The pay is (MUCH) better, but the bullshit is just the same

[buckaction.livejournal.com]

So, I've been recently promoted. Along with this promotion came a huge pay raise, as well as a move across country to Broomfield, CO.

Everything is just awesome here. My team is awesome, my boss is awesome, the area is gorgeous, I've got a great house which is really close to work, and the pay is literally slightly more than double what I was getting before.

Life could seriously not get any better.

Except for the fact that I have to deal with EXACTLY the same type of bullshit out of customer's that I had to before...but, again, twice the pay so, this is OK in my book.

One VERY common issue we had to deal with is [very big, self important customer]'s being impatient, and not working with us to give us the data we need to properly diagnose their issue. Instead, they often make a half assed attempt to cooperate, then passive/aggressively demand we "just send a Field Tech" out.

In the process of doing this, they almost always cite some fast approaching deadline, or critical go-live date, failing to understand that sending out an FE without providing me data to perform a diagnosis and implement an action is not going to speed up time to resolution, it will only slow it down.

One such case came my way the other day. Problem, new system "can't boot". This is not exact wording, but the call went something like this:

"It's a new system, never booted, and it won't boot?"

"Well, why not? does it give any error messages or output? Does it say anything when you type start /SYS?"

"No, it just won't boot"

"Do we have a VGA attached or can you open the java console? We need to see if it's POST'ing"

"No, can't do that"


lather, rinse repeat with "can you do this" answered with "no", eventually accumulating into the inevitable "can you just send an FE?" followed by catch phrases like "missing a critical go live", "the customer is pressing for resolution", and "my boss wants"

It's the word "just" that they throw in there which gets to me. If they don't actually sigh while saying it, I can hear them mentally sighing. "but can't you just......"

Leaving me no choice, I agree to just send an FE, and warn him, that this is simply going to slow resolution. Over the next few days, they continue to ANNOY THE FUCK OUT OF ME about when will the FE show up, when will the problem be fixed, what's the next steps, etc etc blah blah blah.

3 days later, there's an update in the case from an account specialist with notes from the FE, stating that the systemboard was replaced because they received the error "could not power on host, failed to start sys" in response to typing "start /SYS"

SIGH. If they had JUST told me that from the very beginning, I could have had their system fixed the SAME DAY.

I swear to frig, they NEVER learn.

But that's ok, you know. Previously, i'd have said "I'm not paid enough for this shit!"

Except, that now, I am :)

Comments

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

As much as rampant idiocy irritates the piss out of me too...

... yes, I have to agree that I'd also continue dealing with the myriad annoyances of my job for over twice the cash in hand.

[vortex.livejournal.com]

In the end though, you Really aren't paid enough to deal with stupidity like that on a daily basis. It'll get to you at some point...

[lunatic59.livejournal.com]

It's only fair ... stupid costs twice as much in the long run. You'll have to double your liquor budget and replace your desk twice as often from the forehead damage.

[buckaction.livejournal.com]

My liquor budget was effectively zero before, as I'm not a big drinker. It's not effectively doubled to $13, which is the cost of the bottle of Red Wine I bought to go along with the Sunday Italian Dinner for the woman I cooked it for :)

[lunatic59.livejournal.com]

Wine AND a woman? Somebody's livin' large. ;)

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

If they had JUST told me that from the very beginning, I could have had their system fixed the SAME DAY.

Try leading with this.

[farchivist.livejournal.com]

Doesn't work. You'll just get "Whatever, I don't care! Send a tech!"

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

"Whatever, I don't care! Send a tech!"

This is your que to lead them into stating for the record they waive immediate resolution and whatever other CYA stipulations are necessary. You could even upsale them to some other SLA, if that's the kind of place you work at.

[farchivist.livejournal.com]

This is your que to lead them into stating for the record they waive immediate resolution and whatever other CYA stipulations are necessary.

In the job I'm in and in most IT jobs I am familiar with, the stipulation is "Send them a tech, regardless of necessity." Stating for the record that they "waive immediate resolution and whatever other CYA stipulations are necessary" is an automatic call monitoring failure that can lead you to being fired. Especially where I work.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

YMMV

[buckaction.livejournal.com]

Not in my workplace. We are very much allowed to tell them "no".

I more or less have the freedom to exercise my own judgement, but I am held accountable for my decisions, and have to be able to justify them.

[sdx.livejournal.com]

I deal with the same kind of things doing ISP tech support, stupidity on so many levels, residential cx's swearing up and down they're running a business and they just lost thousands of dollars. People demanding we send our line techs out, and I really have to stop and tell these people sometimes "trust me, if there's someone diagnosing your issues you want it to be one of us over a line tech".

This job has made me start to really hate people. Its not your "Computer illiteracy" its your sense of fucking entitlement and your inability to follow the most basic of directions.

$12/hr makes baby jesus want to cry.
Maybe if I was getting paid what you were ;-) :D.

[buckaction.livejournal.com]

I feel for you man. I spent years paying my dues in the trenches. This is exactly why I do not miss doing cable modem support AT ALL.

"i'm losing thousands of dollars an hour!"

oh rly?

"Oh, i'm sorry to hear that. If you'd like to hold the line, i'd be glad to transfer you to one of your Sales representatives. They would be MORE than happy to see about upgrading your account to the superior service and performance of our Business Class accounts"

This usually resulted in a louder tirade of curses and swearing, but it was worth it.


We got paid shit there too, but stick with it, it's all working towards something.

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

Agreed. You will get to something better, and being able to look back at cable support from there will be sweet.

Those business people day-traders HATED being told they needed business-class accounts to use the service for business purposes. Sad thing was, when I was working in cable, the business accounts didn't run a whole lot more than the residential ones - those sorry bastards were just too cheap broke to pay the difference.

Also, sad to hear that the pay hasn't gotten any better - I've been out of cable for almost ten years and I was making 12/hr when I left...

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

"SURE we can send out a field engineer! We have one available three weeks from now on Friday! OR... we could fix it right now over the phone and have you up and running by lunchtime."

[buckaction.livejournal.com]

God I wish, we would do that to people who were assholes to us at cablevision.
If I had any direct control over the scheduling I still would.


The irony here thought, is that we have NO shortage of customers that'll call in screaming OMGBBQSEV124x7, meaning, they want immediate and around the clock effort because this issue is superseriousbighugeproblemmustbefixedASAP.

So...we'll bust our asses, diagnose the issue super quick, dispatch it immediately, annnnnnnddd, when we check the task scheduling... it's set for sometime next month.

THE FUCK?

[attackgypsy.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I worked there too. In Shelton. I used to get that all the time too. Then CV shafted me when I applied for an FMLA due to something that happened off the job.

[vulpisfoxfire.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I obviously don't have a clue what kind of setup you're working with, because telling them to type a command in response to 'it won't boot' reminds me of the old tech-tale involving the customer saying their video card isn't working and they have no picture, only to be told to read the text file.

That said, the reason these people in general call for a field tech is pretty obvious, I'd think (though the means they go about it is still pretty silly)--they're aware (or perceive the limits of their ability that way, anyway) that they're not only not technically-skilled enough to fix the problem (otherwise they probably wouldn't be calling you in the first place), but that they're not skilled enough to usefully *diagnose* the problem, and want someone who actually does know what they're doing to take a look at it.
Compare and contrast this to the self-styled 'experts' who think they know it all and either are constantly making suggestions on how to fix it, or try to fix it themselves and make the problem *worse*, I suppose.

[buckaction.livejournal.com]

This is enterprise level stuff i'm talking about. The people I talk to are (supposedly qualified) sysadmins who work for our Corporate customers.

That command isn't "in response" to the system not booting, it's the command you use to actually power on and boot the server. However, when a unit is fresh out of the box, it doesn't have an OS installed yet. You've gotta first configure the System Controller, which is what actually lets you control the box, and THEN start up a virtual console and run the OS installation from there.

You can't just plug em in and expect them to just magically talk over the network without being configured. It's like looking in the trunk then being shocked when there's no Engine back there.

our Field Engineers are very good at their jobs, but they're not Diagnostics Engineers, I am. It's my job to figure out what's not working/what's broken, and why. It's the FE's job to replace the parts well tell them to.

I would no more want an FE to tell me to go on-site and install part than they want me to send out a task telling them to diagnose the issue.

[vulpisfoxfire.livejournal.com]

*nod* Points taken--in the first case, I'm mixing up the hardware (system won't do anything at all) and software (the machine works, but won't run any of the stuff we need to use) versions of 'Won't boot'. :-)

And on the other...also good point, though I don't think most end users know that distinction--they figure the hands-on field person does *both*, (Ie they physically access the machine, examine the problem, and replace/order parts/software as needed), while the guy on the phone only troubleshoots the basic problems that *can* be diagnosed over the phone while talking to the mostly clueless, same as any other repair situation.

[jimbojones.livejournal.com]

Usually, it's not really either.

When the customer absofuckinglutely refuses to assist in troubleshooting and whines for you to "just send a tech", it generally means that they just don't want to fiddle with this mucky shit, and if it takes longer, what the fuck ever, because while it may take longer in real time it will take less of their time personally spent.

Are you pickin' up what I'm puttin' down, here?

... of course, my personal solution toward being satisfied with the outcome is simple, but won't work for everyone: It's me who does the work either way, and I bill more for the on-site visit.

So, really, whatever. Either way, I'm happy.

[merlin-t-wizard.livejournal.com]

*nod*. Yep, I've had customers like that. I finally realized that they would not even *try*, no matter what I did. I finally just started out by asking them if they would like to troubleshoot it with me on the phone, or if they would like me to arrange for a tech to come out. I'd tell them that it would take a while to get a tech out there, but that it was their choice. Now, in my case, they were willing to just wait for the tech. In your case, I think when they called back, I'd restate that a tech is scheduled, but would you like to try troubleshooting it over the phone? (if your employer allows you to say it, of course).

Just don't beat yourself up about it. Remember a quote from one of Robert Heinlein's characters: "Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think most can't do it very well".

[jimbojones.livejournal.com]

^^ this.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_caecus_/]

I deal with doctors like that quite often. The funny thing is, they usually get angry at me when I try to get information from them. They want it magically fixed that second. They get pissy and hang up on me sometimes, because they "can't be bothered with this." I have had a doctor use those exact words. Anyway, it works for me when they do that, because most of the time they don't give me a location or asset number to track down. I open a work order and then close it, because I am unable to locate the "broken" PC. Most of the time, it isn't broken. They just don't know what they're doing. There is obviously no way that's true, though. They are a doctor, after all.