Talk:Calling Tech Support

A good, abeit humourous article. I swear, more than a few people out there need to learn a few of these rules, and I'm glad someone is trying to help them.. ;) god knows I don't have the patience. --68.85.185.71 07:28, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

and what to do when you ARE the smart guy and the tech support knows nothing ?


 * If thats the case why are you calling tech?


 * Keep trying to fix it or find a friend/forum that knows. 68.39.174.238 10:45, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Doesn't always work unfortunately... A lot of times, i'll change PC hardware, and my internet will die...I know exactly the fix (have Comcast reauthorize the new hardware), but tech support always makes me jump through hoops anyway. Sucks, since I could fix it in a few moments, if they'd smarten up. --69.247.164.232 07:03, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Thats ok for some...
Firstly we all know how we are supposed to speak on the phone, we all know tech support don't care our cat is ill, they just want to know the problem, only the problem and then try to fix it, apparently. Given certain circumstances i think its ok to lose it on the phone with one, maybe even dream of microwaving them... on defrost... slowly... - See below.

Iv'e encountered many tech support centres covering various pieces of software/hardware/services, in my experiance the software/hardware tech support seem ok and im more than happy to jump through their hoops as long as i feel my problem is going somewhere and is being sorted out. However services, especialy some internet service providers are a nightmare.

Here is my story sad but true...

AOL Technical support stages one AND two need slapped with extream prejudice, after you get through which in my case was normally around 40mins stage one "techs" have no technical knowledge at all they are simply reading text from a screen which contains solutions to common problems, you say "can't connect, iv'e had this problem for a total of 2 months, its not my line spoke to BT its fine, its not my modem i have 3 modems and 4 computers none work, its not the drivers iv'e re-installed them on all machines and tried each machine with each modem" they say "ahh yes i see we went through the tests with you yesterday and it didn't help, then we passed you on to a stage 2 tech. Hmm.. are your modem lights all on?" im going to kill somone, more often than not they are in asia and weirdly enough have common names like "Jim" and "Jane" which are two i can remember, doesn't change the fact that i can't understand a word they say. Then they have an event/problem logging system which only stores your "problem" and the "questions/hoops" you jumped through for 2 days, if you're problem isn't resolved within that time frame they once again have NO idea of your situation, that said even though they have it in front of them, they lead you down the garden path it MUST be to just get on you're nerves because if you're answers are on screen there is no reason for them to ask you the same questions for the 20th time. After my connection working only 10% of the time for 2 months i had a note put on my account saying i was to be transfered to a stage 2 tech/rep without any messing around, same situation only they are more friendly and use more technical speach, and are normally western. They couldn't help either.

Hilarious thing about the entire saga was when it got fixed, i called up one day and i'd been waiting on hold so long i'd fallen asleep on the floor, when i get through the engineer has to wake me up because he can hear me snoring on the other end of the phone. i explain (this must be the 30th time now, and i can reel it all off with ease which makes tech angry because you're answering their questions before they ask them) after which he tells me there is ONE person in the entire AOL Company that can speak to me about my problem and he won't be available for 2 hours (who is that guy?!), i don't want to hang up because iv'e done that before, no one calls back so im back on hold for 1 hour 20 mins and im back asleep, no idea who this bloke was but within 10 mins i had 100% internet connectivity that... after months of calling BT to check my line, and ADSL status, by this time i had installed Windows 98, Me, NT, XP on all 4 of my machines just so it wasn't version dependant, had 3 different versions of the modem drivers, 3 modems, 10 cables, one of my machines had been online for the entire month because Stage 2 techs ask you to "Leave it on so we can do ADSL testing" and ONE bloke manages to sort it in 10 mins.

Now tech support being "right most of the time" is ok in some cases, but spread your company over many continents, throw in bad communication or no communication, horrible problem logging and your rules go out the window and people are trying their hardest to reach down the phone line grab your tounge and throttle you with it.

If the systems set up to help people are not "Made by idiots for idiots" great, iv'e no love for Mr.Technical Support if ITS NOT MY PROBLEM, ITS YOURS (we know its not you're fault as a person, but its your company, your in technical support, you're paid to fix things) NOW FIX IT!

Maybe there should be a set time limit on problems, say for example the problem eventually gets sorted in a few days after waiting months by some guy who is actually switched on today. then you should be allowed by law to remove all of the tech support guys you have spoken to in that time's teeth with a chisel.

P.S: at the time AOL UK was the only ISP that did broadband without capping and at a reasonable rate, i didn't argue i just wanted to download gigs of stuff.


 * First level tech do NOT have no technical knowledge, I work there and my 1st call resolution rate is 93%. The other 7 is passing along to level 2 for line checks, and the occasional reinstall. We do NOT read from the screen, the screen offers guidelines, we have to know exactly how to solve the problems, and if we get agitated it is because we've had one two many people asking us what a modem is that day. These rules are spot on, I wish the IVR read them out before transfering people to an agent.