Why do IT/tech support people do this?

[joohang]

Well I just had a problem with a laptop I loaned from the library. I walked around the bookstacks and lost signal. I came back up and the signal was detected but I lost the IP address (got the lovely 169.x.x.x address). It looked like the 802.11b card wanted the WEP key to authenticate me.

So I take it to the tech support guys and I stand there for 10 minutes. I tell them I think it's the WEP problem at least 3 or 4 times but they don't listen.

I ended up getting a different laptop. Oh well. Don't tech support people recognize that some people know what they are talking about?

(Now it'd be REALLY funny if I was wrong about the WEP problem. hehe )

 

[Viper GTS]

It's probably much more about policy than it is anything else.

ie if a laptop comes back with a problem, they just give you a new one. That way they have the luxury of fixing it whenever the heck they feel like it as opposed to right then with you breathing down their necks.

Viper GTS

 

[gopunk]

*shrug*

if we assumed everybody knew what they were talking about, your wait time would be a few hours longer and a lot of times, they sound knowledgeable, but they don't know the intricate details of the particular network or whatever...

 

[joohang]

Yeah. I used to work in a similar job so I did my best to be nice to them.

It just ticked me off because I stood there waiting for a long time. I just expected them to punch in the WEP key and voila! But no...

 

[Insidious]

It's more like they know how badly it has been miscumbooberated by their compadres.

Compucom's pat answer is "we need to re-image you"

Translation: "We don't have a clue how it works or how to fix it, but if you start all over
we're pretty sure it will work for a week or so"

 

[PlatinumGold]

joohang

often its to mask their own ignorance. they have a series of things they have to try, no matter how many times you've tried it.

classic. a friend of mine is 3rd Level Help Desk for merril Lynch. he's forgotten more about computers than most people know. still, when he calls comcast or some other organization for some of their Proprietary info (info he could only get from them) they make him go thru the same process, level 1, basic question, escalate to leve 2, some probing questions but no real answers and finally level 3. he tries to explain to him his situation and yet they still force him thru all the levels. help desks suck in general.

 

[vi edit]

Kinda like the other day when I call up Dell to RMA a dead battery.

Me: I've got a dead battery here that I need to RMA.
Tech: Um, the warranty is only good to 4/7/02, I can direct you to the parts department to purchase a new one.
Me: Well, being that it's March 25th I don't think that's a problem.
Tech: Oh.
Tech: How do you know it's bad.
Me: Well, when I put it into two different laptops neither of them power up from it. And to when I use a known good battery both laptops boot fine. There's also an error code on the LED's as well(and I describe the error code that flashes).
Tech: Ok do you have the laptop in front of you.
Me: Uh, no, why?
Tech: Because I need it to test the battery.
Me: But I already told you that it doesn't work in two different laptops and that there's an error code on it.
Tech: I need you to test it on a laptop.

Fast forward 10 minutes as I frantically try to chase down a laptop to test the battery in.

After 10 more minutes of fuxoring around the tech finally says "Ok, we can replace it".

As a parting comment I ask him if there are error codes that flash on the batter that aide in diagnostics of battery problems. He says yeh there are.

THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU USE THEM WHEN I ASKED YOU THE FIRST TIME????????????????

ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!

It took me over 45 minutes to RMA a freaking dead battery.

SHeeeesh!

 

[joohang]

Well I had one good experience with the Dell dudes.

Called them once 4 years ago (I think) with an Inspiron 3200 (I believe it was the first Inspiron). It refused to boot all of a sudden. I panicked. Called Dell. The guy told me to check my RAM. So I had my doubts but removed and reinstalled the SIMMs. It worked like a charm after. The modules were misplaced after moving around the laptop.

So there are some good tech support experiences. Just thought I'd contribute something positive to the thread also.

After all, I used to be in tech support. I was of course a very good one.

 

[tim0thy]

<< It took me over 45 minutes to RMA a freaking dead battery. >>


what you need is someone to translate your english into their english. someone like an intern would be good for doing these stupid pain in the ass jobs.

 

[joohang]

Oh yeah. And the replacement laptop worked like a charm. I did my work and transferred them via infrared to my iPAQ.

Who needs to carry around a laptop?

 

[Jfur]

<< Well I had one good experience with the Dell dudes.

Called them once 4 years ago (I think) with an Inspiron 3200 (I believe it was the first Inspiron). It refused to boot all of a sudden. I panicked. Called Dell. The guy told me to check my RAM. So I had my doubts but removed and reinstalled the SIMMs. It worked like a charm after. The modules were misplaced after moving around the laptop.

So there are some good tech support experiences. Just thought I'd contribute something positive to the thread also.

After all, I used to be in tech support. I was of course a very good one.

>>



it took me over 4 months of phone calls to get them to replace a faulty MOBO on a new 5000e

They refused to listen to me, even when I explained to them VERY CLEARLY what I was almost certain was wrong. Instead of listening, they sent me a total of 4 replacement HDs and 1 DVD player. The last time I called I was soooooo pissed. I told them to go ahead and keep seding me "free" replacement parts every month... Finally, they let me ship i back and replaced the MOBO -- everything has been great since then.

They asked me the stupidest questions time and again, and even when I explained I had done that and more with a dozen other reps, all they can do is read from their f'ing script. I *FINALLY* got a cool Australian guy who was for some reason in a call center in Canada -- and he was the only person who had the brains and customer service to even try and help me.

 

[joohang]

Wow, Jfur. First time I see you rant.



<< They asked me the stupidest questions time and again, and even when I explained I had done that and more with a dozen other reps, all they can do is read from their f'ing script. I *FINALLY* got a cool Australian guy who was for some reason in a call center in Canada -- and he was the only person who had the brains and customer service to even try and help me. >>


See? Canada all the way.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Well, consider this. People doing tech support usually deal with people who haven't the slightest clue about what they're trying to do. What the mindset that you have to hold everybody's hand, it's sometimes hard to get back into the mindset of talking to someone who knows what they're doing.

nik

 

[Fritzo]

I get calls from "armchair techs" all the time:

Caller: I'm trying to connect with my ISDN router and it's connecting, but it won't resolve addresses. It must be YOUR DNS servers.
Me: OK, did you specify any DNS servers in your router config? Because you.....
Caller: Yes yes yes, I specified the DNS servers I found on your support page, but they don't work. They may have lost their Internet conneciton. You should probably check them out.
Me: But you....
Caller: I can't even ping them!
Me: OK, you've got to....
Caller: And look at this....my subnet mask is being assigned as 255.255.255.255......shouldn't that be 255.255.255.0? Man, whoever set up your POP really screwed it up!
Me: LISTEN!!!!! I DON'T KNOW *WHERE* YOU GOT DNS SERVERS FROM, BUT YOU NEED TO SPECIFY 0.0.0.0 FOR YOUR DNS SO THE DIALUP SERVER CAN SPECIFY THEM VIA DHCP. THE DNS IS DIFFERENT DEPENDING ON WHAT IP YOU GET ASSIGNED. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE EQUIPMENT YOU'RE DIALING INTO AS THERE ARE 317 CUSTOMERS DIALED INTO IT RIGHT NOW. YOU GET A 255.255.255.255 SUBNET SO YOU CAN'T BROWSE TO ANYBODY ELSE'S COMPUTER THAT'S DIALED IN.............................

Man...a 1 minute call took 13 minutes to explain to him that he was a pompus idiot. It turns out he was using documentation from an old ISP that they cancelled a year ago. Anyway, when dealing with support people, it's best to let them drive as they've experienced the problem 100 times before. If what they're saying isn't working, THEN offer some suggestions, otherwise you may end up prolonging the process.

 

[PlatinumGold]

fritzo

ok, i had an iomega zip drive that was freezing my system. whenever i pulled it out, my system would boot no problems. i plug it back in, i don't even post. so naturally i assume that it is the zip drive and i call iomega.

the tech asks me and i calmly explain exactly what i just wrote. my system had worked fine. i plug in zip drive and i get NO POST. NO BIOS. I unplug zip drive and It boots fine.

so tech says to me. OK, get ur dos disk out and boot to DOS disk. OMG.

i had just tried to explain that it wouldn't even post and he didn't understand that.

 

[Fritzo]

Like I said....let them drive first, if it's not working, THEN offer your suggestions. When you said your PC wouldn't POST, he's just making sure you know what you're talking about. They have to follow a certain procedure when you call in to make sure all the bases are covered, or they could end up being on the phone for two hours for a simple problem.

 

[Jfur]

<< Like I said....let them drive first, if it's not working, THEN offer your suggestions. When you said your PC wouldn't POST, he's just making sure you know what you're talking about. They have to follow a certain procedure when you call in to make sure all the bases are covered, or they could end up being on the phone for two hours for a simple problem. >>



Sorry, but after the 8th person in a row (yes, it took even longer than that to resolve) asks me to do the same series of things, all of which I have done before, and then they say things like "it says here you must" I really cannot waste any more time. Especially when one of the steps they request each time is that I run a **3 hr plus*** diagnostic program and call them back. Of course, after waiting many hours to talk to someone the next day I am rerouted and have to start all over. If they had actually known what they were talking about, instead of reading from the stupid flowchart or whatever, then they would have agreed to let me send it in for service instead of sending me part after part after part.

If you are a business customer then they will be very nice to you. If you are a home user, good luck! Strangely, my husband and I both sent in requests via email for tech support on March 24. He heard back immediately -- I am still waiting for a response. His account is through small business, mine through home. Hmmmmmmmmmmm....

 

[Frosty3799]

i consider myself pretty knowledgable, and had to recently call up dell tech support about a version of their restore cd that someone got whos computer i was formatting... the tech guy noticed i knew what i was talking about, but still made sure i knew what i was doing... like he would say all the steps to something, but if i was jump ahead he was gladly move to where i was

P.S. - it wasnt me that was the problem, the Dell cd had some files in the NT folder instead of the win98 folder... the only mess up on the whole cd i guess, and i ran into it

Josh

 

[joohang]

<< If you are a business customer then they will be very nice to you. If you are a home user, good luck! Strangely, my husband and I both sent in requests via email for tech support on March 24. He heard back immediately -- I am still waiting for a response. His account is through small business, mine through home. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.... >>


I feel that way with my ADSL account too. I recently switched to a business option and their tech support seem to deal with issues more seriously than home users.

You might as well just order through small business next time.

 

[joohang]

<< i consider myself pretty knowledgable, and had to recently call up dell tech support about a version of their restore cd that someone got whos computer i was formatting... the tech guy noticed i knew what i was talking about, but still made sure i knew what i was doing... like he would say all the steps to something, but if i was jump ahead he was gladly move to where i was

P.S. - it wasnt me that was the problem, the Dell cd had some files in the NT folder instead of the win98 folder... the only mess up on the whole cd i guess, and i ran into it

Josh >>


Yeah. I like tech support people like that.

Gosh.. ever dealt with tech support guys who insist that you hit Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Network? I'd rather right-click on Network Neighbourhood and go to Properties.

And when I call for my ADSL problems, I have to tell them that I have Windows 2000 Professional, even though I run Advanced Server. Apparently ipconfig /renew is soooo different in Advanced Server so they don't support it.

 

[spanky]

well... i get paid by the hour, so i usually beat around the bush as long as possible before any real work gets done.

 

[Kadarin]

Only time I've ever had to call for tech support was when my Creative Labs' TNT2 Ultra had a weird problem where OpenGL and D3D just would not work (get solid gray screen), but "dxdiag" reported everything was ok. I had to jump through about an hour's worth of diagnostic procedure (that I had already done) to eventually have the guy ask me to ship the card in (I got the impression that he was skeptical that there was anything wrong with the card). They ended up replacing the card and the new unit has worked fine since (about 1.5 years or so).

I never seem to have network problems. (Probably because that's what I do for a living..)

 

[poopaskoopa]

<< If they had actually known what they were talking about, instead of reading from the stupid flowchart or whatever >>


You can probably guess how difficult(easy) it is to get a job as a tier 1 tech support. Knowing that, you can probably see that this type of process control is a good thing. If you want these people(tier 1 support), who are considered to be generally inept by you, to think on their feet, then you're just asking for it.

I'm sorry they didn't let y'all troubleshoot for them.

 

[Jfur]

<<

<< If they had actually known what they were talking about, instead of reading from the stupid flowchart or whatever >>


You can probably guess how difficult(easy) it is to get a job as a tier 1 tech support. Knowing that, you can probably see that this type of process control is a good thing. If you want these people(tier 1 support), who are considered to be generally inept by you, to think on their feet, then you're just asking for it.

I'm sorry they didn't let y'all troubleshoot for them. >>



well, they could have tried to resolve my issue -- you'd think after the third "hard drive" replacement in 3 months they would start to listen...

 

[poopaskoopa]

I feel your pain .

I used to work as one of those techs for PC vendors several years back. I only worked as one for 6 days(reason: drove 2200 miles on my car and they didn't pay for gas or the mileage), but from what I could observe, the support system was set up in such way that the tech support guy you talk to on the phone would determine the problem, and then the technicans would travel to the location to replace the parts. We'd grab the parts from the warehouse in the morning and off we went. Once I drove 130 miles to replace a ****ing power supply AND a motherboard(the PC owner complained that nothing came up on the monitor, according to her), only to find that the damn monitor's power cord was unplugged. Now, it didn't matter to my paycheck whether the tech support guy on the phone had determined the problem correctly or not(he was oh so wrong...), but a day like this will make you wonder if you'll ever live up to your potential.