Posted: 7/11/2006 10:32:06 PM EDT
Why must these companies keep giving you the run-around? I have just recently started having problems with my DVR where it won't turn on, unless I hold down the power button to re-set it. So I call up Dish Network and talk to the tech dude. Then they treat you like a damn idiot. Is the unit plugged in? Go to the front of the box and press the power button, what happens? NOTHING HAPPENS, that's why I'm calling you. Well the guy goes through about 5 stupid ass questions until he asks me if it is plugged into a surge protector or directly into the wall socket. I tell him it's plugged into a surge protector. He wants me to unplug it from the surge protector and try plugging it directly into the wall. I tell him that this is a major PITA because I have a ton of shit on my entertainment center, and I only plan on moving everything ONCE, when a new DVR shows up. He says he cannot proceed until he "verifies whether it's the power source or the DVR itself". HELLO, everything elso on my power strip works! This DVR has worked for the last 2 years on this power strip, it's the damn machine. Still, he says he can't do anything. I say Fine, go ahead and cancel my service. "Just one moment while I transfer you...The cancellation department gets on the line (she sounded really cute  ) and says " I see you have been a customer for the last 2 1/2 years Mr. xxxxxxxx, is there a reason why you wish to cancel. Yup, my equiptment doesn;t work and the tech guy didn't want to help me out. So I explain to her the situation, and she says OK, well get you one in the mail. OH, I see the warranty on your box has ended. I PAY $5.99 Extra each dam month to "rent" the equiptment, what do you mean the warranty is up. Long story short, she wants to charge me for a new DVR. Alright GO HEAD AND CANCEL MY ACCOUNT. Next thing you know she's sending me a new DVR, and I will see a $49.99 charge and a $49.99 credit on my account. WAS THAT SO FRICKEN DIFFICULT. WHY COULE THIS NOT HAPPENED 40 MINUTES AGO from the start.  Sorry, just had to get it out... |
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Cust Service has a list of options up the scale on how to take care of customers... like a poker game you have to see who is willing to bluff the best. I have seen CS reps get involved in a stand off with customers up to the point hwere the customer got what they deserved but along with a stress headache, blood pressure up 30 notches and disgust with the company whereas they could have ahndled it right in the first 10 seconds. Its quite the annoying game but it has to be played nowadays....
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All you had to do was follow along with his flowchart and give him answers rather than fighting the system he is stuck with. Is the unit plugged into a surge protector or the wall. Surge protector, please plug it into the wall Ok I will wait wait I plugged it into the wall and it still will not turn on Thanks I will send you a new unit. I had to have service on a Dell PC, through the Dell PC online troubleshooting forums I knew what it needed. I followed his flow chart that he troubleshoots with, it went step by step as it was online, he ordered me a new motherboard and sent a tech to install it. I knew it needed a new motherboard, but he did not know it needed a new motherboard, untill I answered his questions. Fighting with him would not have helped one bit. |
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Just yesterday i was installing a wireless router for my new laptop. Well of course it wouldn't work. I tried numeroues times but couldn't get my main computer to regonize the new router. I finally called the company's help line. The woman who answered barely spoke English, hell I couldn't understand when she spelled "easy". I thought she said "e a s r" Well anyway she sent me to the companies website, to download a program that would install the new router. I was able to connect using my DSL modem but not through the new router. So I get the program and run it, well of course this crap didn't work, I even tried unplugging the router and moden 4 times as per the instructions in the program. So I called them up again. This time I get another non-English speaking person, but I can understand her a little better. She says no problem we'll have you up and running in about 25 minutes. I thought to myself how the hell am I going to listen to her for that long? Well she talks me through a couple of things and has the router up and running in about 5 minutes. Now wasn't easy? Why in hell couldn't the first woman do this? Why did I have to call them twice and spend an extra hour of my time trying their stupid program that was nothing more than the instructions that came with the router running on my computer? Good customer service is almost a thing of the past. I know when I worked in the rental car industry, all we did was customer service. Yes it was a pain in the butt sometimes, but it was my job to help the customer, that's what I got paid for, so I did it. |
Wow! You actually successfully fought Dell for a repair part. That's impressive. The last I tried that I gave-up after almost 40 hours on the phone with them. Since then I just toss the Dells that quit into the spare parts pile and buy a new one. It's cheaper to spend $349 on a new one than it is to pay someone hourly to fight Dell. No matter how bad Dell gets, the owner of the company still wants us to buy their garbage since he owns stock in Dell.z |
These troubleshooting scripts are in place because 99% of the people who call in about their equipment are so fucking stupid, they would forget to breathe if it wasn't an autonomous nervous response. I mean, spectactularly, unabashedly, jaw-droppingly stupid. I realize your experience was frustrating, but take comfort in the fact that you are in the 1% that can actually do some basic troubleshooting ahead of time, and aren't calling to find out why your DVR isn't working, even though the power is out to your entire neighborhood and you want to watch your recorded shows because the regular cable box isn't working, goddamit! (true story). I've personally had all I can stand, I'm leaving customer service and going back to college. Fuck the stupid, the needy, the falsely entitled, and the welfare rats. Fuck quality metrics that determine my pay and bonuses, but are based on the "feedback on the customer's experience", even if I had to tell them 'no' about something, because they are stupid, needy, or falsely entitled, and now they're pissed. I'm going back to working with computers.. if they fuck up, at least it's because you told them to. |
+10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Right now I work in tech. support but in my position I tell tech. support agents what to do when they get stuck and basically work as the middle man between the tech. support agents and the network people for DSL. There is a good reason why they are asking such dumb questions. It is because about 99% of the people who call tech. support are NEARLY BRAINDEAD MORONS! Sometimes those dumb questins will confuse the idiots so you have to treat them like a 5 year old. What is even worse is that the instructions for setting up the DSL equipment is designed in shuch a way that a 5 year old can figure it out yet these morons still calll us to explain to them repeadly how to plug in a phone cable into the back of the modem. On the tech. support side there are idiots here too. We have to deal with them as well. They almost never last very long. The worst offenders are the *know-it-alls* who think they now it all but really have no clue as to what they are doing. Especially after proving them wrong they try to insist that they are right. Usually constantly repeating the truth to them usually gets them to finally realise they are wrong. Sometimes we do have *know-it-all* tech. support agents as well. There is a reason why I moved up quickly and they are still stuck at the bottom after working in tech. support for years. I even saw one of them who was sent back to be re-trained because he was such a huge idiot and giving out information that was way off. |