A Normal Day At Calleja's Shitty Job

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Ross

Ross

Staff member
Being "talked down to" is one of the big reasons why I don't bother trying to call support anymore... I just try to figure it out on my own, with the aid of a handy Google search.

After moving into my apartment a month ago, I noticed a problem with my internet connection... it would keep going out intermittently. I had determined that it had to deal with either the modem, or the line coming in from outside. The first guy came and replaced on of the connecting cables (wall -> modem), but that did not fix it. The second guy came when I wasn't at my apartment (because they scheduled it for the wrong time) and blamed it on my router since I wasn't there to tell him otherwise.

The third time around, I got them to switch out the modem. That wasn't the problem, either, so at least at this point I know it's the connection from the outside. I get Time Warner to come out a fourth time, at which point the guy stopping by actually listens to me and fixes the connection outside, and now it's running fine.

What's the point in telling this story? I knew that one of two things was having problems, and instead of testing the lines and the modem and fixing it on the first (if not second) try, it took four visits for the problem to be resolved, all because they wouldn't fully listen to what I was able to figure out. At least Time Warner does free house calls, and I'm not out of $300 or something :)
 
Shakey

Shakey

A lot of tech support is now done with a script, and they have to run down each thing because they are being recorded. It doesn't matter how much you know, or what you've already done. If they don't do it they get a warning.

After I worked in tech support, I moved to customer service for the same company(an ISP and phone company). We were bought out by a larger company, and they took the ISP portion to their main location. Anyway, the phone portion had done some changes to their switch that for one reason or another caused a steady beeping tone if you had a voicemail. Normally after a couple seconds it goes away, ours didn't. So all of our dialup customers that had voicemail were freaking out because the modem could never get a dial tone, and wouldn't dial. Add to this the company that took over our ISP didn't have enough people to handle all the normal calls, people were facing hour long waits just to have to call back again.

The fix would only take a couple seconds to do, but no one knew what the hell was going on over there. They were working on a script and doing what they always did. We told the people in charge of ISP support, but the word wasn't getting out. I told the others in customer service to just send the calls to me. If it was a problem with voicemail, I would fix it. If it wasn't I'd send em off to tech support.

I ended up getting written up because I wasn't following proper procedure and wasn't answering regular customer service calls like I was supposed to.:rolleyes:

TLDR - Sometimes it's that the employees have to work through certain steps or they get written up, not that they are necessarily looking down on you.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
Amorous Wench said:
Re: Fade

You're tiny? Just how tiny? <3
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I just meant that they seem to view my knowledge of computer tech that way.


I realize you phone guys have a procedure you need to follow, and I respect that. But in-house guys, I'd expect a little leeway from. It's another reason I like my Mac. I'm effectively off the grid, but I can still use the Windows network, since Mac supports SMB messaging.
 
A

Andromache

ZenMonkey said:
People call suicide hotlines to get free phone sex. I find this weird.

What was difficult about that?
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I'm sorry. My brain just abdicated. I mean, I trust you, but wait, what?

(also my original post was sarcastic, but you knew that. )
 
Shakey

Shakey

fade said:
I realize you phone guys have a procedure you need to follow, and I respect that. But in-house guys, I'd expect a little leeway from. It's another reason I like my Mac. I'm effectively off the grid, but I can still use the Windows network, since Mac supports SMB messaging.
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Yeah, in-house is different. The only time I get pissy with people is when I get the "why the hell is this not working again!" or "how long is this going to take this time?" It tends to be a thankless job though. At least for me, I sit in a basement and don't hear a thing from anyone unless they are complaining about something.

Tech people do tend to be stubborn though. My cousin was having his satellite internet installed the other week. The tech that came to install it couldn't get a good signal. My cousin used to install dish network, and he asked the guy if he had the tool that tells where to point the dish (I forget what he called it) was set to the right settings and the guy brushes him off with a "yeah, yeah." An hour and a half later he hears a "Fuck me!" coming from the roof. The tech had the wrong setting and wasted all that time cause he was too stubborn to double check it.
 
R

Rubicon

Ross said:
At least Time Warner does free house calls, and I'm not out of $300 or something :)
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My company gives a free install the first time but any other visits are $99. You should hear the customers howl and scream over that.
 
ZenMonkey

ZenMonkey

Crone said:
I'm sorry. My brain just abdicated. I mean, I trust you, but wait, what?

(also my original post was sarcastic, but you knew that. )
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Yeah, I've been teh snarksauce lately.

Long story short: people will make up a story about themselves (oddly, across different people the fake stories tend to be very similar, which is why with training and a little experience it becomes very easy to spot one) in order to get the crisis line worker to say certain things. They'll fake being shy or unsure to get the well-meaning worker to say sexually explicit things. Like:

Caller: "I didn't think I was gay but, um, I had a dream...you know....."
Worker: "A wet dream?"

Like that. It's totally messed up and I developed a particular vendetta since my very first call, when I was still in training and totally nervous, was one of these fuckers. Once I got good at identifying them I would take the opportunity to mess with their heads until they hung up. (Never if I had another call or anything like that, of course.) It actually felt like a kind of sexual assault to me, before I got inured to it. To the point where I once happily pointed out to a caller that I could hear him fapping.
 
I

Icarus

First level customer support is the worst. They don't know anything except what's on their sheet most of the time, and refuse to pass you on to the next level until replied to their questions.

One time, my cable modem was broken after lightning struck my place and had unplugged it to play safe (never smart to leave such appliances plugged in). These modems are replaced for free by my ISP so I called them to have it replaced. That's when the trouble started.

For starters, none of the options which I had to pick from were suitable. Well, in the end I went for "I don't have any internet connection" which was technically true. Little did I know that this was a very very bad decision to make.

You see, each department has their list of questions to ask. In this case, the reason for not having internet were, according to their list, nearly always the fault of the user and their computer (which is probably true?). Despite telling the idiot that lightning had struck, he was convinced that it was caused by my PC. After telling the retard that neither my PC nor two laptops had internet, he was then convinced it was my router. Despite telling the utter brain dead GIMP that the lights of the router were out, he said that their software claimed it was shown to be fully working *facepalm*. IT. WAS. UNPLUGGED.

I was so close to driving to their tech support center and waiting for the staff entrance for his shift to end to beat the answer into his face. The damn modem was dead, fried, deceased, kicked the bucket, this was a very EX-MODEM. It took me HALF AN HOUR and $20 in phone charges to finally made it clear to him that the modem was as dead as a brick. The moment he said "okay, let me make an appointment for you" I ran out of phone credit and the phone disconnected.

So I raced to my brother, used his phone, ended up with a different person, told him to switch me to his colleague, he refused saying that he could not do this. So he checks his database, and then ... proceeds to go down the same damn list of questions again. Another 20 minutes at the end of which I'm swearing and cursing and threatening. I think I may have said something like "If you don't come to replace my damn modem, I'll come round to where you work and bash the damn thing over your head to make sure you see first hand it's BROKEN". Oddly enough, he suddenly understood it was broken *facepalm*.

So yeah, first layer support is terrible. To quote a friend who worked in support: "only idiots work in first level of support, because it's minimum wages and if you're smart enough to know what you're talking about, you're not going to stay there".
 
W

WolfOfOdin

I can give you a story from when I was the head book guy from my local Border's a few years back.


First of all understand that working in a bookstore can make you incredibly callous and hateful at the best of times just due to the sheer idiocy of the questions, but this one was..special

Customer: Sir? I'd like to know if you could help me find a book
Me: U..ok. Do you have the title?
Customer: No...
Me: Ah, alright. Do you have the author?
Customer: No...no I don't have that...
Me: O..k. This might be a longshot...but do you happen to known the ISBN?
Customer: What?! I'm not giving you my social security number!
Me: Erm...no no, the ISBN is like a tracking number for a book, it's above the barcode on the back.
Customer: Don't try to lie to me, god dammit! I know you're trying to get my info so you can charge my credit card for all your shit, and I won't have it. I want to talk to your boss and then I'm calling the police.
Me: .....You're serious? Alright then /transfer the manager

20 minutes pass by

Boss: Kevin, could I speak to you?
Me: Is this about the guy who wanted to call the police?
Boss: Yes, office now.
Me: Listen, I'm sorry and I-
Boss: Kevin, there's a list of numbers we don't take calls from anymore, I'm kinda amused you don't know it
Me: ....oh god. Who or what is this person?
Boss: That would be James, who lives at The Ancora Psychiatric Hospital.
Me: So I was talking to a legitimate lunatic instead of the undiagnosed ones we usually get?
Boss: More or less, could you spread the word to the rest of the sellers about the call sheet?
Me: Yess'm.
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

Once again, I revel in the "I don't deal with customers" aspect of my job. I'm so, so sorry for those of you that do.
 
I

Icarus

Fun Size said:
Once again, I revel in the "I don't deal with customers" aspect of my job. I'm so, so sorry for those of you that do.
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I luckily don't have to either. The head of pre-press does though, and he has to deal with all kinds of ridiculous demands.

And crap like:

C: "Why was there a price change on my order? We agreed on 5 euro per 1000 labels!"
M: "Yes but you only ordered 2000 labels"
C: "So?"
M: "Erm that comes to 10 euro. One single printing plate costs 12 euro and we need 6 so without the printing, cutting and packaging, let alone staff wages, we'd already be spending 72 euros to print it. We'd actually end up paying 10 times more than what you'd pay us!"
C: "Erm so what? We agreed on that price!"
*facepalm*
(in case you're wondering, those prices are set with a minimum order amount to avoid such cases. You need to order at least 30.000 labels for it to become profitable)
 
chris

chris

sorry to hear that you had problems with costumer support Icarus. if you had talked with me, and told me your modem is broken, I would have send you a new one right away. Why discussing with one customer if you can help two more in the same time ? But judging from your post you were charged for support so they probably just want to keep you in line for money. Your provider isn't by any chance a big company with a magenta T ?
 
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