This will probably be the shortest post for tech support related advice you'll see. Honestly the answer to this is very, very simple.
The best way to do everything you can to not get hung up on by the person on the other side of the line when you call tech support is to just be calm.
Unfortunately I can't tell you this is a guarantee that you won't be hung up on, I've been hung up on for asking for something as simple as an explanation, or asking a question that was too hard for the agent I was talking to.
So be calm, don't sound upset or frustrated, don't make demands or get hostile. If you do, apologize. It shows that you understand you made the mistake and want to keep working to fix the problem.
Remember, most tech support people do not get paid enough for what they do. Most will be more than happy to stay on the line longer with someone who's pleasant to talk to. If you're unpleasant, usually the goal will be to do whatever they can do to get you off the line as fast as possible.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Tech Support Rants #1: Networking
A customer called in, had a problem with her web browser. Web browser wouldn’t work. IM worked, her weather bug application worked, everything except the web browser – Firefox and IE – worked. The agent decided oh, well this is a network problem, and started checking the network connection using ping. Well, ping didn’t work either and so the agent told the customer, “Your internet’s not working.”
The customer said, “No it’s just the web browser that’s not working. My other internet stuff is working. I’m chatting with my friends right now.”
And the agent said, “Well. No, you internet is not working.” [Yes, he argued with the customer over what was working.] This basically didn’t work out very well and I don’t imagine the customer was very happy at the end of the call, but we only get to listen to 45 minutes of the call.
And after the 45 minutes, well then we don’t get to listen anymore. It would have been nice to listen to the end, but looking at the notes that the agent left at the end, he had no clue what was going on. He never checked the IE settings, never checked internet options, never checked proxy settings, never cleaned the cache, never cleaned the temp, never cleaned the cookies. You know… skipped some of the basics. That stuff.
It’s amazing how many people work at this company, are supposed to be A+ certified, and don’t know how to trouble shoot a network. I have to say the majority of calls are network problems. Especially wireless. It’s insane how bad they are at wireless troubleshooting. You’d think that this would be covered in training. Well it is, very briefly. But still... there’s some common sense stuff. Every agent will disable the factory installed application and turn on WZC, and when that connects they’ll say “Oh, you’re fine, goodbye.” Except it’s not because they’re not even supporting everything they’re supposed to. Oh, by the way, if you ever call tech support for a wireless problem and they turn on WZC and don’t use the factory installed application, which is probably better, then uh… give ‘em hell about it. Please. For QA’s sake. [repetitive/removed] It’d be nice to have somebody go off on an agent for being an idiot. In fact, we’d all get a laugh out of it. And we need some laughs because honestly these are horrible calls. There isn’t… well ok I’d say there isn’t one, but there are a few who can actually take a call, troubleshoot, and follow the policies that they have to follow. And there’s not that many. [There’s not even a script they have to follow.] They do have an order that they should do things in, but it’s an order that covers the 1st 3 minutes of the call and the last 30 seconds of the call isn’t that hard to follow. I mean, I wouldn’t think so but apparently it is.
This has been edited from the original recording, Edits are enclosed with brackets [].
If you want to view the original video you can do so here
The customer said, “No it’s just the web browser that’s not working. My other internet stuff is working. I’m chatting with my friends right now.”
And the agent said, “Well. No, you internet is not working.” [Yes, he argued with the customer over what was working.] This basically didn’t work out very well and I don’t imagine the customer was very happy at the end of the call, but we only get to listen to 45 minutes of the call.
And after the 45 minutes, well then we don’t get to listen anymore. It would have been nice to listen to the end, but looking at the notes that the agent left at the end, he had no clue what was going on. He never checked the IE settings, never checked internet options, never checked proxy settings, never cleaned the cache, never cleaned the temp, never cleaned the cookies. You know… skipped some of the basics. That stuff.
It’s amazing how many people work at this company, are supposed to be A+ certified, and don’t know how to trouble shoot a network. I have to say the majority of calls are network problems. Especially wireless. It’s insane how bad they are at wireless troubleshooting. You’d think that this would be covered in training. Well it is, very briefly. But still... there’s some common sense stuff. Every agent will disable the factory installed application and turn on WZC, and when that connects they’ll say “Oh, you’re fine, goodbye.” Except it’s not because they’re not even supporting everything they’re supposed to. Oh, by the way, if you ever call tech support for a wireless problem and they turn on WZC and don’t use the factory installed application, which is probably better, then uh… give ‘em hell about it. Please. For QA’s sake. [repetitive/removed] It’d be nice to have somebody go off on an agent for being an idiot. In fact, we’d all get a laugh out of it. And we need some laughs because honestly these are horrible calls. There isn’t… well ok I’d say there isn’t one, but there are a few who can actually take a call, troubleshoot, and follow the policies that they have to follow. And there’s not that many. [There’s not even a script they have to follow.] They do have an order that they should do things in, but it’s an order that covers the 1st 3 minutes of the call and the last 30 seconds of the call isn’t that hard to follow. I mean, I wouldn’t think so but apparently it is.
This has been edited from the original recording, Edits are enclosed with brackets [].
If you want to view the original video you can do so here
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