another day from hell

[thalionar.livejournal.com]

Why can't 2nd level folks *tell us* when there's a problem, or *admit* to there being a problem so we don't have to drown in calls?

Because I'm lazy, chat transcript of my venting to a friend this morning (the bits in quotes are the gist of what was actually said):

well, it's better now, but here's what I told Corbaewench earlier:

[10:10] Thalionar: ugh. another day from hell today
[10:12] Thalionar: over the weekend, there was a sw push of about 15 apps. 3 of those apps didn't install so well, so yesterday afternoon, they sent out an email saying "these 3 apps will be updated overnight, so stop calling the HD"
[10:13] Thalionar: THis morning, they sent another email saying, "these 3 apps are finished, if you're still having a problem, call the HD"
[10:13] Thalionar: the problem? one of the apps is having a server side issue...
[10:14] Thalionar: we finally got them to admit to it around 9:15 so we could put up a cut-in saying "yeah, we know you got an email, you don't need to talk to us, they're working on it"
[10:14] Thalionar: also, there's a *different* application that has been having problems off and on for *weeks* we keep sending tickets "50+ can't use app"
[10:15] Thalionar: they keep closing tickets "yeah, we know"
[10:15] Thalionar: not helpful, because when the next set of folks calls in, we have to do a new ticket, page the group, the whole 9 yards.
[10:15] Thalionar: They *finally* told us they're working with MS server support yesterday and today, and the 5-10 min outages are because they're flipping rebooting the flipping server
[10:17] Thalionar: so, they let us do a point ticket, *and* put up a cut in saying, "yeah, this application is having problems, and will be having problems throughout the day. If you are currently having a problem, try it in 5-10 min. Support is working on a permanent solution"
[10:17] Thalionar: *and* I somehow managed to hyperextend my elbow yesterday, so that's just adding to my joy

It's some better now, thanks to the cut-ins, we're back to more or less normal call volume...

Comments

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

We had an org let loose a web app this week. Even though they'd contacted help desk manager back in December, they never sent over any documentation, or let us know when they were going live with it. And to top things off, they do not use our help desk ticket system. We have to create a ticket, copy relevent info to an email, add three different addys to it and email it off. Frequently, we get an email back with suggestions of stuff to try with the customers. In the meantime, we have calls coming in. We don't call back but these fraks don't want to dirty their hands with customers.Gah!

[thalionar.livejournal.com]

wow... that's craptastic, and yet, sounds oddly familiar....

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

Our manager is pissed. Our job is to fix what we can, and send what we can't to where it can be fixed. We're not nurses, taking care of patients. We're triage. The attitude I'm getting from the app programmers is they thought the only trouble they'd have would be customers not knowing how to fill out an online form. Now that we're seeing technical problems (can't submit forms, can't edit them later, can't see forms they should have access to, etc.), they don't have any real support plans in place.

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain.

[devilkitty0.livejournal.com]

The first time I found out the help desk was supporting an app, a client called me about it. The app is called Prometheus. Being a classics major, when someone asked me about Prometheus, I gave her the run down on the mythology.

After a stunned silence, she said "How the fuck does that help me? Its an online class. You're supposed to support it!"

She wasnt pissed at me, especially when I told her this was the first time I had heard of such a thing. Needless to say it was a long semester.

I'm still wading through troubleshooting for an email system that went live a month ago and none of the bugs had been worked out. Plus getting abuse because they changed policy and told no one about it.

DK

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

God that sounds familiar. Partly this happens because engineers seem to think about what's sposed to happen, not anticipate what might go wrong.

Another thing that used to drive me crazy is that our company used to send out email newsletters on days like presidents day when a lot of people were home from the office with nothing better to do than think about their home systems and the upgrade they'd been meaning to install... so our call volume spiked unbelievably with meaningless fill-out-the-form type lost pw type crap... but marketing never gave us a headsup when these blanket emails were gonna go out, I've always maintained that letting us know is helpful so we can come in and clear our emails before the calls hit, etc.

but they never think of us, do they?

[thalionar.livejournal.com]

Informed tech support (whatever level) tends to be happier tech support.

Taking the servers down? Let folks know.
Pushing a brand new app? Let folks know.
Unveiling a new website? Let folks know.

Really, it shouldn't be that difficult.

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

So you'd think!

In two years I spoke to every manager, to the heads of marketing, sales, engineering, and god help us, our tech manager.

Everyone looked at me deer-in-the-headlights. They thought I was 'complaining' -- no matter how positive or proactive I tried to make it sound. It made no sense to them to have us plan ahead or have a comfort zone knowing what was gonna come down the pipe.

Only the gal who put the newsletter out got the picture, and she started letting me know when the newsletter was gonna hit, but of course that was only one small part of the pie.