1

I’m sure I’m not the only one that has been frustrated by being in the shoes of the “user” when calling your cable company, phone company, or what have you. They, by default, treat you as if you have never used a computer before (which is understandable at first), and although you tell them exactly what the issue is, they insist on having you go through their step-by-step process and are usually then unable to determine the actual problem anyway…so you get transferred a total of 7 times and finally get your issue (partially) resolved. At least that was my experience with my cable company each of the past three days.

I’ve worked in a call center before, so I know the ins and outs of it…but sometimes this is just ridiculous! And now I will retreat to my cave. Thank you for listening. Have a wonderful afternoon.

/rant

21 Spice ups
2

haha this is so true though. I mean generally they are forced to ask you certain questions though right?

3

Yes, my PC is turned on. No, I’m not currently using its cupholder.

4

Sager computers have been awesome in that regard. They’re already a boutique retailer, so I guess they somewhat assume that you know what you’re doing when you purchase a machine with that kind of power.

I’ve called up for hardware issues before, explained that I’m an IT guy myself and they don’t need to hold my hand, and it was very good from there. None of that “now press OK… find the properties button, and left click it…” junk.

In general though, its infuriating to be treated like a user, especially when I know what the problem is, that a signal needs to be refreshed or something, but they insist on making you do everything else under the sun first anyways.

5

Mattw ITSuperhero wrote:

haha this is so true though. I mean generally they are forced to ask you certain questions though right?

Yes, they are, but when you’re actually showing them shortcuts to what they do on a daily basis and they say “Oh cool, I didn’t know that” you would think that they would take the hint that you know what you’re doing…but no. Haha

6

Justin wrote:

haha ya :stuck_out_tongue:

7

Had Verizon try to explain DSL lines to me as a road or street, and when you have more than one line coming in to your building each line is like a lane on a highway.

My desk has a large dent on the top where my forehead hit it numerous times…

8

When the cable guy showed up, I was half way through doing the install. The guy was shocked.

Of course, they still managed to screw up my billing and had me marked as leasing instead of owning my own modem.

9

Oh I hear ya. To expand a little on this. “Becoming the user” is one of the main reasons I haven’t left I.T. for another profession… I do not want to be treated like a user, or let my skills decline so far that I should be treated that way.

I’ve had a similar experience with my cable company as well. “I can ping sites by IP address, but not by name… do you think there is a DNS problem?”

“Uhh… let me check the signal strength on your modem…”

Brian

10

I usually end up asking for their boss, since I know more about the issue that the dude I’m talking to. You’d think they’d have a little more respect for someone who can make their life (or just this call) a little easier. To know I was talking to a fellow IT admin, I’d be thankful I could cross off the easy questions and move on.

11

Shibboleet!

12

Nic (Spiceworks) wrote:

Shibboleet!

This says it all!

13

Nic (Spiceworks) wrote:

Shibboleet!

+1

I so wish that would work. I actually said “Shibboleet” once to my cable provider tech support. I could tell by the silence on the phone they were dumbfounded.

14

HAHAHA, I just got of the phone with a DirecTV support agent for a recurring issue. I have a receiver box that takes forever to input commands from a remote (if you press a key on the remote, it takes 3-5 seconds for it to register on the receiver. That’s what I am referring to as “lag” in this rant), whether it be IR or RF. The same two remote work flawlessly on my second receiver. Last time I was on the phone for an hour adjusting all the settings and resetting the box. Resetting the box actually makes the receiver run great for about a week, but then it begins to seriously lag. They also had me do a “self-diagnostic” run on the box, and of course it passed.

The call today was awesome, the person on the other end first explained to me that I had to be in front of the box in order to receive support. I told her that I just wanted some answers. I mentioned these things:

  1. I’ve changed the batteries on both remotes

  2. Remotes work great on other receiver

  3. I’ve pointed the remote directly at the receiver from 3ft away

  4. The settings are identical on both boxes

  5. Resetting the box makes it work for a week and then begins to lag.

  6. I’ve disconnected from the internet, just in case that was the reasoning behind the lag

  7. I’ve ran the diagnostics and it passed

She said that based upon what I mentioned, it should be working fine. That if I would like to call back while I am in front of the box, we could try other things. She could not explain to me the “other” things because I needed to be in front of the box. As I was continuing to ask questions and received no answers as to why my box lags when entering commands via remote, she proceeded to say this:

“Some boxes are just slow…”

Me:

“That’s the stupidest **** I’ve ever heard!! They’re the same box they should perform similar to each other!!!”

Just to clarify, the “lag” on the receiver is very annoying. ESPN is channel 206. If I press 2-0-6, the 2 will register in 3 seconds followed by the 0 in another couple of seconds, but the station will change to channel 20 because it’s not receiver the 6 command in time. Then when it hits channel 20, you’ll see a number 6 input on the screen and then it changes to channel 6. LOL The channels also take double the time to change compared to my second receiver.

kill -f directvsupportcall

exit /rant

runas /user:me@pub “smithwicks”

15

Dan.Can wrote:

…

kill -f directvsupportcall

exit /rant

runas /user:me@pub “smithwicks”

Sounds like somebody really did need to make a run to the pub…hahaha

16

Rivitir wrote:

Nic (Spiceworks) wrote:

Shibboleet!

+1

I so wish that would work. I actually said “Shibboleet” once to my cable provider tech support. I could tell by the silence on the phone they were dumbfounded.

Bravo! I have yet to try this, but I plan on it. BTW, when they sound dumbfounded, you should take that as an opportunity to educate them about Shibboleet.

17

The problem with Shibboleet is that you only need to use it with drones that wouldn’t know it.

18

Well, I guess that’s why they work for the cable company.

19

Darryl E wrote:

The problem with Shibboleet is that you only need to use it with drones that wouldn’t know it.

That is why you have to train the drones to honor it :slight_smile: I wonder if, with a little explaining and bluffing, you could persuade them that it is indeed a secret code word to get people through to Tier 2. Would be worth a try at least.

20

Nic (Spiceworks) wrote:

Haha! Sounds like a plan. :slight_smile: