First post...

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

Gotta share this one. Bet anyone can sympthasize...

About 4:00 PM yesterday...
Me: "Thank you for calling [service] Technical Support, my name is [name], can I get the 10 digit telephone number [service] is installed on, starting with area code?"
Cust: *gives me the #*
Me: Sir, I see you've called today. Is this the same issue?
Cust: Yes. I want to know what's going on.
Me: Let me just take a moment to look over this ticket, sir...

... I read the ticket. It's a valid problem, he'd been escalated twice in the same day, something was wrong, yes, on our end. But not something we could fix. It'd been sent to
NOC to look into around 1 PM. Mind I said this was 4 PM. The ticket also stated he'd called at 2 PM to throw a fit and ask what was up. NOC had not closed the ticket or anything yet...

Me: Sir, it looks as if this issue has been escalated to the NOC and the ticket is still open, so they have not resolved the issue yet.
Cust: Well, I want to know what the hell is going on and I want it fixed now.
Me: Sir, I am sorry, but I have no further information and I can do nothing else as it has been escalated.
Cust: Well when are they going to fix it?
Me: I would hope within the next couple of hours at the latest. They could be working on it right now for all we know and it will be up in the next 30 minutes.
Cust: Well how am I supposed to know when it is fixed?
Me: They will contact you once it is fixed, but we on the desk can do nothing else. We can't affect them or how fast they get to your issue.


He, grudgingly, got off the phone, after I apologized a few more times. When I left that night, my friend had gotten him around 9 PM and it sounds like he'd called multiple times after getting off the phone with me. x.x

I'm sorry, how many times do we have to tell you we can't do anything before you listen?

EDIT: Oh, yes. And I had to get this gem on my first day on the phones by myself.

Comments

[springdew.livejournal.com]

Those kinds of calls always make me crazy. It always boiled down to a diplomatic version of, "They're far too busy actually -working- on the issue for me to pester them after status updates." Such customers don't seem to realize they are working against their own best interests when they behave this way.

[gholam.livejournal.com]

It can be worse. A year ago, during my first week on my current job, I got a dead Compaq ProLiant 1600 server which housed a company's primary Exchange server - and guess what, they didn't keep backups. We need it fixed, we need it fixed now, no there's no manufacturer's warranty, and no spares. The server was also a part of active directory structure, but NOT the primary controller, and the primary controller died half a year previous, was disposed of, and NOT replaced. Fun, fun, fun.

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

Dear god they make me crazy too. If you call the same number and you've gotten the same answer multiple times, what makes you think it'll be different the next time?

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

... I hate to say it, but damn they deserved that. It sucked that you had to deal with it, but they deserved it.

Not replacing your primary controller when it died, not having a spare, and not having backups? Who the hell was their admin for that network and why wasn't he taken out and shot?

You keep backups. You keep spares. And y'know what one of those spares is? A test server. Why? 1. So you can test new software on it, before it goes live, to make sure it's compatible with everything you have. -- 2. It runs exactly what the primary one runs, so that if the primary dies, you can immediately (or close to) put it into action.

There should be laws about this somewhere...

[gholam.livejournal.com]

A case study on their admins can be found here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/gholam/21621.html).

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

*reads*

Oh, man. Ouch.
I am so sorry.

And here I couldn't even get a job as an assistant sys and/or network admin because I didn't have enough experience... I wish I could go to these companies and say "Look, I may be honest and admit I have less than 5 years of experience actually doing this work, but I know more than who you currently have staffed."

[gholam.livejournal.com]

The joys of being a technician for a small white box vendor/integrator :) On the other hand, I did get hired here pretty much straight out of the army, with little formal qualification.

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

Heh. There ya go.


Me? I moved from Maryland to Ohio for a tech support job. I may be insane, yes, but when you've been trying to find more than crappy temp work for a year... x.x

Plus, a friend found the job for me and had a place for me to stay.

[gholam.livejournal.com]

Considering that I've never been neither to Maryland, nor to Ohio, nor to anywhere else in United States, this is slightly out of context for me :)

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

Heh. This might help:

The move was an 8 hour drive. ;)

[gholam.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I was under the impression that in US, it's not all that uncommon. On the other hand, for me, it's the equivalent of moving from Metula to Eilat, or vice versa, so...

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but people usually move for better things than a job doing tech support. x.x

[lync.livejournal.com]

BWA HA HA! I love your icon!!!

[jecook]

Jee-sus.

That's almost criminally stupid.

However, they could have come from the software side of life.

My current boss came from this direction, and he has very little clue as to the nuts and bolts of how we do things at my company.

Considering that he's putting in an IT department proper where there there used to be two guys (me and deceased boss), I'm frankly surprised that it's gone this smoothly...

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

Hee. It's from Something*Positive. The bottom row also (v. tiny, I had to blow it up to see) said something like 'I can't believe you went through all that trouble just to read this'. But it's my generic 'Stupid people' icon.

[lync.livejournal.com]

That is awesome! hehe