, but as I start telling her about the program's features, she seems to be warming up a little.

(insert ominous music)

All's going well until she asks The Question. "Does this program support Dragon Naturally Speaking?" Naturally, the answer is no, it doesn't. She starts getting pissed, so to shut her up, I tell her I'll go ask one of our developers. I put her on hold for a minute, go tell our lead developer what's going on. Of course he gets a kick out of it, and I go back and pick up the phone.

All hell breaks loose at this point. I tell her the developer says it doesn't support Dragon Naturally Speaking. She proceeds to go off on me about how we're discriminating against disabled people and how we're in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. This continues for about 5-10 minutes until I finally get her to shut up and give me her phone number so my boss can "call her back" and she can file a complaint with my boss(Huh?). HA! Hang up with her and tell the guy I share an office with and of course he thinks it's hilarious.

The punchline of this whole story? I'M DISABLED! Yep, I have a hearing problem. I don't have difficulty hearing on the phone though, so my boss could care less.

Just thought I'd share that with you. This really happened, and no, this lady never called back. Crazy bitch.

 

[MegaloManiaK]

I remember once we had a deal going with Dell that if you bought one of thier desktops it would come with a modem installed for free. This lady calls up saying she signed up for the internet service and wanted to know what she has to fill out to get her free computer??? After about 15 mins of confusing annoying conversation with her i realized what was going on and transfered her to dells customer support (actualy i conferenced so i could listen in). The CS person didn't listen to a word i said and proceeded to sign the lady up for a dell computer with financing ( i clearly stated that the woman misunderstood the add Dell was running) Anywho, they fill out all the forms and the CS person asks for the ladies SS number to run a credit check. They lady goes off and for some reason says she pays her phone bill at the drug store becuase she doesn't want a credit card (which had nothing to do with anything) then got pissed becuase she thought the CS person was telling her she could not own a computer period without a Credit card. Thick headed? YES. Made for a good 20 mins break for me though.

 

[bigalt]

What I can't stand is IT people who get all pissed off when you try to get them to help you with something. Even if its something stupid like spilling coke on their keyboard, IT'S YOUR JOB TO HELP THEM.

 

[brunswickite]

Originally posted by: bigalt
What I can't stand is IT people who get all pissed off when you try to get them to help you with something. Even if its something stupid like spilling coke on their keyboard, IT'S YOUR JOB TO HELP THEM.

Note: I do not make fun of people that dont know anything bout computers or how to use them and call Tech Support(thats why were here), just the morons that cant follow directions and are angry at ME, make me want to strangle them with the fvckin phone.


learn how to read

 

[MegaloManiaK]

People who call tech support with legitamate problems and are courteous/ polite and willing to actualy troubleshoot a problem were never a bother.

People who call tech support because they feel like tech support/IT is there for them to bitch to when thier email icon isn't cornflour blue piss me off.

In general people who think about what you say and do it accordingly becuase they know you can fix the problem show up alot, but the majority feel its thier right to be rude to those who serve them. People of the former type spend less time on the phone and are more pleasant to deal with. People of the latter waste time and then blame tech for it. It takes only 1 call from the latter to erase 5 calls from the former.

The biggest thing is computers require troubleshooting to find a solution. Most of the time you have to try things that dont work to find out what the problem exactly is before you can solve it. People dont seem to understand this and lose all respect when the first thing you try doesn't fix the problem. I guess it is a little hard to imagine all the different hardware/software combinations out there and how they behaive differently to different things.

And yes, i do hate it when i call someone for support and they are rude to me because they assume everyone is going to be a jerk.

 

[TJN23]

what pisses me off is when ppl call tech support thinking they can tell them how to solve the problem, i.e., thinking they're asking the right questions, tryin to be a smartass, etc.

on the tech support side of things i think they key is patience, otherwise that is NOT your line of work

 

[MegaloManiaK]

Originally posted by: brunswickite
Note: I do not make fun of people that dont know anything bout computers or how to use them and call Tech Support(thats why were here), just the morons that cant follow directions and are angry at ME, make me want to strangle them with the fvckin phone.

Id trade 100 knowledgable users with bad attitudes for 1 person who knows nothing about computers at all and admits that he/she knows nothing. Its easier to educate the uneducated than to reeducate someone who thinks they know everything.

 

[brunswickite]

Originally posted by: MegaloManiaK

Originally posted by: brunswickite
Note: I do not make fun of people that dont know anything bout computers or how to use them and call Tech Support(thats why were here), just the morons that cant follow directions and are angry at ME, make me want to strangle them with the fvckin phone.

Id trade 100 knowledgable users with bad attitudes for 1 person who knows nothing about computers at all and admits that he/she knows nothing. Its easier to educate the uneducated than to reeducate someone who thinks they know everything.

exactly

 

[Flatline]

I'd be willing to bet that the people that call for tech support and are rude and disrespectful regardless of the tech's bearing are the same people who do the same at restaurants...it's pathetic how a great many people feel that they can act like an ass because someone is paid to provide them with a service.

 

[Flatline]

Just as a note, I do not have anything against ignorant users (they can be the easiest to work with because they are more willing to follow directions); what I DO have a problem with is people who are unwilling to listen, follow directions, or learn.

 

[GoingUp]

Can you fix my Intarweb? I seem to have run out of winamp.

 

[TallBill]

You gotta just learn patience. I had a bad habit of treating my callers like children. My boss used to try to yell at me for it, but he'd bust up laughing.

 

[GoingUp]

Id have the same experience when I sold computers in retail for 4 years, some hot sh!t would come struttin in callin the computer the HD, sometimes you just had to shake your head and let them think they knew what they were talking about. Some people got very offended when I was explainin to them what a processor did, but there was no way for me to tell about someones level of computer knowledge just by looking at them.

 

[AstIsis]

Originally posted by: err
Well I do handle some degree of helpdesk support at my job as well. You're absolutely right, there are 2 type of users:

1. Users who are very apologetic, and say things like "sorry computers isn't my field", "sorry to bother you", "sorry to be so slow at this thing"

2. Users who don't know anything and sounds rude to make them feel not-stupid.

I hate the second type user. It makes me want to shove up the phone up their azz. I mean come on, its ok to be beginner in computer, and its even ok to be computer illeterate. But you don't have to be rude and mean to make yourself feel not stupid.

Well, I am just adding to your rant I think of all the calls I get, maybe about 10% or so callers are rude and sucks.

eRr

You forgot the 2 other types:

3. Users who know everything about computers..even claim to have an MCSE but can not setup a dialup connection.

4. Users who swear up and down they have not touched any setting on their computer. Later you find out they were bored and decided to delete all those dll's since there were so many of them. "I didn't need them, did I?"

 

[DCFife]

If I got paid enough, I'd put up with non-computer-saavy users for a living....oh, wait a second...I do!

Seriously, I work in a military facility where most of the users are in the Army Reserves and, of course, they all seem to have computer jobs in their civilian lives and they don't know too much...just enough to be dangerous. You just need to relax and learn how to handle them courteously. You can whine about them after you get off work and your sipping brews with your buddies.

D