How the fsck ..

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

.. can a front line support tech write two pages of notes that don't say anything at all other than clearly indicate the tech had no clue whatsoever what he was doing or why and was just throwing random quick fixes at the problem?

And how can a call go through three of these mouth breathers before it gets to me, and how come I'm the first person to talk to the customer who has any idea of what the actual problem is? (It's been worse, I've seen instances of calls that even get up to my *tier* without anyone having a clue what's going on.)

To paraphrase something I overheard from the next row, "You can't just drag someone in off the street, hose them down, put a headset on them, and call them a support tech.."

...

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

Not technically tech support, but related. I'm a DB coder working with a company that handles insurance enrollments for client companies as a go-between for their HR departments and the insurance carriers.

Email received 4/10/07, 5:24PM:

"(Name deleted) enrolled newly adopted child on 4/9 at 4:12. Mres. (name) called today wanting to know why BCBS* still does not show newly adopted child on medical. Please let me know when BCBS receives and acknwoledges receipt of status change so I can call her back at (phone number deleted) to inform her of addition."

Say WHAT? You think that if you call up to a third-party enrollment call center 45 minutes before close of business, you're going to have active coverage the NEXT MORNING? Are you smoking crack? Have you ever even HEARD of the insurance industry before?

We had to explain to the call center enroller that we take enrollments all week and then send files to update their databases once a week. Fortunately for Mres. (name) and family, BCBS gets theirs today. They'll probably have coverage by Friday. If they'd have called at 4:12 TODAY and demanded coverage, it would have been more than a week before they would have received coverage.

*BCBS = Blue Cross Blue Shield