Posted: 5/15/2004 8:18:46 PM EDT
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If you aren't interested in hearing me bitch about my job, you may want to stop reading now. I work in the DSL help desk for a major ISP. I won't name that ISP here for obvious reasons but it shouldn't be hard to figure out from my location. I enjoy my job most of the time, and am evidently pretty good at it, but sometimes I just hate it. Today I had an older woman call in with an issue with Outlook Express. I won't go into great detail on the issue, but she was having trouble setting up additional mailboxes. I set about troubleshooting this issue using the guidelines set forth by the ISP that I work for, which requires me to set up a new identity for each mailbox. While this isn't necessary, it is the only way I am allowed to do it. The customer does not want to set up new identities. Fair enough, however instead saying that and letting me try to help her, she goes off on me for several minutes about how stupid I am and how I have ruined her account. Instead of letting me explain that everything in her primary mailbox is still intact, she demands to speak to my supervisor. I immediatly transfer her to a Tier 2 support agent, as is the policy of my ISP. After reviewing the notes later I find that, just as I suspected, the customer did the same thing to the Tier 2 agent, even after her problem was resolved. I understand that people pay a large amount of money for DSL service and that the expect it to work. When it doesn't work they want to know why and want to get it fixed. I enjoy helping people fix there problems, and am good at making that happen. I take it hard when I can't get somebody connected and have to escalate their call to the next level. What I don't understand is why some people feel it is necessary to take their anger out on me. I didn't cause the proble that they are having. Most of the time they caused their own problems. I still do everything I can to help because I know that they didn't do it on purpose. But what do I get in return you ask? I get one step closer to being fired, because after I spend an hour fixing a problem that they caused, the customer feels that it would be a good idea to fill out a survey saying that they think I did a bad job fixing their computer. I'm not sure what the purpose of this post was, except that I needed to vent my frustration about my job. If you are one of my customers, thanks for using our service, and for God's sake please try to calm down before you call tech support. |
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I have worked for 2 companies, 1 was cable TV and internet. It is amazing how stupid some people can be. Alot of people wont listen. I never cared who they worked for, I dont care you work for the goverors office. This was kinda my policy. If I day Mr, and you insist I call you doctors whatever, expect problems. If you complain about how you should get helped faste because your in college, etc expect problems. Call up being a dick becuase your having a bad day or you want to feel special, well mine is probaly going worse and Im really hating my life right now, your my new target to give problems too. I would try to help people, but some people were beyond help, due to thier own ignorance or what they expect. Other people would have such POS systems there is no way you could ever get anything working. TV was even worse, you got 3 TVs and you wont get the gameshow network on 1 of them for 2 days, its not a big deal, but people act like I just ate thier children. I can kinda deal with the computers, but it seems more and more people whos level of thought makes you wonder how they lived this long are getting them, and TV was worse. Those jobs really made me hate people and alot of other things alot more. But if you called and were in military, or had a gun related name Id try as hard as I could to help you. |
It would be funny is she had not spent atleast 30 minutes takjed ti 2 people before and and a manager after me. She was 100% beliving that she was right. I tired using reason but that failed. Joker how many places you deal with, I noticed type of people. number of assholes and overall intellegence vaires alot by area. Id say the worst areas but I dont wanna offend anyone. |
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1. "What do you mean I can't use DSL with windows 95?" 2. me: "Click on the link that says 'Click here to go to the (ISP name) homepage" customer: "How did you know that was on my screen? Can you see my computer?" 3. My personal favorite. "I've been a computer science professor for the last 20 years and I have never, in all that time, heard that if you can access email from a website, you can also get it in Outlook. Young man, you do not know what you are talking about." |
Do you get alot of people who struggle to speak english too? |
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Worse... For a while I worked for RadioShack... We had to support CELL PHONES... Actually, we had to support customers that couldn't make a connection between PAYING THE !%!#%# BILL and HAVING PHONE SERVICE (namely they treated the 2nd like it was a RIGHT, and the first like it was OPTIONAL)... Having to do tech support was easy, the I-am-entitled-to-not-pay-my-bill-because people were a PITA... The only thing worse than that was the people who left the phone company with a $400 bill and felt that they were ENTITLED to another account with that company, without having to pay back the bill... I do NOT miss working with the 'general public'... |
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Do you get alot of people who struggle to speak english too? Not to many, but we also have a Spanish help desk. While I do get customers on occaision that really do know about computers, I could fill a book with stories about the "IT Professionals" that didn't know where to find the control panel. I think alot of them make that shit up to avoid sounding stupid. |
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We got alot of people who dont pay too. 1 month behind is 1 thing. 5 months $700 behaind and your yelling becuase you got to wait to speak to billing. Alot had the cycle, dont pay for 3 months, service cut off. pay bill, and repeat. When PPV Rasslin or Boxing came on they would pay that cable bill then. |
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Been doing the helpdesk gig for seven years. Some folks are nice, some are jerks. Some are technically proficient, some haven't even the foggiest clue. In order of preference: 1. nice person who's smart 2. nice person who's a dumbass 3. jerk who is a dumbass 4. jerk who know's what he's doing Swear to God - had a lady about 5 years ago say the following to me on a call: "sir, you keep referring to the keyboard..... what are you talking about?". May He strike me dead if I'm lying. 
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ugh... I don't know were to start. Well, I just took another phone support job after being laid off for the last 4 months.  This one is internal for a financial company so hopefully it will be better than the last. Before getting laid off I worked a frontline phone support job for an OEM for 2 years.  Let's just say that after dealing with the general public for 2 years I doubt I'll ever have a meaningful relationship with another human being, ever. But over the years every tech support job has gotten/paid worse. I started out doing server support and it's just gone down hill from there. I'm really getting burned out on the whole thing. I have the savings to go back to school for a career change but I just can't find the will to do it. Someday I'll write a novel about stupid customers.... |
Im with you it burns me out bad. I dont really have an idea what to do with my life. I lost alot of will over the past 2 years. I have the same problem as you, it made me very hateful of people and trying to expain things. It even made me hate the same type of producsts that I owned. |
I have gotten them too when I call for stuff. Used to get alot of middle eastners and asians. Some would take several minutes to get you thier name where you could understand it. Here is a classic for you. Cust: "Where are you located at?" Me: "Georgia" Cust: "Isnt that were Deliverance was filmed?" |
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I did the same sort of thing for a crappy mom-n-pop ISP, though we dealt mostly in dialup customers. We were a CLEC though, and provided DSL to some poor souls. The owner may have been one of those Radio Shack cellphone customers, because he thought paying the upstream provider (our ISP) was optional. The upstream was having none of this. After a few polite reminders, they shut us down. I was on the sharp end of about 500 users for upwards of a week at a stretch, numerous times. But hey... The paychecks didn't bounce and it gave me a lot of insight into the customer service industry. Oh yea, and in case you find yourself in this situation, the key is to blame the upstream, ie: "I'm very sorry, the backbone provider is experiencing a service outage. We have no specific ETA, but we have word that technicians are on site and addressing the problem as we speak." Translated, it means they turned us off for nonpayment. Our manager has called every 30 minutes to find out if the Big Boss' transfer cleared the bank, which it hasn't, at which point we'll wait a few more days for BastardCom to get around to firing our delinquent asses back up, at which point you MIGHT have service if rats haven't eaten the cables again. Thanks for your monthly $19.95, please don't call back 'til your credit card number expires. |
Dell, Gateway, Microsoft, and Bellsouth all have elements of there Tech Support based in India. I haven't gotten any comments about being in Georgia, but most of the customers are in states with a much worse reputation. I think if I did get a Deliverance comment I would be forced to make the customer squeal like a pig before I continued troubleshooting. |
You ought to deal with what my wife has to deal with. She's a pharmacist, and it's simply amazing how stupid people are. Simply unbelieveable. I don't know how she does it. I'd have been over the counter throttling some stupid, stupid person within a week. And I'm reasonably laid back. She gets people who don't know what NO REFILLS on a pill bottle means. Does this mean that you won't give me any more pills? Or the idiot woman who, because she's stupid enough not to figure out what all the pictures in the leaflet for the contraceptive jelly are for, EATS the damn stuff, 2 tablespoons every time she had sex, no matter how bad it tasted. And then she wants to sue when she gets knocked up. Or the F'in idiots who don't take the foil off the suppository before they stick it up their butt, and wonder why 1) it won't melt, and 2) what do I do now? Or the folk who let their insurance expire, and insist, to the point of beating on the counter, that their insurance is still good, no matter that their card says expires after a certain date, and that the pharmacist must be incompetent, because her computer also says expired. This one nearly got pepper sprayed, incidentally, for just about climbing up on the counter and attacking her. (good thing I wasn't visiting her at the time, or he'd have suffered a severe beating). Or the folk who who don't know what drug they are taking. "oh, that little pink pill". Just refill it, okay? I think that about 80% of the population ought to be sterilized, because their too frigging stupid to be allowed to breed. She thinks 90%+. :) |
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Reminds me of the 'BOFH' series from theregister.co.uk... He who controls the bandwidth (now, let's see, which one of these is your uplink? (click-click))  (Yes, I'm an IS guy by default. However, from 2001-2002, the IS market was kinda down, so I worked for RS)... |
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The other day we got a call from some guy in Texas (btw, we host web sites, that's all we do). He asks if our servers in Texas (he actually states some specific city in Texas that I haven't heard of) were down. I say sir, we don't have any servers in Texas, they are all in Seattle. Well, he says the servers for our partner company in Texas are down. Huh? We have no partner company in Texas, we have nothing to do with Texas. Wtf? So I ask what *exactly* is his problem. He can't get on the Internet. ARRGHH!! I tell him that has nothing to do with us, he should call his ISP. So he goes off on this long rambling thing about how he has a wireless connection bla bla and how it works, and why our servers are down. After about 5 minutes I convinced him we had absolutely nothing to do with his Internet connection in Texas, I'm not even 100% sure we host his web site. So, I finally convince him he needs to call his ISP, so to help him along I ask who his ISP is. "I have no idea" LOL. No clue. At all. P.S. taxman - Good lawd!! Spell & grammer check!! holy crap.  |
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Hehe, from the other side... God Damn self rightious fucking know-it-all assholes who won't do anything other than read off the fucking script. All I need is the POP3 address or for you to reset my password, not to spend 20 fucking minutes listening to you tell me who to set upTCP/IP settings for Windows 3.1. Hey fuckstick, your job is customer service, that means you shut the fuck up while I am talking. You wait until done, then you can open your fucking yap. You don't like how I am talking to you? Then answer my question dumbass. You think I am yelling now, wait, check this out FUCKWAD!!! 
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Well they dont always get the best and brightest, they cost money. Some people dont know how to really fix problems or give you into like that. Other places you have to use a script. Also remember some places have calltimes that have to be met, so someone who is a retard that calls in, who cant even type thier own name affects your raise. |
Intresting point of view. As Taxman said, many of us are required to use various scripts and troubleshoot shit that isn't even causing a problem. While it is probably a little annoying, it isn't really a very good reason to give the tech support guy any shit. In my case, if you have our DSL service you almost certainly have our phone service as well. This is really helpful when we get an asshole customer that can't stop abusing our agents. We just send a technician out to tear the NID off the side of his house and wait for him to call in from a pay phone. |
Luckily the tech support "team" in my case (two guys sitting on the phones normally) wasn't heavily regulated. The onsite manager was a drunk (alcoholics go to meetings), and the owner was 1000 miles away.. So no real accountability, though the "team" that was aboard before mine was cleaned out en masse for forwarding the tech line to a pizza joint down the block and going home after leaving incoherent messages on the voicemail. Seems they got into the eggnog something fierce as it was Xmas eve. Anyway, if we had some ranting ass on the phone, things got interesting. We could switch a password and lock out the account at random, kick users off the modems, or just draaaaaaaaaag that call out for 3 hours or so. Once or twice, we conspired with the rest of the office and sent people for a roundabout trip through the phone system, switching them back and forth and even faking voices to drag it out. Us techies can get downright malicious ;) |
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I've been a network admin for a long time. My favorite user incident: User: The network won't let me log in. I check her account, grace logins have all been used up, account locked. Me: Why didn't you change your password when it told you it had expired? User: I didn't think it meant it. Apparently NetWare has a humor NLM that jokes with the users, lol. |
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Made a living from computers since '91 or so. Owned my own PC shop for about a year. Did telephone/e-mail tech support for a dotbomb for 18 months. The last 2 experiences convinced me that if, by magic, everyone's light switches were replaced with ones that move from side to side instead of up and down, that 95+% of the country would be sitting in the dark because they are too stupid (or scared of making a mistake) to figure out what to do. No one has ever gone broke by UNDERESTIMATING the stupidiy of the "average person". I will live in a cardboard box in the woods before I EVER put myself back in a position of having to do Tier 1 type support for ANYTHING. |
I feel your pain. I am at work right now doing tech support for a High Speed Cable Internet Provider. God it sucks. It is like the same stupid person just keeps calling back. 25 long minutes left  Most people would be surprised how many times you are put on mute so techs can get over their "stupid customer induced tourette's syndrome ". me: Ma'am can you please unplug the power from your cable modem? customer: how do I do that? me (on mute): you wouldn't ask how to unplug the power from your f#%king toaster would you? me: it is the plug that plugs into the electricity. customer: there are 3 chords, which one is it? me (on mute): the one that goes into the f#%king electricity ...and so on. |
Oh man... I feel your pain. Personal Favs: 1. "Theres something wrong with the network" (Network in this context of course meaning anything and everything that plugs into the wall from the microwave in the break room all the way to their speakers not working) 2. "My password isn't working!" (Meanwhile, I'm reviewing 4 pages of incorrect exchange password attempts going back 3 weeks, yet they swear up and down it worked yesterday) 3. The famous "Is the computer turned on?" "Oh, umm I think so, wait, no" I honestly actually have gotten this twice in the 5 years I've been at this job. 4. Invalid System Disk when starting up their computer. "Is there a floppy in the drive?" "Yes".
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Been there done that also. Here's my all time favorite call. I swear, this exchange actually happened: Lady calls me from the third floor. She claims her screensaver is locked up and won't let her back in the computer. "Is it asking for your password?" "No." "If you move your mouse, what happens?" "Nothing. The screen is still dark." "Is the mouse plugged in to the CPU?" She fumbled for a few minutes and we got it square that it was indeed plugged in, as was the keyboard. She also tells me that the fans on the CPU are on and the power indicator LED is on on the CPU under her desk. "Is the monitor turned on, does it have power?" "How do I tell that?" "There's a little green LED light on the lower front of the monitor, is that on?" "Yes, it's on there" "Is the light lit up?" "I can't tell, how can I tell if it is?" "Is it bright and shiney? Just like the light on your CPU under your desk - is it that bright?" "Uh... Uh... I think so. Well, maybe not. I'm not sure. Is there a test I can run on it?" "You can press the on/off button that is right next to the light, see if that changes anything." "Oh no! I can't do that! I have the most important spreadsheet in my life running right now, I don't want to lose any data!" "Uh... the monitor is separate from the CPU, nothing will happen to the CPU if you cycle that." "No way - I will not do that. If you tell me to turn it off I'll have my supervisor call you, he'll be very upset if I lose any data from this spreadsheet!" "So, you can't tell me if the monitor is even on?" Sigh, I'm thinking I need a beer already and it's not even noon yet. "No, I can't tell if it is." So, I asked her to go into the cube of the person next to her, and see if her neighbor's monitor LED was on. "Oh, yes, the other LED is on, and mine is off. Can you get it back on for me?" "Sure, just press the on switch, and it'll turn on, and you'll be back in business." "Oh no, I can't do that! What if I press the wrong button and I lose my spreadsheet?" "There is no wrong button, it's just one button. On, off. That's all there is, and it only affects the display, it will not affect any data." "Oh, I'm scared, I think I need you to come up here and do it for me, I don't want to lose any data." At that point, in the sprit of Total Customer Satisfaction, I hung up and took a walk up one flight to the third floor where her office was. It was either that or I'd be on the phone all day, and I was getting hungry. I pressed to button on her monitor and indeed, there was her spreadsheet. "You are a GOD! I couldn't have done that without you! Thank You so much!" It scares me that people like this are allowed to operate motor vehicles. -Gator |
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I have been doing tech support for about 6 years now...industrial controls market. Stimpy's tech support rules: RULE #1 - They will lie to you. Rule #2 - Anyone who would name their company after themselves is most likely a jerk. RULE #3 - Do not take volunteer phone calls EVER. If you volunteer to take a call it will be either A) a really nasty call or B) a jerk or C) someone who has no clue and wants to waste your time or D) a call during which 1 or more calls meeting options A-C description will be assigned to you which you will not have time to deal with. RULE #4 If a customer has multiple phones at his/her location, he/she will call from the one FURTHEST from the Problem when initiating the phone call. Rule #5 - If there is a complicated product that can be used in conjunction with a simple product, thus creating a problem where none existed...customers will use both together, and the most clueless customers will do this the most often. Rule #6 - Never write code or perform 'extra' work for leeches, hand-holders, or mental dependants...they are like reputations, once they are yours, they are yours forever. and no...you can't write them off as dependants. Rule #7 - Any company with a AOL, HOTMAIL, or JUNO mail account is owned/operated by ignorant cheapskates...no matter how many words like 'advanced' or 'specialists' appear in the company name. Well, there are more...but you get the point. |
| I work for a University and for a while I would help people with their internet connection problems, the worse are Asian professors who are EXTREMELY difficult to understand. followed by those who don't know what they want or what is wrong with their account. And of course the classic is when someone wants to open an internet account "I want to put the internet in my house". |
LOL ok if you called here id introduce you to my good friend dialtone as he stated, some require us to perform certain procedures, it our job. ok you can get as pissed as you want but that wont make it happen any faster and we are ten times more likely to get fired for skipping the procedures than you complaining, half the time the managers dont care either. Ok best advice for people calling in to help desks, be polite and willing to wait. OK reguardless of what you may think, we arent out to screw you over, we want a nice smooth call but if you start yelling and being a jackass, byebye youre gone. Remember we cant see your computer, we dont know the history and problems youve had with it, all we know is specfically what you have told us. So stuff like it doesnt work doesnt help. Ive been on both sides, believe me, dont lose you cool, remain calm, and explain in detail the problem |
| working as a computer/network technican for 10+ years. worked for AOL for 1.5 years doing phone/email support. i have observed that some people are "deep down" bullies. they have no respect for the knowledge it takes to fix and maintain a computer properly. they think if they treat people the same way they treat shoe salesman or burger-flippers they will get better service. luckily because i am 95% of the time an overly nice person i can get away with telling most of these people to kiss my ass... |
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BTDT... Did customer service at one of the dotcom online CD startups as PT work during college and sorta got shafted into a internal helpdesk position afterwards. Unfortunately, as first level anything (customer service, helpdesk, etc.) it seems that part of the job requirements is to be a punching bag. Internal helpdesk wasn't that bad, as they weren't paying customers - if they were rude, etc., you could always involve HR or their management. Unfortunately, it seems the trend lately I've seen is a dumbing-down of first level support, especially because of outsourcing. I still work in the same company where I did the helpdesk support, though thank God not in that same position. It went from a fairly talented bunch of folks that could actually solve most problems to an incompetent bunch that is basically ticket-takers, where you are lucky if your ticket gets routed to the appropriate 2nd level group. Consequently, you can tell the callers have gotten more upset, rude, etc. over the years as the general frustration level has gone up because of incompetence and longer wait times. Unfortunately, if you are one of the few competent people, you still suffer because of everyone else and because your management doesn't want to hire enough people to answer the calls in a reasonable amount of time... Or at least, that's what I've noticed in my company. In a few months, we are moving to an outsourced helpdesk - hah! I figure we ain't seen nothin, yet... Rocko |
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Sounds like the same kind of people are the ones who call in to help desks everywhere. I hate stupid users, and they are always the ones who get a case of the ass, because you can't wave a wand and fix their problems. Believe me, if I could, I would, and most of the time it would involve them sticking their fingers in an electrical outlet! Problem solved. |
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Ya know what's funny - I get better service when I am up front about it. I identify myself as a dickhead right from the get go. I also get the techs name and or service number and the time I called. I have gotten call-back apologies from supervisors and I have gotten a letter of apology from Roadrunner in San Diego. The last time a small time ISP tried to dick me around I just drove the 10 miles to the main office and talked with the manager. He offered me a job. I hate to break it to you but your job IS customer service.
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I feel for ya'. I was a network adminsitrator for four years and I've seen just how stupid someone can be when it comes to technology. The best advice I can give you is to try to understand that there are people who embrace computers and others that shun them using them only because it's required. If you're able to help each of them you've probably made their day a whole lot better and that ought to make you feel good. If you don't get satisfaction from that task then your heart will never be in it and you're not going to be happy in customer service. I earned my Novell CNE, and five MCP certifications, A+ and Net+ on my own doing self study and earned my SAN GIAC certification after attending a 12 hour a day six day boot camp. What I hate is when I do have a problem that is beyond even my experence that I have to suffer though the level one tech's trouble shooting tree ... what I've found is that if I lay my cards down and tell them who I am I can jump up a couple of levels and then get a direct number. The level one tech's are the foot soldiers and probably have a solution rate above 75% if they're any good. Typically I'm dealing with a software code issue that's not documented but I'm never sure what's coming around next. As the manager of the system the administrators who work for me run the gammut from knowing what they're doing to be just better than clueless. I only get called into the fur ball when the SHTF and something is serously FUBAR'ed. |
I've just seen the number of 16% being located oversea. Dell has recently stated that they're returning support back to the United States so look for their prices to rise in response to the increased costs asssociated with running a 24 hour operation here. One of my favorite companies has an eight hour wheel where the calls are routed from California to Singapore and then to England every eight hours. The calls from Asia and Europe are also routed around automatically as the clock changes. At least in England they speak English. Singaporean's speak pretty good English too for Asians. When I lived in Japan there were bars where American's got in for basically free (all you can eat/drink bars) while the Japanese paid the equalivant of $50 to get in. The place was a conversation bar where the businessmen would attempt to lose (or loose ) their accents speaking with us natives.I also teach Korean post graduate students computer networking. They for the most part have their BA or MA in computer science they're just there to listen to my voice and diction (pays good money BTW). |