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

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 :)