Email on Phone

[bamatone.livejournal.com]

I can give you all the info you need to get your email on your phone:

server address
domain
username
sorry, you have to know your password - i know that's a deal breaker sometimes
encryption / ssl = yes

Some phones require the domain; others don't. I'm sorry my office doesn't own every model of every phone to have the exact number of key presses and settings for you.** I'm sorry I can't be in whatever state across the country you're in to type it all in for you. Yes, this shit works. I'm getting mail on my phone every few minutes to prove it. I have to - I'm middle management and the guy people call when our servers go down. The question I'm asking you is, "why the hell do YOU want work email on your phone?" To feel important? You leave your work at the office every day at close.

/headdesk (I also have a head cold today. Poop.)

** We own zero phones.

Comments

[mouser.livejournal.com]

This is the land of magic where you can suddenly know the steps for EVERY device of EVERY type out there.

God, what DO we pay you for?

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

I get the other side of this.

Customer calls us to set up the mail account on their client app, and when we ask them for the mail provider's config info, they go ".. meh? .. config?" and get referred to the provider.

Then they call back, without config info, and tell us the provider just told them to talk to us because we supplied the client and we have to help them with it.

And I'm pretty sure they called the provider and played the me-stupid-need-walkthrough game with them, didn't ask for what they were told they needed from the provider, and of FRAKKING COURSE got referred back to us.

I wish I had a dime for every time I've had to explain that "$employer can walk you through the setup/config process, but $employer does not know the config info, you have to get that from $provider, and $provider in turn can't walk you through the setup process, $employer has to do that."

It's amazing how many people just blunder into tech support whining me-dumb-help-me and have no idea who handles what or why. And, worse .. they never learn. Because that would involve effort, of course. :p

[bamatone.livejournal.com]

I've had a helluva three ring circus lately with a user, Blackberry, and Verizon. Each is convinced the fault is with one of the others. (Thankfully, the user does not think I am at fault.)

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Well, part of that is that a lot of the people they're going to aren't clearly (or accurately) explaining that "we help with ____, and X helps with ____ (and Y, Z, etc., if any, help with .. etc.)", and some of it is that less savvy users tend to just go to each support line and dump the same disorganized rambling mess of information and whine about "it's not working", but without someone in the chain very aggressively telling them, "You need to go to X and ask them ____ before you'll be able to do anything else", the user him/herself isn't likely to do much more than bumble around getting pissed off that "they're bouncing me back and forth" without ever realizing that he/she is the root of that problem.

I can't even count the number of times I've had to dictate to someone exactly what to write down in their notes to ask the other support line ..

[bamatone.livejournal.com]

Word.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

I actually had a customer complaint the other day because I didn't fix her mail client.

When I ran the logs from her last SMTP transaction, the provider's server was basically telling her, "We think you might be spamming so we're blocking you, and here's $support_link for more info." I went through I don't know how many variations on explaining that over about 20 minutes, and actually emailed her back the ACTUAL SERVER REPLY from the log.

But not working at end of call, so customer not happy, so complain to $manager. FYB, DIAF.

[jewelz996.livejournal.com]

I had one today along this same vein.

"My email won't come through"
"ok, type in your user name and password here and we'll see what it says"
*Insert loads of time of troubleshooting*
"Ok. Well, I'm out of options."
"Hm... I just noticed I put my username in incorrectly...could that be it?"

Because apparently, the phone knows what her username is.