Treated like a moron (Long vent)

[trunks2k]

Why is the rule FOLLOW THE SCRIPT DO NOT DEVIATE FROM THE SCRIPT THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS LYING! ??? .

Because 9 times out of 10, the customer IS lying. I don't know how many times I got into arguments with people to reboot their machines and they'd say "I tried that," but once I finally convince them to reboot it works.

"Oh a reboot didn't work before." Bullshit. You were just too dumb to try to reboot and didn't want to admit it.

[phillippbo]

Because 9 times out of 10, the customer IS lying. I don't know how many times I got into arguments with people to reboot their machines and they'd say "I tried that," but once I finally convince them to reboot it works.

Either that, or they're too lazy to actually do anything. My favorite is asking things like if any of the cables are loose and their answer is something along the lines of "nobody's been back there" (doesn't answer the question) or an immediate "no" (probably didn't check at all). The funny thing is that technically minded people, or at least anyone with half a brain, will take that opportunity to lay their hands upon said cabling and check. If they don't suggest it, or won't do it when I gently suggest they check, I give up and schedule the tech they want. I do make sure they know they will be charged if it's not something outside. They usually get upset at this, but I do remind them that the free support they seek is in two flavors: over the phone and on-site assuming the problem is on our end. Otherwise, they are asking us to maintain their wiring and equipment for them, something that is priced very high everywhere else, and we only expect to recover part of the cost of sending the technician. (In case anybody is wondering, the cost is 45.00 even though it costs us something on the order of 90.00 every time a truck is rolled - and that's just the regular van techs, fancy bucket-truck techs are lots more.) I think Geek Squad would laugh if you wanted them to come out for 45.00 and fix something...

[ladodger34]

Because 9 times out of 10, the customer IS lying. I don't know how many times I got into arguments with people to reboot their machines and they'd say "I tried that," but once I finally convince them to reboot it works.

"Oh a reboot didn't work before." Bullshit. You were just too dumb to try to reboot and didn't want to admit it.

On the flip side of the coin, I was having problems with my DSL (company name rhymes with Verizon) and rather than actually solving the issue, tech support had me do the same silly steps every time I called. It was on their end and I still don't know what the problem was.

On the first call they had me reboot my computer and restart the modem. On the second call they had me reboot my computer and restart the modem. On the third call they had me reboot my computer and restart the modem. And so on. I did it to humor the techs but I knew that it wasn't the problem.

The stuff I hate about the script is the questions about the OS. When I had my DSL problems, I answered the question on every stinking tech call I made.

[phillippbo]

...rather than actually solving the issue, tech support had me do the same silly steps every time I called. It was on their end and I still don't know what the problem was.

I can't speak as to what the issue was, and I don't doubt that eventually it was found out to be on their end, but sometimes there is a method to the madness. I will ask someone to powercycle their modem (power it down and bring it back up) so I can monitor what it does as it's starting up and decide what the best course of action would be. Don't know about DSL, but for instance, on cable sometimes a static charge builds up on the line causing the modem to stay off. I can only see the symptoms of that issue if I see it while the modem is "ranging" (what it's doing in the background while all the lights are blinking). The solution to static charge is to unscrew the cable and ground it, saving at least a day of the customer's frustration and some of my company's money. In addition, before we can send a technician we have to tell them what to look for. If my notes are "modem offline" and nothing else, I can get in trouble for not doing my job.

Sometimes, though, the person on the other end of the phone is non-technical and all they know is the "troubleshooting steps" they were given in training. Or some companies grade on how closely the script was followed and any deviation leads to trouble. In either case, keep in mind that first level tech support jobs, especially at large companies, are non-skilled (meaning no college degree required) and the companies are not willing to pay what it would take to hire people with the skills that callers think they should have. If they paid enough for that, I'm sure that the bill for the broadband would have to go up significantly to cover the costs...

[wagegoth]

I installed the Windows Defender from Microsoft, as well as Spybot and Adaware, and also installed Norton and updated all of them, so I hope this time, he will be more careful.

Ree, two suggestions, first, remove Spybot and Adaware. There are specific viruses that are sent out to attack them. I know of two people who ended up having to wipe their hard drives and start from scratch because of attacks on Adaware. Occasionally, I will download Adaware, run it, then uninstall it. Spybot can cause performance issues.

Second suggestion, don't have the computer running Norton and Defender at the same time. You will get some serious performance issues.

The latest version of Norton has anti-spyware, limiting the need for additional programs.