Tech support from our perspective

[Rendus]

I just saw this over at Slashdot, and as I sit here with a phone strapped to my head at work, in pretty much the same position this guy is in, I can't help but nod in understanding. I'm about to do the equivilant of check the "No." box here myself.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/archive/120100/cover_120100.html

-edit- Oh, and it's getting Slashdotted quite heavily, so be patient.

 

[Viper GTS]

The sad thing is I could have written that...

It's tech support life to a "T."

Viper GTS

 

[azazyel]

I was a personal shopper for 2 years before I got promoted. Being tech support is one thing, at least you are able to confuse the customer when necessary. Try telling a customer that they will not have their present in time for xmas. That is a load of fun. Man I really feel sorry for some of those people, it is a sh!ty life.

 

[64bitloopy]

I don't know, sounds more like a call center to me. Maybe if you're outsourced support or something.

 

[beer]

Linkfied

 

[RipRidah]

I think JonnyGuru can relate.

 

[StageLeft]

This is interesting, i"m reading it

 

[jonnyGURU]

Sounds more like a call center.

I work in a tech room with another tech and a crap load of components (see picture). A bit different.

I did work in a similar scenario when I worked at a call center for Lucent Networking Solutions. That job lasted all of three weeks and I was out.

Average call times? Assigned seats? HOTCUBE?!?!? No thanks.

I'll take tech support any day over that. More challenge. People asking me weird ass questions keeps things exciting.

I think employers keep me on the phone all of these years because I have that great game show host voice that everyone loves... and they may know that deep inside, I actually like it.

 

[ratkil]

Okay, that was completely depressing.

 

[Optimus]

That article made me want to scream!

Oh my gosh that is so like my last job, except replace the functioning readerboard with a broken one!

Bad, bad job - I was so happy to quit there and where I am now is night and day better. Whew!

 

[superbaby]

I was laughing sooo hard, not because I work in help desk/call centers (AND I NEVER WILL) but because at the sheer absurdity of it all. I always knew that tech support was at best just human interaction but it's getting to the point that they are giving out false information just to keep within call time limits. Now that's the scary part... it makes places like AnandTech forums much better places to get correct information.

 

[Optimus]

This is what happens when call times, response quotas, etc... ruin good tech support.
I'd rather wait 20 minutes on a 1 800 number and get a good tech and real support than have someone pick up in 10 seconds and be useless!

Argh - notice it wasn't the work or customers that got to him, it was the managment and the company policies? Makes me so mad I could spit! :|

 

[Champo41]

Tech support...I used to base every wrong doing on the words "It's your own dumb*ss fault"

Would I feel bad if a package wouldn't arrive by Christmas day for a customer? No, it's their own dumb*ss fault they didn't order it sooner.

 

[Dameon]

Just in case any of you are looking at applying for Dell....

This article is frighteningly accurate as to how their support has become.
As system prices drop, the presure increases for them to cut costs and get people off the phone.

"Yes sir you will get the message, our engineering is working on that." (are they really? I don't know, all I know is that currently it's a known issue, but I can't say its a known issue.)

"When can you expect a fix? Honestly couldn't tell you right offhand, my best reccomendation would be to keep an eye out on the file library."

It is a living hell. They know when you pee. They know when you breathe.

God I need a new job. If anyone needs a server admin in the Austin area who's good with NT/2k and very good with hardware troubleshooting & RAID, please email me. Please.

 

[vi edit]

Dameon, is Dell's movement twords the "restore CD" any testatment to what you just said?

 

[Lord Evermore]

Put your resume on Monster.com. My roommate's had like 5 interviews in the past few weeks, 3 or 4 of them offered him jobs.

One of my coworkers sent that link out to the rest of us. One of us wasn't even able to finish reading it because it was so depressing. We deal with PacBell's high speed circuit repair department regularly.

This was actually a call center/tech support type thing. A plain call center just takes the call, creates a trouble report, then submits it for a tech to look at. The PacBell story had actual techs taking the calls (the Tier1 people are the call center, Tier2 was who wrote the story). Northpoint has the same thing. The Tier1 people have absolutely no idea what's going on, what needs to be fixed or how to troubleshoot. They're there to take a call and create a ticket for a real tech to look at when he or she is able, or to get initial information entered then pass the call to a real tech's queue.

Many many companies are doing this to cut costs. They know they can force the phone monkeys to take it, and by riding them so hard they can keep from having to hire more monkeys. The PacBell story is a bit extreme, but not surprising. My group has a triage person that changes 4 or 5 times a day whose job is to just make sure that the tickets we're working don't sit around for too long without any action being taken, and to watch the network monitor stuff. That person does not have any authority over the rest of us or report on whether anybody is doing things badly. The supervisors and manager have phone monitoring software that lets them listen in and time calls, but with our type of troubleshooting long calls are common. All they really care about is that we're all available to take calls, so we don't have people sitting in a hold queue. It's rare for anybody to sit on hold when they call us, but we ONLY deal with commercial high speed customers who have already been working with us on a trouble report, so we have a pretty low call volume.

Our call center on the other hand supposedly gets like 2000 calls a day, a good number of which THEY actually work on and troubleshoot and resolve (mail server issues, DNS, stuff like that), either on that phone call or through continued work after making a trouble report ticket. We don't support software or hardware on the customer end, so that cuts down our potential call volume greatly.

 

[Valhalla1]

good god thats horrible..

almost as bad as my last job, as a telemarketer. see, we called people who didn't want to talk to us at all. get plenty more earfulls of cussing and yelling doing that.

talk about a depressing job. after 3 months of doing that I was about ready to jump off a bridge

 

[Rendus]

<< Just in case any of you are looking at applying for Dell....

This article is frighteningly accurate as to how their support has become.
As system prices drop, the presure increases for them to cut costs and get people off the phone.

&quot;Yes sir you will get the message, our engineering is working on that.&quot; (are they really? I don't know, all I know is that currently it's a known issue, but I can't say its a known issue.)

&quot;When can you expect a fix? Honestly couldn't tell you right offhand, my best reccomendation would be to keep an eye out on the file library.&quot;

It is a living hell. They know when you pee. They know when you breathe.

God I need a new job. If anyone needs a server admin in the Austin area who's good with NT/2k and very good with hardware troubleshooting &amp; RAID, please email me. Please. >>



Exactly. I'm currently an L2 at a &quot;partner location&quot; (outsource) for Dell. I nearly burnt out yesterday, and I'm working on my resume as I sit here answering &quot;How do I install Sound Blaster Live! Drivers?&quot; for the 50th time today.

 

[Pretender]

Wow, that article moved me. If that's what you're going thru Viper, I've gotta give you sh!tloads of credit. I was having nightmares of going thru that...I'm the type of person who can't be constantly scrutinized and fit into a schedule down to the second...I'd be gone from that job in 2 hours.

 

[DefRef]

Can't wait to circulate this amonst my fellow geek coworkers tomorrow.

Did anyone notice that she hasn't quit yet? Could you tolerate a day-in, day-out nightmare like that. Things can get hairy at our Support Centre, but it's NOT that bad and anyone who thinks it is should be required to read this.

 

[Dameon]

Dell gets worse around Xmas in Desktops, I feel for Rendus.

Most people are Closed Christmas Day.

Dell is open Christmas Day, and EVERY FRIGGIN system sold in the past 6 weeks pretty much calls in... within 48 hours.

ADD to that all the toys that plug into the PC that people want Dell to make work for them.
(Plug and Play Barbie, Interactive Tinky-Winky)

And the fact everyone insists on having it fixed RIGHT NOW, and you have absolute and utter support hell. After hearing, &quot;You ruined my Christmas!!!&quot; about 20 times in two days....
well lets just say that they hire alot of people knowing that many will throw down their headseat and never come back.

 

[Rendus]

Yes indeed, the crunch does start around late September in hopes of getting people on the floor. They'll cut the training classes to 2 weeks instead of 3 around January 15th, and the turnover rate will skyrocket late December (last year the turnover was 300%+). They hire ANYONE, they want warm bodies taking calls, not technicians resolving issues.

To get an idea of the crap you can get away with this time of year:

A few days ago, a tech was being monitored and got caught releasing 2 calls in a row (hanging up on customers). He has no redeeming value, none of the L2s want to talk to the guy because you have to explain things to him in more detail than the average customer, and no customer service skills. He was back at work today. Releasing ONE call is a fireable offense.

A guy doesn't show up for 2 weeks. No call, no show. He shows up today, and asks if he still works there. He's still on the schedule, no termination papers were filed, he still has a job.

&quot;I have a customer here with Windows 95, and I get &quot;bad command or file name&quot; when I try to do a scanreg /restore (a Win98/ME only program for restoring the registry).&quot;

&quot;This guy's SB Live! failed the DOS hardware diagnostics, so I'm going to try reinstalling Windows.&quot;

&quot;This guy wants to reinstall Windows. Can we do that?&quot;

Gah. Well I have the next 2 days off, then back to the hellhole I go (the same one I ranted about last week that they won't give me my raise. Still haven't gotten it.).

I'm just hanging around until after Christmas (mmmm... Doubletime. I work Christmas eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day. I get 2 Doubletime days out of it).


Interestingly enough, right now on WinAmp, A Perfect Circle - Orestes starts playing, featuring the lines:

gotta cut away, clear away
slip away and sever this
umbilical residue
keeping me from killing you

and from pulling you down with me
in here
i can almost hear you scream

one more medicated peaceful moment
one more medicated peaceful moment

and i don't wanna feel this overwhelming
hostility
don't wanna feel this overwhelming
hostility


Heh. Maynard's done tech support?

 

[kranky]

I wish call centers could implement a system where the customers who don't abuse the service (don't call for stupid things, don't ask for support on things that aren't supported) could be handled in a separate queue. I think that if the tech knew the person calling wasn't a complete twit, both parties would have a better experience.

That article was quite depressing. I know I get frustrated at times with users, but I can at least walk over to the machine and handle it in person if necessary. Trying to troubleshoot stuff on the phone is not something I like to do.