A laugh on a Thursday

[phillupson2 (Phill7895)]

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So, I thought I’d share a little humour with my fellow spiceheads in case anyone needs cheering up. Warning, this article contains a tale of dealing with ISP first line technical support, be sure you can cope before reading on…

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ISP: “Hello, how can I help you today”

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Me: “Hi, I have an issue resolving via your latest router.”

ISP: “Okay thank you sir, we’re running a line test, please bare with us…”

Me: “Sure, although this is a pretty specific issue, so the line test will be fine, but I understand you have procedures, so please take your time.”

ISP “We see your systems are working perfectly, is there anything else we can help with?”

Me: “Yes, I still can’t resolve .”

ISP: “Okay please bare with me”

< Section removed as this goes round and round >

ISP: “What operating system are you using?”

Me: “Linux”

ISP:" Okay please click start, type in cmd and hit enter and type tracert www.google.co.uk" ;

Me: “Sure, I can resolve google, avg latency is 20ms.”

ISP: “Our systems show everything is working perfectly.”

Me: “But I still can’t resolve - if I dig/nslookup your name servers, I see the IP returned, if I dig/nslookup router, no result returned”

ISP: “I’m afraid we don’t support this sir, have you tried Google?”

Me: “Can I confirm that you’re saying you don’t support DNS resolution?”

ISP: “Yes sir, that is correct”.

I’m now awaiting a call back from a technical manager, who has been asked to give me a call and explain why they don’t support DNS resolution at one of the largest ISPs in the UK. This should be fun!

What is the golden rule of Hollywood again? Never work with Children, Animals or first line technical support?

[noitforyou]

You should have asked how to change blinker fluid.

[craigkessler8263 (Craig4129)]

Oh wow…I don’t even know…OK…deeeeep breeaaathhhhss…

I am so sorry for all of us LOL!

CK

[Robert_1988]

hahahahahah, oh, dang… deep sobbing, 'tis the future of things…

[Steve9603]

Ask if their email is RFC 1149 compliant next.

[edt]

I caught the problem at “Click start, type ‘cmd’…” when you had just said that you use Linux.

[james485]

@phillupson2

So, I thought I’d share a little humour with my fellow spiceheads in case anyone needs cheering up. Warning, this article contains a tale of dealing with ISP first line technical support, be sure you can cope before reading on…

ISP: “Hello, how can I help you today”

Me: “Hi, I have an issue resolving via your latest router.”

ISP: “Okay thank you sir, we’re running a line test, please bare with us…”

Me: “Sure, although this is a pretty specific issue, so the line test will be fine, but I understand you have procedures, so please take your time.”

ISP “We see your systems are working perfectly, is there anything else we can help with?”

Me: “Yes, I still can’t resolve .”

ISP: “Okay please bare with me”

< Section removed as this goes round and round >

ISP: “What operating system are you using?”

Me: “Linux”

ISP:" Okay please click start, type in cmd and hit enter and type tracert www.google.co.uk" ;

Me: “Sure, I can resolve google, avg latency is 20ms.”

ISP: “Our systems show everything is working perfectly.”

Me: “But I still can’t resolve - if I dig/nslookup your name servers, I see the IP returned, if I dig/nslookup router, no result returned”

ISP: “I’m afraid we don’t support this sir, have you tried Google?”

Me: “Can I confirm that you’re saying you don’t support DNS resolution?”

ISP: “Yes sir, that is correct”.

I’m now awaiting a call back from a technical manager, who has been asked to give me a call and explain why they don’t support DNS resolution at one of the largest ISPs in the UK. This should be fun!

What is the golden rule of Hollywood again? Never work with Children, Animals or first line technical support?

Wow…I honestly don’t know if I should laugh or drink heavily on your behalf

[phillupson2 (Phill7895)]

@edt

I caught the problem at “Click start, type ‘cmd’…” when you had just said that you use Linux.

Quite, but to be fair I couldn’t be bothered to tease him on that one!

[jgray-19]

@james485

@phillupson2

So, I thought I’d share a little humour with my fellow spiceheads in case anyone needs cheering up. Warning, this article contains a tale of dealing with ISP first line technical support, be sure you can cope before reading on…

ISP: “Hello, how can I help you today”

Me: “Hi, I have an issue resolving via your latest router.”

ISP: “Okay thank you sir, we’re running a line test, please bare with us…”

Me: “Sure, although this is a pretty specific issue, so the line test will be fine, but I understand you have procedures, so please take your time.”

ISP “We see your systems are working perfectly, is there anything else we can help with?”

Me: “Yes, I still can’t resolve .”

ISP: “Okay please bare with me”

< Section removed as this goes round and round >

ISP: “What operating system are you using?”

Me: “Linux”

ISP:" Okay please click start, type in cmd and hit enter and type tracert www.google.co.uk" ;

Me: “Sure, I can resolve google, avg latency is 20ms.”

ISP: “Our systems show everything is working perfectly.”

Me: “But I still can’t resolve - if I dig/nslookup your name servers, I see the IP returned, if I dig/nslookup router, no result returned”

ISP: “I’m afraid we don’t support this sir, have you tried Google?”

Me: “Can I confirm that you’re saying you don’t support DNS resolution?”

ISP: “Yes sir, that is correct”.

I’m now awaiting a call back from a technical manager, who has been asked to give me a call and explain why they don’t support DNS resolution at one of the largest ISPs in the UK. This should be fun!

What is the golden rule of Hollywood again? Never work with Children, Animals or first line technical support?

Wow…I honestly don’t know if I should laugh or drink heavily on your behalf

I would have a laugh as I poured a drink and saluted your for your patience as I took my first sip

[bob-13]

[spiceuser-4224p (Kyle Tee Route)]

I just had flashbacks to some of the things I heard first level support telling customers when I worked at an ISP in the early 2000s shudder

[biscuitking]

@james485

@phillupson2

So, I thought I’d share a little humour with my fellow spiceheads in case anyone needs cheering up. Warning, this article contains a tale of dealing with ISP first line technical support, be sure you can cope before reading on…

ISP: “Hello, how can I help you today”

Me: “Hi, I have an issue resolving via your latest router.”

ISP: “Okay thank you sir, we’re running a line test, please bare with us…”

Me: “Sure, although this is a pretty specific issue, so the line test will be fine, but I understand you have procedures, so please take your time.”

ISP “We see your systems are working perfectly, is there anything else we can help with?”

Me: “Yes, I still can’t resolve .”

ISP: “Okay please bare with me”

< Section removed as this goes round and round >

ISP: “What operating system are you using?”

Me: “Linux”

ISP:" Okay please click start, type in cmd and hit enter and type tracert www.google.co.uk" ;

Me: “Sure, I can resolve google, avg latency is 20ms.”

ISP: “Our systems show everything is working perfectly.”

Me: “But I still can’t resolve - if I dig/nslookup your name servers, I see the IP returned, if I dig/nslookup router, no result returned”

ISP: “I’m afraid we don’t support this sir, have you tried Google?”

Me: “Can I confirm that you’re saying you don’t support DNS resolution?”

ISP: “Yes sir, that is correct”.

I’m now awaiting a call back from a technical manager, who has been asked to give me a call and explain why they don’t support DNS resolution at one of the largest ISPs in the UK. This should be fun!

What is the golden rule of Hollywood again? Never work with Children, Animals or first line technical support?

Wow…I honestly don’t know if I should laugh or drink heavily on your behalf

This^^^

[phillupson2 (Phill7895)]

Thing is, I don’t mind being relaxed, we were all new and lacking in knowledge at some point of our careers, what really frustrated me was the effort I went to to a) play the games required, because I get he had a job to do, and b) that a concept I’ve had no problem explaining to a group of finance managers was so far beyond his grasp that I can’t understand how they recruit these people.

[NULL]

Wow…I honestly don’t know if I should laugh or drink heavily on your behalf

Um, this really isn’t an either/or choice in this situation! More of a both/and…

[chadpoole2833 (Chad1642)]

Sometimes with these first level support guys i wish i could just ask them to allow me to remote into their network to solve my own issue…

[derekrowbotham3197 (Derek4570)]

@chadpoole2833 ​ what an excellent solution, I’m all for that idea

[alayjha (Sage_AJ)]

We have remote sites and due to Canada being Canada, the service takes a toll due to weather. And whenever I call ISP, I have to go through this every time. After few calls and them replying “We don’t see any problem in the service sir”, I ask them to dispatch tech anyways. They are like, sir you will be charged if the problem is on your end . And I don’t recall ever getting charged.

[jeffglubish (lost1)]

@phillupson2

Thing is, I don’t mind being relaxed, we were all new and lacking in knowledge at some point of our careers, what really frustrated me was the effort I went to to a) play the games required, because I get he had a job to do, and b) that a concept I’ve had no problem explaining to a group of finance managers was so far beyond his grasp that I can’t understand how they recruit these people.

I believe that in many cases, especially with large companies like it sounds this one is, these first line ‘techs’ are not that at all. They are call center people given a phone, headset, script, and computer to read script from, control calls, log interactions, request next level help.

They probably last had a job doing a similar thing for an insurance company, medical office, Amazon, etc where they read a different script and pushed you to the next level when turning it off and back on again did not work.

[mrbones]

Well you achieved your aim - You gave me a laugh on a Thursday…

@phillupson2

[shannonwheeler (MCEStaff)]

If you had said, “I can’t get to ” instead of, “I can’t resolve ” you might have made more progress.

Sure the person is in a ‘tech’ position but expecting ‘1st line’ people to know what you mean by, “resolve”, “DNS resolution”, “dig” and “nslookup” is a bit of a stretch.

Should they know what you mean, maybe. Expecting real-world examples to know is a failure on your part.