Yet Another...
May. 8th, 2008 08:53 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
cjkline83.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
techrecoveryI know you all probably go through this as much, or more than me, but I just have to vent.
I got a call for a local bar about 30 minutes away. They said every other machine at their lcoation had the internet, but their server (our Micros server for the bar/restaraunt) did not. Credit cards WERE working, but were really slow (dialing out on backup modem). That was all the information I was given. So, I hop in my car, and get there around 2pm when its nice and slow. I immediately go to the server and start looking it over. Still has our static IP, still has a link light on the NIC, reset the switch. Oh, hey, they reset their wireless access point AGAIN. (The site offers free wifi to its customers using an entry level linksys wireless router. I had it configured with our standard admin password, a different network, and AP Isolation to keep everyone off the Micros network). So, I dig a bit more. Shutdown our software firewall. Nope... still nothing.
So, giving up, I remove the static IP and try DHCP. For the record:
192.168.0.250 != 192.168.2.5
So, I find the manager and start asking questions. Yesterday, they apaprently had a problem with the internet. A tech from Embarq came out, and because he couldn't figure out what the admin password was for the DSL modem, he simply REPLACED IT with another one he had in his truck. Yeah, maybe you could have told me that on the phone instead of wasting my time? So, I try to log into the DSL modem using the standard pass. No joy. The tech that installed the modem had changed the default password. So, I do a quick 20 second bare-metal reset on the modem, and wha-la, I'm in. Configure port forwarding and firewall rules, and change the default password back to our admin pass.
Go BACK out to the server, configure its static IP, and test port forwarding and PCAnywhere. Configure the wireless access point with my laptop and lock it down to the same admin password.
So, I went back to the manager and billed her an hour worth of labor and warned her that I had actually underbilled a bit as a one-time courtesy. Yes, you have a maintenance agreement with us. Yes, normally, this would be covered if the internet had just "gone down". But, when the tech couldn't log into a piece of equipment we configured for you, did you ever think to call us and maybe check if we had the password?
I got a call for a local bar about 30 minutes away. They said every other machine at their lcoation had the internet, but their server (our Micros server for the bar/restaraunt) did not. Credit cards WERE working, but were really slow (dialing out on backup modem). That was all the information I was given. So, I hop in my car, and get there around 2pm when its nice and slow. I immediately go to the server and start looking it over. Still has our static IP, still has a link light on the NIC, reset the switch. Oh, hey, they reset their wireless access point AGAIN. (The site offers free wifi to its customers using an entry level linksys wireless router. I had it configured with our standard admin password, a different network, and AP Isolation to keep everyone off the Micros network). So, I dig a bit more. Shutdown our software firewall. Nope... still nothing.
So, giving up, I remove the static IP and try DHCP. For the record:
192.168.0.250 != 192.168.2.5
So, I find the manager and start asking questions. Yesterday, they apaprently had a problem with the internet. A tech from Embarq came out, and because he couldn't figure out what the admin password was for the DSL modem, he simply REPLACED IT with another one he had in his truck. Yeah, maybe you could have told me that on the phone instead of wasting my time? So, I try to log into the DSL modem using the standard pass. No joy. The tech that installed the modem had changed the default password. So, I do a quick 20 second bare-metal reset on the modem, and wha-la, I'm in. Configure port forwarding and firewall rules, and change the default password back to our admin pass.
Go BACK out to the server, configure its static IP, and test port forwarding and PCAnywhere. Configure the wireless access point with my laptop and lock it down to the same admin password.
So, I went back to the manager and billed her an hour worth of labor and warned her that I had actually underbilled a bit as a one-time courtesy. Yes, you have a maintenance agreement with us. Yes, normally, this would be covered if the internet had just "gone down". But, when the tech couldn't log into a piece of equipment we configured for you, did you ever think to call us and maybe check if we had the password?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-05-08 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-08 05:02 pm (UTC)Well, there's your problem. Embarq tech support is the biggest bunch of ass-clowns I have ever encountered. We have a store in Florida that uses Embarq, and it literally took us months to get the fax line working; they kept cross-circuiting it with our alarm line, among the simpler of the problems.
You were very generous to low-ball the customer. I would have read her the riot act and told her that you should be the first point of contact for ANY technical issues. Again, experience with Embarq reveals that they don't play too well with others, and unless you're on them from the moment they walk through the door, they can screw you up royally.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-08 08:55 pm (UTC)Why do they do that? Leave out crucial little details that make our job that much more difficult? /sigh.
/empathy