Ugh...

[mrsvickie.livejournal.com]

Me - "Thank you for calling The (ISP here) Help Desk, my name is Victoria. How may I help you?"
Customer - "Ah yes, my name is (Insert name here) and I can't connect to www.hotmail.com site."
Me - "Okay sir, you aren't able to access the website www.hotmail.com?"
Customer - "That's right, I can't access it. But I can access every other website."
Me - "Okay sir, we are going to reset your browser settings... Blah blah blah... Delete cookies, files, etc."
Customer - "Okay Done."
Me - "Can you try to access Hotmail please?"
Customer - "I told you I COULD access it, but I couldn't log into my email!!!"
Me - "Well sir, we don't have anything to do with Hotmail. That would be something that you would need to contact Hotmail about this issue."
Customer - "What do you mean? This is YOUR problem. Hotmail is (ISP here)! You need to fix this."
Me - "Can you go to other websites sir?"
Customer - "Yes. But I can't log into HOTMAIL!!! You need to fix this!!!"
Me - "I'm sorry sir but you would need to contact Hotmail for this issue."
Customer - "I would like to be transferred to the local office to be refunded on my lost time with my Hotmail account!"

Comments

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

If it's any help, that was 50% of our help calls yesterday. The combination of the slowing caused by the Wasser worm and the slowing caused by the various Internet Security Programs' updates against the Wasser worm meant that all the secure sites were timing out. Despite the fact that we're a HOME internet service, it's amazing how many people complained bitterly about all the money they'd lose on their business because they couldn't get into their Ebay accounts...

[norelevance.livejournal.com]

I'm sooooo so happy that I don't work for an ISP anymore... I mean, tech support is tech support, but it's so much worse when you have to deal with the general public.

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

Shoot the bastard.

Or at least be able to remotely detonate a telephone like Zorg in The Fifth Element.

_MaH

[fnordx.livejournal.com]

My response to that was always "Oh, I'm sorry, you're running a business over your home account? Well, sir, as I'm sure you're aware of from the contact you signed when we set up your account, this service is for residential use only, and not for a business. The Contract Compliance department doesn't look too well upon people who run businesses off of their home accounts, but what do you say that we just ignore this and I won't have to get them involved?"

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

there's no true escape from the general public..

Case in point: People that buy their computers *through* employee purchase programs to use at home. They end up in the business department.

[zig-mover.livejournal.com]

I tell people I won't transfer them, there's no help that I can give them, and that they need to work it out with whatever site isn't working. If you're stern with them, they figure it out after a while.

[tat2ddeviant.livejournal.com]

Try working w/ Minimum wage barely a highschool eductaion food service workers.. maybe once every 10 calls I'm lucky if I get an IT guy..

[boredevilperson.livejournal.com]

I've had people call me saying they couldn't get to AOL and personal ads from their work computer . . .

Needless to say that was detrimental to them doing their job so I jumped right on it!

[norelevance.livejournal.com]

while that's true, i have to say that the bulk of the people I support now are corporate user who normally know the general basics of working a computer and sometimes have the common sense to piece things together on their own. the other portion... well... we know what they are like. when I worked for *****Link... we'd get people calling from home... drunk off their asses and pissed that they couldn't browse their favorite farm animal porn site.

[norelevance.livejournal.com]

oy... that's harsh.

[tat2ddeviant.livejournal.com]

yeah well.. so are some of the names and brash insults they tend to throw at you when you "Can't fix it in 30 seconds" cuz they have a line of kids out the door... yeah..
:sigh:
I've seriously considered getting "Tech Support sucks ...... " tattooed on my butt

[norelevance.livejournal.com]

http://www.badwool.com/

That guy used to work at my old employer... check out the shirts. they're great.

[trenthamfamily.livejournal.com]

refunded what?

[vampyre-child.livejournal.com]

Ahhh I love when dumb end users try to argue.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

Ok, I had a legitimate reason for something similar once.

I had to file a complaint with our admins, b/c AOL wasn't listed in our vendor phone # list, and I actually *had* to call AOL tech support on behalf of a customer.

me: *typetypetype* www.aol.com
sys: ACCESS DENIED
me: *typetypetype* www.google.com search: aol tech support *click*
sys: PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED
me: *click* help desk *typetype* WTF CAN I NOT GET ONTO AOL'S WEBSITE I NEED THEIR PHONE NUMBER I'M CONTACTING SOMEONE WAY HIGHER UP THE CHAIN OF COMMAND THAN ME AND BOTHERING THEM ABOUT THIS ANY *BOY* ARE THEY GOING TO BE PISSED.

Two days later, both AOL and the AOL phone number list was available from our workstations.

That's one good thing about where I work, a lot of the management actually gets things done if you spell it out for them in terms they understand.