Why good companies rock

[omg-teh-funnay.livejournal.com]

[10:45] OMG: hrm...
[10:47] OMG: Annoying customer is telling me he feels that trying something that prolly won't work (formatting a drive that wasn't detected when it was installed) is a waste of time. How much do you think it'd piss him off if I tell him that although the chance of success is low, it's not a waste. Like Edision said, "I didn't fail. I simply found ten thousands ways to NOT build a light bulb"
[10:48] tier1_1: it's a lot faster than getting the FE out there to crack the node and check the cable?
[10:49] manager1: i think the angle you want to use is that we have a progressive set of actions we take to repair the drive...before we replace it, we want to make sure its not just a formatting issue.
[10:50] tier3_1: nah, go with the outright scorn
[10:50] tier3_1: it's Annoying Customer
[10:50] *** manager1 is now known as manager1.
[10:50] manager1: right...its Annoying Customer, so you're going to get scorn either way. ;)
[10:50] tier3_1: bingo, may as well go in both guns blazin'
[10:51] tier3_2: Customer thinks he knows more than he does, which is dangerous
[10:52] *** tier3_3 has joined #support.
[10:52] OMG: Oh, I know how to manage a user like him. I'm just wondering if I should take the "annoyingly shipper jerk" angle
[10:52] OMG: err, CHIPPER
[10:53] tier3_2: i think the tough love angle may be better
[10:56] manager1: the thing about him is you *can* keep him calm and on your side, but you have to work at it.
[10:57] OMG: It's one of those Alpha Male things, isn't it? I have to make him believe that I am Calm, Cool, and In Control, right?
[10:57] OMG: And i can't hesitate or flinch, or he'll tear my throat out
[10:57] tier3_2: think martyr complex
[10:57] OMG: Oh, jesus. That's even better
[10:59] manager1: actually, i think its a matter of letting him think he is in control and that the course i am recommending is going to be the best way i can help him through this.
[10:59] manager1: hahah...yeah, he can sense fear
[10:59] tier3_2: but alpha thing doesn't work, he hung up on me once for being too assertive
[11:00] tier3_2: i told him we have to tell the FEs what to do, we can't have our customers doing that
[11:00] OMG: Gotcha, so he's the puppet king and I'm the "trusted advisor" who's really running things and shagging his wife. I can do that.
[11:01] manager1: shag away my good man

My brain...

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

I've gotten to the point where the stupid doesn't really phase me. Stupid happens. I'm in tech support. I have to expect it.


But when I have to instruct you how to hold your cellphone up to your ear to hear the voicemail message and how to input numbers...

YOU ARE TOO STUPID TO LIVE.


I just want to know how the hell she called in the first place!

The Country's Biggest ISP..

[emsporter.livejournal.com]

New Zealand is a small place. As such, there is one major ISP (belonging to the major phone company, which is mostly a monopoly post privatization). It's name is Xtra.

I have a real job (yes, tech support), but I occasionally put websites together for friends and friends-of. (For money. Although good friends get sites-for-food.)

Couple weeks ago, I put a site together for a fairly clueless friend-of-a-friend. Got a panicked call a few days later saying that all their email from this site wasn't getting through.

They're right, too. On investigating with the web host, all mail is being rejected by Xtra, their ISP. It's not being dumped in spam filters, it's flat being rejected. Unsurprisingly, this isn't acceptable.

( The saga below )

And I am left with a great deal of frustration at xtra. I really don't hold out much hope that this will be fixed - which sucks greatly for my customers.