I HATE calling tech support

[csziggy]

Especially when it's for my landline. Today my internet, TV and landline kept dropping out. In order to call tech support when the landline isn't working, I have to go outside to use my cellphone. I get no cell signal inside my house.

So I have to call, select 1 for English, select 4 for tech support, 1,2 or 3 for internet, TV or telephone (I picked 1), verify if the number I am calling from is the account number (2 for no), enter the account number, enter 0 because I don't want to use their automated help menu, enter the account number AGAIN, enter the number from which I am calling in case we're cut off. Oh, while they are switching me to a person, they tell me I have to be in front of my computer to assist the tech support person solve my problem. HAH!

I finally get tech support. First thing I have to do is give her my account number AGAIN. Second, give her the number I am calling from in case we're cut off. She verifies the account information and asks my problem. First I tell her that I cannot be at my computer and talk to her at the same time. I have to be outside to talk to her. Then I explain that all my services (that come in on the same line) are intermittently cutting out. And there is no point in using my cell phone number to try to reach me because it will NOT ring or connect inside my house and I will not be standing outside waiting for a call back.

She asks me to check my service - I AGAIN explain to her that I cannot be at the computer and talk to her at the same time. That I just wanted to register a complaint that the services keep cutting out all at the same time. That I don't want to spend much more time outside because the heat index is over 100 but it is cooling down because the thunderstorm with lots of lightning I can hear coming is causing a downdraft. And that I really DO NOT want to continue to stand outside on top of this hill with a lightning storm on the way.

She asks me to hold while she checks my service. I agree but ask her to hurry. She comes back and says there is no problem. I disagree - there is a problem or ALL the services would not be dropping intermittently. She agrees to send a service technician out to check the line. She wanted my cell phone number for the tech to call when he headed my way - uh, REDUX: there is no point in using my cell phone number to try to reach me because it will NOT ring or connect inside my house and I will not be standing outside waiting for a call back. I thank her, got off the phone and back inside.

I just checked my cell phone - the entire screen is filled with numbers from the insane amount of information I had to enter - that never got to the service representatives. It's not her fault - she did not set up the system. But why the heck can't the fucking PHONE COMPANY put caller ID that automatically enters the number into the service representative's screen? Why does it have to ask for it multiple times during the same repair call?

[antiquie]

1. I blame Orwell.

[NV Whino]

2. I feel your pain

I had to call FedEx today for a missing package.

Yep, I had to give the tracking number three times. I tell various people that the tracking record says the package was dropped off on my porch. Except that it wasn't. So I finally get a guy on the line, who takes the tracking number, of course, and says let me check the record. I know what he's going to come back and say—the package was dropped off on my porch. You know, the same thing I just told him.

Then he suggests that I check around the neighborhood. I say, let me be clear. I am not tramping up and down my hill looking for a 19 pound package. It is your job to deliver it to me, not my job to play hide and seek with, I repeat, a 19 pound package.

Maybe my regular driver will be back tomorrow and track down the package. If I'm lucky.

[csziggy]

4. Bet it's FedEx Ground!

They are really bad - and I say this even though my husband works for FedEx Office. One of the boxes for my computer looked as though the guy drop kicked it out the back of the truck. Maybe that's why that DVD writer never worked quite right.

Try insisting on a signature - but I'm not sure that works with Ground.

[NV Whino]

8. Don't think it is ground

Ground always leaves it 3/10 of a mile away at my mail box. Sometimes in the mailbox, which means if the mail carrier gets to it before I do, he takes it to the post office where I have to pay postage on it. Reliable that way, they are.

Insisting on a signature is even more of a problem. My schedule is erratic, and I would never get the package.

Rural living does present its challenges.

[csziggy]

10. Yeah, rural deliveries are a problem

I'm in the same fix you are - my driveway is almost 1/4 a mile long. I can't see either the mailbox or the front gate from the house.

The regular UPS and FedEx drivers are OK - they bring stuff to the house and leave it on the carport. Substitutes on the other hand are horrible. In addition to the drop kicked package, they've left packages at one or the other of the barns or outbuildings, no matter what the weather not under cover. One guy left a large package leaning up against the mailbox post. On the street in full sight of anyone driving by. It's a wonder someone didn't stop and pick it up.

I have a running battle with the USPS final deliveries. Not that I object - IF all the shippers would agree to shipping to my PO Box. I get no bills or important mail at my street address because that box is not secure. But some shippers - notably New Egg - will NOT let me use my PO Box even when it is clear that their lowest cost method will have final delivery by the USPS. I've been round and round with them about this and they will not budge.

You see, the rural postal delivery person will not drive up our driveway and bring packages to the house. They leave things too big for the box on the ground in plain sight. So the most secure and reliable way of getting a package is to either pay for the door to door delivery by the shipping companies or use my PO Box for delivery.

I don't really blame the drivers - they need to do their routes as fast as possible to make money. But the shippers that will not let me use the address I prefer and that I know is better irritate me no end.

[NV Whino]

12. Yeah, rural delivery is crazy

I had a 143 pound air conditioner delivered to a client just up the road from me because I didn't want to have to cart it up to his place myself. Client's not there during the week and UPS delivered after the office staff left. He left a note saying he left it at the "shed." Ha! This is a high end property in the Napa Valley. None of the five structures on the property qualify as a "shed." It took me 45 minutes going from building to building and still found no package. Finally it occurred to me to open the roll up door at the barn where the office is. Yup, there it was inside the barn. Too bad it wasn't raining. I'm sure he would have left it outside then.

[blueamy66]

3. Sounds like Comcast.

Nightmare.

[csziggy]

5. The one thing I do have to say for CenturyLink is they answer fast

I seldom have to sit on hold with them.

It would not be Comcast for two reasons. First I haven't done business with them for forty years and wouldn't if they held a gun to my head. Second, they don't come out this far.

And no one can be as bad as Verizon - minimum hold is 45 minutes and they usually have to transfer you at least twice to get to the right department, with a 45 minute hold each time.

T-Mobile was a close second even though I've never done business with them. Somehow they put my landline number in for a dead beat customer then started calling several times a week to convince her to pay up. Without a customer number - which I didn't have because I was never a customer - I could not get to any human to get them to stop calling me. I finally got the state Consumer Services to contact them and get me off their list. I was unable to get T-Mobile to promise to add a way for other people in the same situation to contact them and also get removed from their lists.

Simple things would make life so much easier, but for some reason these companies just refuse to do them!

[blueamy66]

6. Yep. Hated Comcast.

5 days to get a tech out to fix our cable. Really? Think maybe they need to either fix their wiring, or whatever, or hire more techs?

Can they hire someone that speaks English?

So glad that I have Direct TV now.

Comcast is the worst cable service I've ever had.

Could have hooked up Verizon...glad I didn't. 😄

[Sherman A1]

7. ATT U-Verse?

It is just a "wonderful" service.

[dawg]

9. Did you try ...

turning it off and back on again?

[csziggy]

11. Yep - worked once, didn't work twice

The tech guy is supposed to be here by 6:10 (24 hours after my call). I need to go make lunch - as soon as I sit to take a bite he'll show up! It works all the time, same as the phone rings as soon as I walk away from my desk and get involved in something else.

For most of my tech support calls, the technician has to send me up tier because I've already done all the basic steps: turn off/on the modem; reset or hard boot the modem; turn off the modem and the computer, turn modem on then after it fully boots, turn computer on, etc. I only call if I can't get all those things to work.

Of course, if as I suspect, the problem is in the main box on the street, the tech could have checked it, found and fixed the problem and not make contact with me. It hasn't shut off today so far as I know, though I haven't been online constantly.

[whistler162]

13. Well then you have gained empathy!

'cause that is how we feel when you, or anyone calls.;}

The problem is usually BTKAC.

[csziggy]

15. It's the process set up by the corporation, not the people I hate

For the most part the tech support people I have dealt with have been great. Exceptions: Comcast and Verizon - the people I dealt with there were sarcastic, incompetent and screwed up every call.

The frustrations I have had were with the steps required to GET to the people. With today's technology, I should not have to enter the phone number I am calling from. Once I enter my account number, it should stay with my call as it is being transferred. I should not have to repeat BOTH number multiple times in one tech support call.

When I was trying to notify T-Mobile that the telephone number they were harassing to collect from a dead beat was the wrong number, their system had no method for a non-customer to get to a human. The calls their robo-system were making had no way to indicate that the dead beat they were trying to contact was not at the number they were using.

To a limited extent I understand tech support work - I did volunteer tech support in an online forum about printers and scanners for a few years. It can be frustrating when you can't get a good description of the problem ("My printer won't print!" but they don't know what brand or model printer, what OS, what program they are trying to print from, etc.).

I try to be nice to the tech support and customer service people. If I am in a bad mood, I apologize at the start and try to not take it out on the person on the other end of the phone. But it is hard when the system seems to be designed to frustrate and irritate rather than to get the customer to help as soon as possible.

[trof]

14. Gosh, I always have THE BEST results with tech support.

Naw, I'm just messin' with ya.

TS generally sux.
I feel your pain.