Tech Support Gripes HERE!

Gripes go both ways.
A few months ago I and everyone on my block experienced intermittent blackouts from our cable modems. Every four hours or so we'd lose service for about 30-45 minutes. I called in, and they still did the whole Windows diagnostic and had me ping the modem, etc. (They don't listen when I tell them that the problem is not Windows, that my local net, file and print server, etc., is still up and running, and that my modem's diagnostic is showing signal well within tolerance. No, they want to know if my network card's icon has an exclamation point next to it.) They tell me that they'll dispatch a repair tech and make an appointment.
I should have known better. If they were going to fix the switch up on the telephone pole at the end of the block, they wouldn't need an appointment. Sure enough the guy came into my house, tested my modem, crimped the ends of every termination point again, and left.
Second call, and again with the Windows BS. (Let's get it straight, Comcast. My connection to the Internet goes through a Linux machine and thence to a switch. It's not bloody Windows. My LAN is still functioning. It's not my router. I can ping my modem and use diagnostics. It's not my modem. Finally, everyone on the block has the same problem. That makes it Comcast's hardware, not anyone else's, that is to blame.) Again they send out a truck where the guy tests my modem and crimps my wires. (Now fully 3 feet shorter than they were, thank you. Imagine if they did circumcisions this way.)
Third call. I am, in a word, pissed. I cut off any attempts to perform basic diagnostics. It wasn't broken the other two times. It isn't broken now. I explain, bar nothing, that the problem is in the main switch at the end of the block. Home techs can't fix the problem. Please, for the love of God and my WoW guild, can they send out a repair team?
Nope. Neither the support tech or her supervisor can schedule that kind of repair. The only way to get it done is for more than five people to call within a 30 minute window so their system reflects a possible outage. And ain't it queer, only four people on my block have cable modems.
I can't get DSL in my area or Comcast would have been dropped like a double-scoop of horse scat.
The problem was intermittent anyway, so even if there were five people to call they wouldn't likely be online at the same time. I was seriously considering fixing the problem by way of a .223 slug and a 3x9 scope. (Even had a good spot picked out.)
Instead I decided that misery loves company, and that when life gives you lemons you should make lemon juice and apply it liberally to the tattered flesh of your enemies.
Every time I noticed a service outage I called them up. By then the outages averaged about 40% of the time, so about 4 or 5 calls a day. I got the neigbors involved as well, and though they were less diligent I'd guess Comcast was getting about 10 a day. (I have no life and a vindictive streak. Beware freaks with too much free time.) A week later they fixed the problem.
So let this be a lesson. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and next time the Powers That Be should do what I bloody tell them.
 
After having worked for M$ support (9x,NT4 Server and W2KPro) for five years, I had heard it all... But the one question that happened at least once a day, that just pisses me off has got to be....

"Double right-click?"

WHEN!? WHEN!? Has there ever been a program that required a DOUBLE right-click!?
 
Why is it that ANYIME I tell ANYONE that I work in IT, their immediate response is

"Ohhh IT huh? You must make a lot of money, computers are the future. Anyway, on my home PC I get this wierd thing....."

Thanks right, I spend 40 hours a week working on computer problems, anxiously awaiting going home and talking to some stranger about their personal PC problems.
Click to expand...
Amen.

Same here. During the weekend, I don't want to touch/look/think about computers in a very technical sense, unless I'm doing something for myself at my own will.
 
I was working on a symbol mc50/cisco VoIP project for walmart and i had a batch of handhelds with a purely defective OS/software package with no way to reload them (no install image/proprietary software) I was on a three-way call with my contact @ black box (or tel-aid cant remember) and a CCIE tech. The cisco tech had me hard reset the handhelds three times (i had already done this about 4 times previous to his call) He kept asking me to access the phone application, which upon accessing, froze. The only thing you could do was exit out of the frozen app. the app had the equivalent of an hourglass in the center of it and would not respond. So its about 5am after 7 hours of troubleshooting.

The cisco tech was like "just click on the f*ing application and put the settings in!"
so I was like..."I may not be a CCIE but i know that theres problems when ti wont work on three handhelds and we've tried everything possible. software most likely."

then he goes "fine you fix it then, if you think youre so smart"

at which point I hung up with him got the image after the first guy came in @ 7am at our contact (bb or telaid) reinstalled and it worked right away.

thanks cisco. big f'n help

one tech to another calls are always horrible in my opinion, i always avoid calling unless its absolutely necessary. thats how I learned alot of what I know.
 
Agreed with pretty much all of the many posts above.
I'm right at the bottom of the ladder and the first person people get through too. We have to log calls/problems and then read scripts. We are not allowed to say any solution that deosn't appear on our screens even if it is stupidly obvious, we have to follow all the pointless steps which we know won't solve the problem and then transfer the customer upwards, if we offer 'non-official' (ie not on the screen) advice then we can get reported.

Griping the other way: Many a year ago got first BT modem connection here in the UK, dialer installed, everything plugged in, all details filled in correctly annnnnnnd.... nothing!
Call tech support and say "When I click 'dial' I get *generic software error messege here* so I can't connect to the interent, access webpages etc".
Nice support blokes response "go to "www.bt.com/software/blah/blah" and download the new dialer software....."
 
haha
good stuff people, keep it coming :D
back in the day, i used to do level 2 tech support for HP, heres an example of the kind of bullshit feedback we have to deal with. customer phones in with a modem problem. i diagnose the issue and reccomend some solution. customer fills in a survey, commenting "everything seems to have been done just right"
for some reason, the ticket is 'investigated' and the following comment appears on a report i am given about a month later:
The agent did not follow all the steps. Agent failed to follow proper procedure. Agents have a responsibility to help the customer by troubleshooting the computer in order to verify if the hardware really was defective. What troubleshooting did this agent do? He did nothing at all. Turning off the computer and then telling the cusomter that he may need a service was entirely inappropriate. Why didn't the agent follow the Agent Desktop Windows XP modem flowchart? Why didn't the agent perform the hyperterminal modem diagnostics test as the flowchart outlined? How was "discharge the caps" supposed to resolve this issue? Why is "discharging the caps" the answer to every problem? This agent should have done more for the customer. Getting rid of the customer as quickly as possible is not good troubleshooting. Lastly, the agent provided poor notes. In the future, please used the Icare Case Notes Temlate. See internal alert 04-29-03HP-B.
Click to expand...

WOW, i must really suck, right? Basically i sent the guy a new modem and got written up for it... Curious, i broke some rules and pulled up my notes from that call a month later. I grabbed the customers email address, and sent him a message. I wont re-type it here (i'm looking at the print out now) but it basically says "I am wondering if that replacement modem solved the problems you were having"
His response?
installed it sunday-problem is fixed, thanks Richard
Click to expand...

I rest my case :D

I wish i could post all the shit i have on my wall here, all the other stuff i got written up for more recently is pretty hillarious. Unfortunately, if management where i work ever gets wind of this thread, they will be combing through my posts in an effort to reveal my identity so they can replace me with another drone, probably one that didn't make it through high school...

Anyone know how to make a RJ-9/RJ-10/RJ-22 to stereo mini jack adapter? I think these are all equivelent jacks used by the headsets at work, if i could only get it to plug into the line-in on my mp3 player...
 
When I was at HP for technical support I had about two tickets a week re-opened for "incorrect procedures followed". I remember when we got visited by an executive who sat with us in our calls and I always spent a minute or two determining if the problem would be hardware or software before I tried to sell someone on extended warranty, ths person was out of software but in hardware warranty, and it ended up being a bad powersupply. The person even thanked me for not trying to sell him a software warranty like the people in India. Well I got a really good chewing out because I should have sold all sorts of warranties first, and that a hit in customer satisfaction was worth getting a $15 warranty.

I showed him a my CSAT score of 100% and he backed off.

Oh and the powersupply fixed the problem.
 
Oh I've got a couple but I'll just put maybe the latest one's in for now then read, comiserate and probably post somemore.


Ok so I work for a school district right now, Most people on paper think of me as in intern, however our new boss sees us as more as network admins... because we are. Anything on the netowrk breaks, we gotta fix it or see to it that it gets fixed, we repair install replace PCs and work with AD general windows stupidity and trouble shoot whatever physical netowrk problems that may happen.

School NEED networks, requirements by the state and the National Gov. require the use of computers as well as education. They pay us (not our boss) the work bees Minimum wage, that right! After taxes if I spent a gallon of gas I couldn't afford to eat and get gas after an hour of work... We are being told that we are going to get a raise, its a big raise as far as raises go but we will still be behind the curve and still under 9 bucks, they keep saying they have no money but they will buy what they want in a snap, hire who the want no problem and get raises that are more than I make a year no sweat. I must be missing something!

Ok real rant

We run a program called File maker Pro, I'm not sure if you're familar with it but basically its like what I understood access to be but more user firendly, its like a lightweight database with customizable user interface. The user opens FileMaker, selects the project and enters, recalls data etc etc, you can network it to one server and store all the data there, which we do.

Yesterday we come in and find the interent dead... we go to check the network room and see nothing wrong. We've got Cisco equipment and I will be honest and say i've never laid a finger on IOS, but it doesn't matter too much as we don't have access to most outward facing equipment configuration because of our upstream provider. SO I start checking connections, rebooting the core switch etc etc. finally I reboot the core router and pix but brought pix back too soon, restarted pix again and interent (it was more guess work because of the filter and... no logical layout or documentation on the network!)

So we get a call from a school saying that they can't get to the interent. I tell them that we have found and fix that problem so you should be fine now. The person says no they aren't so I look into it. I ask for their IP address and remote to their computer and sure enough, the interent doesn't seem to be accessable.

So while I'm working in the background the resident "computer person", yeah the one that knows little of nothing but thinik they know everything. She pipes up
"Yeah I can't get into filemaker, isn't file maker connected with the interent"
I start to explain that it sort of is since you have first get to the main site where file maker (server) is then you'd hit the interent, but since I'm physically there and I'm remoting to them its not a problem so I say
me: "No"
She: "oh I thought it was connected to the interent"
Me: "no, its not"
She: "oh, ok"

I continue working for a few seconds...
she: "File maker is connected to the interent righ?"
me: "No"
She: "but see I thought File maker was connected to the interent"
By this time I close IE reopned it and it stopped bing a stupid program and worked
She: "see now I bet file maker will work for me too, cause file maker is connected to the internet isn't it?"
She's in a differnt room btw, her computer was working as well as I could see.
me: "No file maker isn't connected to the interent (turning my attention to who called with the problem) Ok this seems fine it just needed to be reopened anything I can help with?"
She: (lady about file materk) "So file maker is connected to the internet"


GOSH LADY WHY DON'T YOU LISTEN TO ME! I'm not some young skinny punk that thinks he knows everything I work with this stuff for over a year in this place now and I've to 10 years system admin experience and over 5 in networking. Trust me when I say its not connected to the interent ITS MY JOB TO KNOW THESE THINGS!!! I don't even know why she is in there! She was just adding to the confusion of the person with the problem that just listened and followed instructions like a nice good user! ARGH!



Last one
I get a call around 2PM
"I need help, I need to print and its not working, can you help me print to our printer here?"
OK I can do that, so I start searching for the printer on the Print server of that school, find it, check the queue and nothing is wrong, so I look on her computer and its already install and I ask, well its install in your account and its working... whats the problem?
"Well its just not working, I don't see it and when I hit print nothing happens"
I pause printing only to hear her talk to someone in the room and find out its the printer in the room not THEIR network printer its HER printer right there. So I ask her if she ment the local printer
"Oh... yeah"
I start working on it, yep something is wrong, I go to kill old jobs, she has tried to print like 40 times" Didn't work
She:"is it going to work because I need to know if its going to print or not because I have to go"
I'm working on it just a minute. I stop the spooler service and restart it... it freezes
"I'm going to have to restart your computer, is all your work saved?"
*2 minues go by*
"hello? *
She: Yeah its all saved
"Ok restarting now"
the computer seems still on by the network but I can access it
"Is the computer shutting down are there any messages on the screen?"
She: "yeah its shutting down"
*10 minutes go past*
"has it restarted?"
She: "there is a message, do you want to end this program?"
"ok click end or close, whatever you have to do"
*2 minutes*
"is it restarting now?"
She: "oh do you want me to click end program?"
*head desk!* "yes"
*computer stops responding*
*10 minutes later*
" I can't get ot the computer is it restarting or is there a message?"
She: "Do you want me to turn it on?"
*holds back rage* "... yes"
*3 mintues later*
"is it restarting I can't get..."
She: "i'm logged in"
the computer wasn't remotely controlable just yet for some reason I try again and it got in. I print and everything is fine
"OK it should be fine now"
Someone ELSE that wasn't even appart of it in the backgrounds goes "yeaaaaaa, you're great Mr. Tech. person!"
*silence*
"so... is there anything else I can help you with?"
she: "eh......"
*3 mintue silence while she talks to other people about mundane non-work stuff*
"hello... do you still need me"
The principal who wasn't appart of this at all, "No stu you did a wonderful job thaks"
"no problem"
but she still didn't hang up the phone!


OK so you are busy and need this printed and have to go yet you can help me help you fix this!! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!

One more!

So we have a good number of dell computers, most of them have gold warrenties, and our stuff and just be replaced like that.

So when we call though with a bad hard drive that under warrenty its usually like this:

"yeah I'm calling to report a bad drive, I didn't even finish the scan but its already got over 2% bad sectors and I haven't scanned 8% of the drive"

dell: Ok *types away* are you in front of the computer?

If I say yes then they will want me to run some diagnostic program to get an error code and give it to them, if I say no then the will compain for a bit but then send us a new one.

Isn't this thing under warrenty? We've had it less than a year or three and the HD is bad... just replace it darn it! That many bad sectors that thing is just going to get worse! I know what I'm talking about comon tech to tech lets not make anyone's job that much tedius!

Yesterday I found that if I also report the temp of the drive (over 42 degrees C) then its like a safty recall.


Am I missing something? Why do I have to run ANOTHER program just to tell you the drive is bad, doesn't me telling you in jargon that yea many red spots means no good and will get worse? Why can't it just be "Hi I'm a knowlageable tech, I've got a bad part and a valid super warrenty, replace this part please?" OK!
 
TeamStrykerCore said:
Oh that is soo true. Public school systems have to be the worst for that. And also a lot of times the network admins are underpaid.
Click to expand...

... HELL YES! I couldn't even afford to make physical visits to some of these places when gas was 3+ and they don't allow us to take any of the compnay vehicles that are just sitting around!
 
HAHAHA!! Great stories!! I try not to be a dick to the people I have to call for tech support. I fi *know* how to do something, I'll say so so that they can skip the click Start --> Programs --> ... crap and get to the meat. If I don't know something, I'm honest that they're going to have to walk me through it step by step.


However, the one company I have no patience with, and that's Comcast. Normally I'm open to suggestion if I can't get something working, but if I'm calling you for support, rest assured that I've already "power cycled my modem." And then when I tell them I already tried that, they ask how long I left it off; if I say 1 minute they tell me I have to do it for 5; if I say 5, they say 10; 10 --> 15. One guy had the gall to tell me 30 minutes.

Now, when they say power cycle, I just sit and play solitaire for the 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes necessary and keep them on the line. A lot of them will try to get you to hang up and call back, but I make them wait with me. If I get disconnected, I call back and ask for them personally.



On a more amusing note, I'm unfortunate enough to have been suckered into doing tech support for a number of family and friends. The best story I've got was from a female co-worker of mine who bought a new computer and was feeling generous enough to give her parents her old one and hook them up with a NetZero account so they could send and receive email.

Of course, she asked me for a couple of pointers and I basically told her to put a modem in the computer, follow the add hardware wizard on boot, and then do the connection wizard for the actual connection. She's [usually] not an idiot when it comes to computers, so I trusted that this was enough information. I assured her that if something weird happened, she could call me.

So, of course, later that night she calls me and says that it doesn't work and that there is no connection. So, I have her check to make sure that everything is plugged in, it is. Also, whenever she plugs in the 'modem' all the phones in the house go dead.

So, I'm thinking maybe the modem is on the fritz or something. Remember, she was semi-competant, so I felt assured that she hadn't done something completely retarded... big mistake on my part.

So, had she installed the modem properly... what, it already had one?? Wait a sec... when I hooked that computer up at her house with cable, there was no modem... "Are you sure you've got a modem??" Yes yes. I don't remember one when I did your cable modem install... yes yes, it has one for sure. Okay...

Is the place you're plugging the phone line in the exact same size as the plug, or is it bigger?? Oh, it's the same size. Are you sure?? Yes.

Okay, check the Device Manager to see if the modem is working properly, we get there and there is no modem installed.

::More boring crap only proving what I thought was true::

You're plugging the phone line into the NIC, not a modem. You don't have a modem. The reason the phones all die when you do this is that you're now sending out packets like mad, trying to establish a connection, but are only causing interference with the phone lines.

Of course, I'm wrong. It is definately a modem. So I tell her that there is nothing else I can do then and if she wants to bring it in to work the next day, I'll take a look.

Next morning, no PC, just a co-worker with a very red face telling me that I was right after all. Big F!@#ing suprise. I give her a modem from the pile of spares we have that are just gathering dust, she goes to her parents that night, it installs properly, makes a connection and works flawlessly.

I told her next time she called with something stupid like that, I was billing her my freelance rate for the time wasted.
 
For those of you that are dicks to the techs, don't be. The people that know how to do things are few and far between, and frequently occurs that if someone says he's a "technician", you can pretty much guarantee he doesn't know shit.

When you get a few "network admins" that say they don't know what an IP address is or try to tell me there is no such thing as DHCP, you really don't even care what someone says his qualifications are. I have no certifications and I'm always telling "CCNAs" and the like how to configure a router. Your alphabet soup doesn't impress me, getting you to do what I ask is what impresses me.

Companies aren't going to send new parts out just because someone asks for them. It gets costly, and if it actually happened for every instance that a user asked for them, it'd bankrupt the company. Hence, you're forced to go through the stupid troubleshooting steps that you know are useless. I know that switching the ends of your ethernet cable is pointless and futile, but no one cares. The faster you get through the bullshit without fighting, the sooner you'll get what you want.
 
Well, this doesnt involve an end-user, but sometimes, boss's can be just as frustrating.

Boss was planning out a multi-site VPN/WAN project. He had diagrammed some stuff on a whiteboard. Well, today was a slow day so he has me diagram it within Visio. I completed it and submit it to him for review.

His complaint? "This is an example of a good diagram." (points to one made in old version of Visio.) "This one looks too cartoonish." (points to mine.)

Really, I think this issue should've been brought up with Microsoft, not me. *bangs head on desk*
 
Nybbles said:
Well, this doesnt involve an end-user, but sometimes, boss's can be just as frustrating.

Boss was planning out a multi-site VPN/WAN project. He had diagrammed some stuff on a whiteboard. Well, today was a slow day so he has me diagram it within Visio. I completed it and submit it to him for review.

His complaint? "This is an example of a good diagram." (points to one made in old version of Visio.) "This one looks too cartoonish." (points to mine.)

Really, I think this issue should've been brought up with Microsoft, not me. *bangs head on desk*
Click to expand...


ROFL. That sounds like Steve. OMG Steve wants to use VPN? I thought it was too unstable and caused too much "slowness"?
 
I do a lot of tech support and stuff for my family in friends (friends in Texas, California, East Coast, Japan, England, and Spain). Since I currently live in the US, I get calls from US people and e-mails from other countries; every now and then I'll get a call from a foreign country at 3 in the morning asking me how to reformat or something. I have to say the funniest thing I ever got was from my sister in California. She wanted a fast laptop, but since she's extremely Mac oriented, it has to have the Mac interface. I went through all the possibilities with her, skinning a PC to look like a mac, teaching her how to use linux, her just swallowing her mac pride and buying a PC, but none of this would work. She wanted me to build her a G5 laptop with liquid nitrogen cooling. And she didn't want to spend more than a thousand dollars on it.

Needless to say, I hung up on my sister at that point.
 
So we just got a new remote site to monitor and of course, it goes down on my shift(night shift, noone around). It's just an internet dsl, so I'm not waking anyone up for it, fuck that. I have an IP, tho, and a street address, so I decide to call SBC to see if there are problems in the area, blah blah blah. This is how it went.

Me: Hi, I have a dsl modem showing down and I don't have any of the account info, just the IP address and street address, is there anyway you'd still be able to look it up?

randomIndianItmoron: Can I have the emaila ddress associated with the account so I can look it up?

Me: <shocked> Hi, I have a dsl modem showing down and I don't have any of the account info, just the IP address and street address, is there anyway you'd still be able to look it up? You know, like I asked you the first time?

randomIndianItmoron: Do you have the phone number?

Me: <Even more shocked> no, all I have is the IP address, this is a brand new site and they didn't give me any documentation on it, it's 40 miles away from me.

randomIndianItmoron: Can you sit down in front of the modem and...

Me: What part of it's 40 miles away don't you understand? Can you look this up by IP or street address?

randomIndianItmoron: What's the IP?

Me: <gives ip>

randomIndianItmoron: Oh, thats a dynamic IP, I won't be able to find any info on that.

Me: It's actually a static IP, and you can't trace back to it, find the last hop and figure out what modem that is based on that? You know, troubleshooting/investigative skills?

randomIndianItmoron: Do you have the email address associated with this account?

Me: OMFG <hangs up>


So in short, I hate SBC DSL, they're less useful than the appendix, I've talked ot their Hi-Cap people, level 1 and level 2. Level 1 is ok, but level 2 really know what they're doing. In short, DON"T OUTSOURCE TO INDIA, THEY'VE ALREADY USED THE THREE GOOD TECHS THERE, ALL THATS LEFT ARE DROOLING IDIOTS WHO CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH LET ALONE TROUBLESHOOT!!!


/rant
 
Nybbles said:
Well, this doesnt involve an end-user, but sometimes, boss's can be just as frustrating.

Boss was planning out a multi-site VPN/WAN project. He had diagrammed some stuff on a whiteboard. Well, today was a slow day so he has me diagram it within Visio. I completed it and submit it to him for review.

His complaint? "This is an example of a good diagram." (points to one made in old version of Visio.) "This one looks too cartoonish." (points to mine.)

Really, I think this issue should've been brought up with Microsoft, not me. *bangs head on desk*
Click to expand...
Haha... Important Lesson Learned here in life. If you value your job no matter how retarded they are. Your boss is always right.
 
Customers come in callin everything by the wrong name....
Does this hardDrive come with a monitor???
For toshiba laptops......so it comes with satelite internet???
what all does this modem come with??
I need a pci cable??? (USB)
where is the mouse on these computers???? (Laptops)
My computer is posessed....
so this is where i plug my ubs cable right??
I need a new Drive.......(Computer)

The language us techs will never understand...........
 
Rabidfox said:
So in short, I hate SBC DSL, they're less useful than the appendix, I've talked ot their Hi-Cap people, level 1 and level 2. Level 1 is ok, but level 2 really know what they're doing. In short, DON"T OUTSOURCE TO INDIA, THEY'VE ALREADY USED THE THREE GOOD TECHS THERE, ALL THATS LEFT ARE DROOLING IDIOTS WHO CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH LET ALONE TROUBLESHOOT!!!
Click to expand...


Actually, SBC's call centers in India were closed 3 months ago due to failing to meet their POSE scores (that's the customer satisfaction surveys)
We now have call centers in Arizona, Florida, Costa Rica and Phillipines.

The call centers in the US are a lot better than the ones that are outside the US. the outsourced centers support a lot of stuff and can't get as much technical knowledge about it.
 
Stang Man said:
Actually, SBC's call centers in India were closed 3 months ago due to failing to meet their POSE scores (that's the customer satisfaction surveys)
We now have call centers in Arizona, Florida, Costa Rica and Phillipines.

The call centers in the US are a lot better than the ones that are outside the US. the outsourced centers support a lot of stuff and can't get as much technical knowledge about it.
Click to expand...

We've only got one center overseas, though people refuse to believe that. There are people of all nationalities working at my center, so when callers get someone with an accent, they automatically assume the center is overseas, then they bitch about it when I talk to them, assuming they just got transferred to a whole other building on the other side of the world.
 
This ticket has to win Tech Support Call of the year.. our whole office is still rolling on the ground.. read the ticket.. and see if you can figure out who this mystery man really is....




customer is crying and very upset

says this has been an ongoing issue for months at least

says a man keeps hacking her

he controls her mouse and her pc and types msges to her (dirty msges)

he wont let her shop and only lets her look at certain things

apparently he gives her riddles to solve so she can get on the internet...like she clicks on IE and she has to solve one of his riddles to get to the page

he called her a couple times but she says she couldnt even repeat what he said. (too vulgar im assuming)

says he is a SBC employee- his title: Dial-up Manger- says he is an ex co-worker but she doesnt know who he is or what he looks like.


he also put a wire in her computer and whenever he rides by her house he flicks her computer off---but also says she has never met him or seen him.

doesnt know his real name...says his online name is Login (pronounced Logan)

says he tries to get her involved in money pyramids with yahoo and when she resists he calls her on her phone. Since he works for SBC he shuts her phone off...i asked her to go to her computer and she said she cant cause if she takes the phone near the computer he will get into the fone and shut it off...says he has done that on many occasions...she is crying profusely- to the point i can barely understand her

he told her there is a Master Computer in Illinois...like the one that runs the internet- and he has access to it and she called them and they said that most of the people that have access to the Master Computer have good intentions but he is a bad one and takes advantage of it. They are tracking him down.

says he has to be a small man cause he physically gets into her computer, like climbs into it and chews out the lightbulbs on her NIC card..and sometimes when she leaves and comes back her computer is taken apart and she has to put it back together

she says she sent her last computer back to Microsoft and he drove to Microsoft cause he has access to them cause he is a Manager and got into her computer before they shipped it - so when it arrived he was already in there

apparently he got into the back of her computer in her basement and removed some hardware and replaced it with a "spybox" that has a camera in it so he can watch her.

says he faxes her msges and signs his name but he must use magical or special ink cause his name always dissappears before she can right it down.

has gone to the police and they just call her a "crackpot"

says she has to send it back (meaning her computer and adelphia) - i asked her if thats what she meant - disconnect adelphia- she says she has to or this will never stop - she cant take it anymore cause she has had 22 back surgeries in the past few months and he wont leave her alone.
Click to expand...
 
Retarded helpdesk tickets

120512 - CLOSED **Incident** 11/14/2005 @ 8:41:07 AM


Title Mouse problem
Category DESKTOP/LAPTOP || MOUSE || Does Not Work
Priority Single, P2 Opened By Ryan Wehrly
Submitter CADKC5 PC Name/Loc DDC101323 || A2S-C11
Description
double click feature does not work, has to right click and choose open.

Journal Entries

Ryan Wehrly/DNRXW5 - 11/14/2005 @ 08:42:47
user has an ergo mouse, verified mouse settings in control panel, thinking it may be a driver issue so sending dekstop to check.

Solution Description

changed the double-click speed setting in the mouse options. user now can double click without having to click extremely fast.

Hrrrm. better try reinstalling the double-click feature. lol
 
I just took a call that went from the worst one I've had in weeks to the best one I've had in weeks in about 3 minutes.

This guy can't get online. He's had a bunch of problems, the agent took too long on the call, so it got transferred to me. I finished configuring his modem, connected his old-ass router, configured it, and it won't connect. I had him reconfigure the router, it still won't connect. I tell him his router is bad. He claims it's our PPP servers not recognizing his password he just changed. For ~20 minutes he rants and raves, telling me it's not his router.

I tell him to disconnect the router, and in 2 minutes I have his modem configured and he's online. "The PPP server is having no problem recognizing your password. The problem is with your router." He then spent the next 5 minutes silent, clicking away trying to come up with something else to bitch about. He finds an email problem, starts bitching, and I tell him it's because he changed his password and didn't update Outlook. He updates the password and gets his mail.

Very sheepishly, he apologized for being shitty with me and then said he'd call Linksys later.

I am SO happy when I'm able to prove an asshole wrong.
 
Not neccesarily tech support, but:

Me: "What's wrong with it?"
Her: "I don't know."
Me: "Is it booting up?"
Her: "I don't know."
Me: "Is it even powering on?"
Her: "I don't know."

Turns out her PSU had taken the shitter. But honestly, that was ridiculous.
 
Rabidfox said:
hey now, I worked on the other side, and having to call for business lines now, makes my head hurt.

1) Don't fucking ask me for the telephone number, I work at a NOC, the remote site is 2000 miles away.

2) Don't ask me what the lights on the modem look like, I have no fucking idea, if we had a web-cam, it'd be broken too.


</rant>
Click to expand...

I understand the frustration on this one.. but if you call a "DSL" company and are not on site.. well, just dont bother calling. Get someone on site to call.
 
Stang Man said:
WOW, you have described nearly almost EVERYTHING!


I don't understand what's so hard to comprehend:
on the SBC Member Agreement page, there's one page that states the following page is going to be verifying the account information (Name, Telephone #, Address, etc etc), and it asks:
"Do you authorize SBC to fill in the information automatically?" [ ] Yes [ ] No

People have such a fucking hard time with this it is ridiculous, they ask:
Well, which one should I do? Which one would you do? What if I want to change it? Will I have to type it out then if I say no?

STFU ALREADY AND JUST DO IT
Click to expand...

LOL, yeah we get that one alot (I also work for SBC). Also the yahoo ID part (merge) where it says to click NO if you dont have a yahoo ID.
 
Stang Man said:
Actually, SBC's call centers in India were closed 3 months ago due to failing to meet their POSE scores (that's the customer satisfaction surveys)
We now have call centers in Arizona, Florida, Costa Rica and Phillipines.

The call centers in the US are a lot better than the ones that are outside the US. the outsourced centers support a lot of stuff and can't get as much technical knowledge about it.
Click to expand...

Nah, we still have NewDelhi, Noida, Mumbai and Cebu call centers for first tier SBC support. Not sure where you got info that they "closed" call centers but it never happened.
 
kcthebrewer said:
I love the it when the customer calls in because they cannot authenticate and it ends up that another DSL ISP has taken over the line without permission. Earthlink does it all the time. That shit is funny as hell from this side, I would hate to be the one it happened to though.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of what happend to us. Our DSL worked fine for about 2.5 years in our apartment, not a single problem (props to speakeasy) and then one day, out of the blue, we are dead!

So we call Speakeasy, who get Vz to dispatch someone:

Tech guy comes, he is pretty cool (as in he realizes that we are not total idiots) and starts troubleshooting:
  1. Modem, nope doesn't work
  2. phone line - hmm.. you got dialtone (we hadn't had a voice circuit in ~2.2 years at that point)
  3. ok, let's see the basement and check the wiring...
  4. Wiring ok, you even have dialtone down there, so that can't be it.
  5. Tech guy checks the termination equipment in Verizon's locker in our basement, everything is still fine.
  6. Since 'everything' is working as expected, he is somewhat baffled, and gets his ladder to check some box on the pole behind our apartment building.
  7. Since that turns out fine, he walks across the block to a remote terminal and *tada* finds the error. Someone had 'stolen' our "F2" - whatever this may be, I guess it's our copper pair.

After about 2.5 hours of troubleshooting and then running a new copper pair to our place we finally have DSL again. The tech is cool enough to cut our neighbors phone line (the ones that had stolen our 'F2') and puts a label on it "Don't steal F2s". I thought that was hillarious. He said that the other tech would have to re-do that job.

I know, long story, but I was impressed with our tech and his persistence to find the problem. Just the fact that he left a 'note' for the other guy was too funny. I wanted to give him a beer, but he was on the job... oh well.
 
TheTyrant said:
This ticket has to win Tech Support Call of the year.. our whole office is still rolling on the ground.. read the ticket.. and see if you can figure out who this mystery man really is....
Click to expand...

so who is it? clippy th m$ assistant?
 
Stang Man said:
Actually, SBC's call centers in India were closed 3 months ago due to failing to meet their POSE scores (that's the customer satisfaction surveys)
We now have call centers in Arizona, Florida, Costa Rica and Phillipines.

The call centers in the US are a lot better than the ones that are outside the US. the outsourced centers support a lot of stuff and can't get as much technical knowledge about it.
Click to expand...
I hate to break it to ya, man, but your tier 1 call centers still suck. And I have yet to get someone who is not a native Indian.

Not that i have a problem with that, necessarily. It's just that, combine with their lack of knowledge, their inability to comprehend what I'm telling them is unworkable.

I have had many conversations like Rabidfox had. One last week that was memorable.

I recommend against SBC to everyone and anyone who even thinks about it. The only other option in this area is comcast which is about 50 bucks a month, but that's a far sight better than 15/month and dealing with sbc.
 
FlatLine84 said:
I hate dealing with dell when I have to call one of our systems in, you'd think as being a on-road tech contact for them, and a reseller, you'd get a different tech support group, but no... So call, tell them what's wrong, and what I need. They pause for a minute and ask "Have you restarted the computer?" I pause for a moment as well, and rattle off all the steps I've done, and usually they pause once again, and ask where want the stuff shipped. It's like "Hello! douchebags, I can run circles around you!"
Click to expand...
you know, i have REALLY good luck with dell support
i ordered my 3000cn thru dell small business and when it arrived everything was working excpet for port 9100 printing
i mean EVERYTHING WORKED except for port 9100, i don't get why, i spend like 3 hrs trying to fix the problem with no solution.
So i call dell, wait for liek 5 mins on hold/menus and then talk to this guy, who seemed to know a lot about printers and stuff. He told me to do a few things to verify it worked and then overnighted me a new printer within 5 mins.
 
XOR != OR said:
I hate to break it to ya, man, but your tier 1 call centers still suck. And I have yet to get someone who is not a native Indian.

Not that i have a problem with that, necessarily. It's just that, combine with their lack of knowledge, their inability to comprehend what I'm telling them is unworkable.

I have had many conversations like Rabidfox had. One last week that was memorable.

I recommend against SBC to everyone and anyone who even thinks about it. The only other option in this area is comcast which is about 50 bucks a month, but that's a far sight better than 15/month and dealing with sbc.
Click to expand...

I've never had a single problem with SBC since I got them, though I've never had to call tech support. The best tech support is support you never need.
 
Here is my personal favorite:

etoken.jpg
 
Few good old ones that I've come accross

1) user arguying that their floppy cannot be accessed, it says "disk not formatted", I go up and sure enough there is NO floppy in there... this turns into a 5 minute discussion where the user REFUSES To look in the drive , me sticking my finger in the drive to prove that nothing is in there and the user still refusing to believe it only to turn around and the floppy is on their desk...

2) user puts a floppy in a cd-rom tray and CLOSES It, believe it or not, it can close if you position it just right and are strong enough, lol , SHE claims it was because she was distracted on the phone and didn't realize that this square thing does not go into the round slot

3) I come accross a monitor in a cube with sticky notes on it (like 2 or 3), not the whole sticky notes, just pieces of them, I ask the user why he's doing that and he proceeds to minimize all his applications to show me that he hides some old shortcuts on his desktop that way so he does not use them... now that I was curious I asked why he does not delete them instead and he said with a puzzled look on his face that he had no idea he could do that, he didn't want to delete the files for someone else (when he only had shortcuts of course)...

I will be a saint one day, I guarantee it.... either that or I'll beat someone over the head with a keyboard.
 
Going to agree on the High School Tech jobs. I'm only 15, but right now I am one of the schools tech's. Not bad actually, I get to just dick around with computers all day at school. But some teachers, yeah, well let's let them be the "math" and "science" experts, and we'll just fix the computer. And about the girl that formatted the drive and the dude got pissed. Something that my teacher has us do, is back up everything, no matter what. Even if they say no. It saves us so much trouble and keeps our reputation great.
 
killa62 said:
you know, i have REALLY good luck with dell support
i ordered my 3000cn thru dell small business and when it arrived everything was working excpet for port 9100 printing
i mean EVERYTHING WORKED except for port 9100, i don't get why, i spend like 3 hrs trying to fix the problem with no solution.
So i call dell, wait for liek 5 mins on hold/menus and then talk to this guy, who seemed to know a lot about printers and stuff. He told me to do a few things to verify it worked and then overnighted me a new printer within 5 mins.
Click to expand...

That's nice, I usually do have good luck as well. But I'm coming from the aspect, that I am tier one, I KNOW what's wrong, I don't need troubleshooting help, I need parts... I don't need to spend 2 hours dicking around with people, to finally get what I need. But, as I'm doing this for buisnesses, I can wait around I guess.
 
twyztyr said:
I've never had a single problem with SBC since I got them, though I've never had to call tech support. The best tech support is support you never need.
Click to expand...
You are lucky. I live in an area of aged infrastructure. Every week is something new.

That's when SBC isn't out cutting the lines of my telco provider. "On accident". Couple months ago they cut through the fiber that carries service to a reseller. Only consolation is they also cut service to some of their customers too.

I'm on the phone about once a week with sbc. It's when I have to talk to business support that I have the worst time, but residential support isn't much better.
 
Stang Man said:
I'm one of them guys:D


people will call up and complain about the tons of problems they've been having (i look in the db, and there's only 2 cases noted) and that they're threatening to cancel their service.
Click to expand...

Summation of a recent phone call from Comcast:

Them: Hi, we're calling to tell you about Comcast Digital Voice.
Me: With all the problems I've had over the years, why would I trust my phone service to you?
Them: (Pulling up my file) Oh my god, I've never seen anyone's this long (insert appropriate joke here). With how many problems you've had, I could offer you a free month of Comcast Digital Cable.
Me: Sorry, other than sports, cartoons and the History Channel, I don't watch much TV.
 
this thread might be dead, but its not forgotton... here's some more "Sweet" calls i took this year:




loaded IE
seems to work - got rr homepage
loaded Microsoft Outlook
checked accounts - ??
not sure where he got to
loaded outlook again
can't find email accounts in tools menu
tried for several minutes
tried to find OE instead
sub somehow got to accounts in Outlook
no existing account
spent 10 minutes trying to get the wizard up to add a new account...
spent 45 minutes setting up account
almost got it, but sub closed window
too bad...
suggested use webmail instead
sub can call back when he takes those typing lessons he mentioned and we can set up Outlook again at that time
showed sub how to use webmail instead
not that it was any easier..... spent like 30 min on that
gave up after 4 messages and 100 minutes into call
tested from our end
sub has been typing "stx.rr.doccom" for the email host name
went over that with him again
now he's typing the word test in the email address instead of subject
...
finally got it after 1:54
sub hasn't found it in his inbox yet
sent another test message for some reason...
whatever
tried to get sub to go back to his inbox
finally got it
resolved
and we just broke 2 hours
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top