Attention, customer support representatives: not everyone who calls in for assistance is a gibbering idiot from the shallow end of the gene pool. Some of us can even pronounce "nuclear" correctly. So when I call to inform you that I have a technical problem with your product, that it was working perfectly when I went to bed but was not working when I awoke, that I am not a sonambulistic wiring fetishist and absolutely nothing had changed on my end while I was asleep, please do me the courtesy of accepting me at my word. Do not make me disconnect my equipment, change wiring configurations multiple times, or sacrifice a goat before you finally acknowledge that the problem might be at your end. I realize that many-- perhaps even virtually all-- of the people who call for technical support think a serial port is where their Cheerios arrive from overseas. But some of us have a clue, and would appreciate being treated accordingly.
Posted by Peter at October 27, 2004 03:22 PMPreach on, brotha!
Posted by: Rialtus on October 27, 2004 04:29 PMSo, what fried?
Your new i-pod? Laptop? Or GBA?
Posted by: Stephen Glenn on October 28, 2004 04:28 AMMany tech support systems are now handled by people who don't really have any idea what you (or they) are talking about. They follow on screen menus and simply go step by step, not matter what the problem is.
They can't help treating you that way because they don't know any other way. It's very annoying, but it seems to be the trend.
Outsource to someone you can pay virtually nothing because they don't actually have any technical knowledge, but they can read.
Posted by: Larry on October 28, 2004 05:54 AMStephen: None of the above. Installed a new DSL modem. Worked fine, then in the morning... zippo. Turns out it was a disconnected somethingorother at Qwest's end. Which we only discovered after an hour of futzing around with all the connections and wiring at my end. Grrr...
Posted by: Peter on October 28, 2004 11:11 AMGrrr indeed. I've had DSL issues more than once. They always want to blame the phone filter. So I end up playing upstairs/downstairs checking every connection in the house while I'm on the phone with tech support. It always turns out to be an intermittant problem, though, which means no solution is ever found -- the problem eventually fixes itself. Until the next time.
I've thought several times of throwing in the towel on DSL and going straight to cable. Any horror stories from that camp?
Posted by: Stephen Glenn on October 28, 2004 06:12 PMI tried DSL when it first became available in my area - had nothing but trouble. Went to cable and would never go back. Works great and it's faster. Of course, speed will depend on your cable company and the amount of sharing going on in your area.
Posted by: Larry on October 28, 2004 08:57 PM