Not about my users for once...

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

Last week, I had to put in a call to Time Warner (before I discovered that they were bending my town over a bandwidth cap, but that's a whole other rant), because I was pinging over 400mps. Generally, when this occurs, it's due to a roommate downloading something huge (over 2gb) off BitTorrent. I yell at him, he stops it, and life online is good again.

This time, however, he was not downloading anything. He wasn't even playing an online game (no comment on which one, due to the nonsense I got on my last post). I was still pinging over 400mps. So I do the normal troubleshooting Time Warner had told me to do in the past. Unplug the modem, unplug the router and the hub, plug those back in, then the modem. Reboot the PC. Same thing. I do it again, and this time unplug the PC and ethernet cables as well. The roommate does the same thing. We bring everything back up, same problem.

I call up Time Warner. The poor Tier 1 guy hears all the troubleshooting I'd already done, declares me "smarter" than he is, and bumps me up to Tier 2. Tier 2 is...interesting. Very nice guy, a little short on social skills. I do exactly what he tells me, including doing the exact same troubleshooting I'd already done. I also plugged my PC directly into the modem, and here's where things became an oops. Poor guy forgot to recycle my modem remotely while my PC was plugged into it, and I wasn't pinging anything at that point.

He bumps me up to Tier 3. Tier 3 was an awesome guy named Ken. In between trying to help me figure out what was going on (including recycling the modem on his end and scratching his head wondering why Tier 2 didn't do that), we exchanged horror stories of users.

He told me a good one about a user who complained of slow connection speeds, then, while he was helping her troubleshoot, started surfing for clothes and shoes with her daughter. He couldn't regain her attention, and advised her to call him back when she was finished. He disconnected the call on her. :) I told him he should come and post here.

After spending an hour and a half on the phone (literally... it was ~7:00pm when I started the call, 8:30pm when we eventually disconnected... but not all of it was troubleshooting... we devoted about half an hour to sharing stories), we both determined there was an issue in my area, as other people were starting to call in. Good times. He thanked me for being willing to help him out, I thanked him for his help (and put in a good word for him with his supervisor), and for his stories. :)

TL;DR: Just because Time Warner sucks doesn't mean their employees do. And I've learned what not to do to Tech Support from my users. ;)

Comments

[jecook]

Meh- those two tend to be slightly incendiary, but they are not bad enough that they've earned a wallop from the Ban Hammer.

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

Don't worry... I can be ice to their flames. :) I do other things than play that game, worthwhile things, such as volunteering (http://www.secondchancebirdrescue.com/). But whatever. ::hugs::

Back on-topic... I know not to insult tech-support guys... the absolute last thing I'd want is to be featured here as a "problem child." :D

[jecook]

Of course. And, like most trolls, they probably get their jollys off on it.

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

Let's no longer speak of them, as they're not even worthy of discussion. ;)

::hugs, passes over the bottle of rum::

[jecook]

Thanks, that might help with the ninja death flu I apparently picked up yesterday. :(

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

Oy... :( Lots of fluids (lay off the booze... which sucks but it'll dehydrate you), lots of rest. Hope you feel better soon. :(

[jimbojones.livejournal.com]

::waves:: hey, I can HEAR you!

Amynnah, sorry I was cranky. My baby's two weeks past due and my wife's worried and my angst is starting to rub off on people around me, but fercrissakes I'm not a troll, just a jerk. =)

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

All right. Forgiven. :)

I hope your wife and baby are okay! :( And I can understand the anxiety... Sounds like you need hugs, not snipes. :( Good luck...

[jimbojones.livejournal.com]

I'm sure all concerned are healthy and fine, it's just that if the baby takes too long The Man won't let us have her at a birthing center, which leaves us choosing between a home birth (for a first baby!) or an emergency room birth ($20K bill, plus having your baby where they keep the staphylococcus stockpile). Yikes.

(Also I was catching up on three weeks of missed Livejournal when I was cranky at you, which led to me not paying enough attention to see it was a regular who was posting.)

[kellirose1313.livejournal.com]

I don't know about where you are but when I had my kids it was two weeks past due date and then you have to go be induced at the hospital.
Both my girls chose to wait till literalyl the last day before I would have to go in. SO I still got my homebirths but I wouldn't have been allowed that if over 2 weeks

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

Jeez... :( They won't induce labor for you? That's terrible!

No home birth for a first baby. And ED... ::shudders:: I work for a hospital. No... just...no. Mine's cleaner than most and I wouldn't have a baby in the ED!

And no worries. :) I meant it when I said you're forgiven... you have a lot more to stress about IRL than internet dramas. ;)

[kyidyl.livejournal.com]

Man, I thought there was some sort of epic flame war between you and someone who's brother/cousin/husband/girlfriend/whatsisface had been addicted to that game, thus making them uber bitter (IE: my sister, but whatever)...sadly, nothing. I was dissapointed. =*( This is techsupport...I wanted flame wars and wank, dammit! ;P~~~

[jecook]

Very well them:

vi vs. emacs.

Discuss.

[spooforbrains.livejournal.com]

Why would you even discuss it? The answer is clearly vi!

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

Oy emacs... ::shudders:: No.

[brotherflounder]

This is no debate. Emacs sucks.

[simoncion.livejournal.com]

Pff. The answer is clearly 'vim', heretic.

[jecook]

With, or without the vigor addin?

[anthalus.livejournal.com]

What about XEmacs?

But really, vim for the win.

[benatwork.livejournal.com]

Pico.

Duh.

[jecook]

DING DING DING DING DING!!!!

A WINNAR IS YOU!

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

Naw... I'm pretty cool, jimbojones is cool, all is well in the world. :) Let's go get drunk. :)

[fixerkitty.livejournal.com]

Haha, amen. ;)

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

jahbulon is giving a heroic effort (http://community.livejournal.com/techsupport/1954097.html?thread=22212401#t22212401), but so far failing to deliver. I've been trolled by better, worthier, wittier, and more intelligent apes.

Plus he's jealous of my boobs, not to mention the fact I have a life outside of my computer. :)

[kyidyl.livejournal.com]

Pffffftttt, that's not even a heroic effort. I've seen better trolling for grammar and spelling errors... ;)

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

Fixing it now... just for fun... Bolded are edits.

Houston, we have a problem. Gamer is taking life too seriously, and still won't lay off the crack. Have you noticed every single user icon, with the exception of the one this "person" has drawn herself, is from WoW? That's... well. It speaks for itself, doesn't it.

Perhaps you should attempt to lay off the bitch pizzas. Or buy a different brand, because the ones you're on now don't even come with good sauce.

[jimbojones.livejournal.com]

Congrats on getting decent techs answering the phone - I almost always get the middle-aged ghetto types with zero technical skills, training, or inclination who insist that they need me to edit my registry... when the "connect" light isn't lit on the modem.

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

Well, the local techs around here are really cool, and extremely knowledgeable, which is why I've not called them to gripe about the Time Warner bandwidth cap. I save the venom for the higher ups. :) They deserve better than my animosity, damnit.

[trayce.livejournal.com]

As an Australian, I have to put my 2c in and say I'm afraid we got no sympathy fr USAins complaining about getting data-capped. You still get 100s of mb a month.

The most we manage on our plans is 80-100 and thats for many many shekels. The average $60 a month plan only usually gives one about 20gb....

It blows.

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

Damn, THAT'S messed up.

Your awesome avatar is awesome. Loves me some Londo!

[janey-mac.livejournal.com]

Sounds about the same as in Ireland (provider depending.) Even with the "pay extra for extra allowance" most ISPs usually won't bring you up to 100 GB a month. (Though the one I was on at my parents' house would go unlimited for €5.00 a month. Nice.)

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

That really sucks... :( Sorry you have to deal with that... :(