Outsourcing: Am I a bad person?

[phylny]

Yesterday, I was having some difficulty with Time Warner Cable/Earthlink newsgroups. I'm getting an annoying error message and can't figure out how to fix it. But that's not the purpose of this post.

So, yesterday I called the 800# and got a person who was "only trained on Outlook Express" and therefore, there was no one to help me and basically, goodbye and good luck. She was located in Manila. After unsuccessfully trying to have her understand what I needed help with, I asked to be transferred to someone in the United States. She said okay. Got another person online.

"Where are you located, sir?" I asked politely.

"India."

SO...I asked again to be transferred to someone in the US. Couldn't he help me, he asked? Sure, I answered, and tried again. Silence. "I'll transfer you to someone in the United States." I was waiting on hold for 20 minutes, and finally gave up to go to sleep.

Tonight, same thing, same exact order: Manila, Philippines, and then India. I'm currently on hold to speak with someone from the US, and this time, I'm hanging on.

I think this is going to be my new behavior. When I get outsourced, I'm going to request to be sent right back to someone in the US. It's inconvenient to wait, but no more inconvenient than speaking with someone who doesn't understand vernacular U.S. English and who can't solve anything if it's not on the "script."

Okay, I'm holding. Holding....

[mdmc]

1. my sis had the same problem with tw cable

:shrug:

[msongs]

2. earthlink SUCKS - let me tell you how many ways....

on average (over a week period) I would say we have to try to connect at least twice per session.

the typical connection speed is 36 kbps on a 56 K modem, that's barely better than using a 28 k modem!

there is this thing called earthlink accelerator which is ok when you WANT it, but frequently turns on when you DO NOT want it
and messes things up.

they have this thing called a spyware blocker, and when you use it to scan, about half the time it ruins your connection and you have to log off and reconnect.

they have a special program for NEW customers to get half price if you pay in advance. Current customers are NOT given this discount.

I would say since the connection rate is 50% the fee should be reduced by half at least.

and as you say, the customer service is all overseas. We tried to get this guy in India to give us a USA address to mail complaints and he said there was NO such thing LOL.

Sorry to say the phone company does not allow our neighborhood to get dsl or we would be outta earthlink in a flash.

since we are limited to dial up we are looking into alternative solutions. cable is not one of them sorry to say due to local cable situations.

Msongs
www.msongs.com
batik & digital art
mugs and shirts

[phylny]

3. Let's hear it for Omaha, Nebraska! n/t

[BlooInBloo]

4. I can't for the life of me figure out....

... why you didn't ask for someone who could help you with the newsgroups, which was your REAL problem, and instead asked for someone simply "in the United States". How much help is someone in the United States who is also trained ONLY on OE?

I lied actually, I think I CAN for the life of me figure it out...


BTW - when I did tech support at a large software company in Redmond, WA, we were almost completely scripted. AND WERE ***ALL*** AMERICAN, AND 90% WHITE.

[phylny]

5. I can't figure it out, either, friend, but inexplicably, Mr. Omaha

Nebraska found out what the issue was.

Amazing how I blindly, ignorantly asked a general question and got someone who 1) knew exactly what Mozilla Thunderbird was, 2) understood quickly what I was having difficulty with and 3) got me an answer.

What a country!

[cap]

6. on top of it... probably was an over 40 year old programmer

who was laid off.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

7. Outsourcing is just plain wrong.

Is there any way to rescind NAFTA and all those other treaties?

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. Congress has to approve and the President has to sign

legislation to rescind NAFTA and all other trade agreements. We give the other country 6 months notice, and the deal is done. Fat chance of that happening. Millions of us peasants would have to storm Capitol Hill with our pitchforks to force that.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. Doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. nt

[Breeze54]

10. I've worked tech support...

and your issue was 'specific' and I am amazed that anybody there helped you with FF!!
But, as an Earthlink user for six yrs., I've had some bad run-ins with the 'India' CS group.
I actually solved one of their problems and they gave me a free months service! LMAO!
I asked for a job instead; they sent me a Thank You e-mail.
I just don't call tech support at Earthlink if I can help it.
That's because I can eventually figure out the problem.
I did call while trying to use "Earthlink Total Access". ARGH!!!!
Some Earthlink "techs" didn't have a clue how to fix it.
Their solution was for me to "empty the cache" for EVERYTHING!!!!!! Everytime...
I gave up on them.

BUT?? I have Earthlink Dial-up and I'm usually at 53,333 bps . If I'm not? I reboot.
It's usually a fault in the phoneline. And the reboot will clear it up.
Could have just been "dirty power".

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[phylny]

14. One of the reasons that I didn't ask to speak with someone about

newsgroups is that they generally will quickly try to bail, saying, "Oh, we don't support Firefox/Thunderbird" or "I've never heard of that" or "You'll have to speak with someone from FF/TB about your problem with newsgroups" (like that's gonna happen.) I generally patiently explain that they should just pretend we're talking about Netscape :)

[Breeze54]

16. lol ! Hope it helps! ........n/t

;)

[aquart]

11. I think you're a wonderful person.

And nicely stubborn.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

12. you riv in house or apartment?

Condominium.

Yes, house or apartment?

I fuckkin give up!

[survivor999]

13. Perhaps there is nobody left

in the US... That's why they cannot transfer you to them...

[REP]

15. I Just Wanna Know...

Why aren't you using a dedicated newsreader instead of a browser? Killfiles, for one, are about a zillion times easier to manage with most newsreaders...

Aside from that, no, I don't think you're a horrible person. I have a hard time getting good tech help ("Hi, I just need to know the address of alternative newsserver since the main one is down." "What browser are you using?" "Well, that doesn't matter, since when I ping the server, I'm getting 100% packet loss." "Huh?")

[Nobody]

17. It might all be the same queue, the tech has no control

I used to work tech support, and the techs in Idaho were frequently badmouthing the techs in Minnesota to the customers. We were an acquired company, the acquiring co. was in Idaho. We worked all the non-M-F 8 to 5 shifts and ALL of the holidays. They got holidays off, never worked a weekend, and never had mandatory overtime.

Any time an Idaho tech would get a customer who had talked to a Minnesota tech and had to call back again for any reason, the tech would slip into the conversation "The Minnesota techs are idiots".

I found out about this from a customer. The first thing he said after my welcome spiel was: Where are you located?

Minnesota, I said.

He asked to be transfered to a tech in Idaho.

I couldn't do that. We're all on the same incoming call queue, and there was a greater chance of him getting one of us instead of one of them. There were more of us, even if I was working the MF 8-5 shift (before they moved us to MF 10AM - 8PM (yes that's 9 hours, we had mandatory OT, and we had to work every other Sat a full shift. Tell me when do you run errands working those hours? What's even open when you're home?) They gave us two days notice. Sigh. This is why I don't work there anymore.

Back to the story. Same queue. Even if I were to dump misinformed caller back into the queue, he'd be upset if he got another Minnesotan. I was already his third attempt that day to get an Idahoan.

I asked him to let me try to fix his problem. If I couldn't, I'd transfer him, but I couldn't guarantee who he'd get. I'd have loved to blind transfer him to the specific tech who dissed Minnesota, but we don't have access to other tech's direct lines. Especially for the techs in Idaho. Would have served Asshat right. We weren't allowed to return calls. We had to take incoming calls for Shift Time minus 1 hour or we got written up. Anyone who has ever been on an incoming call queue knows how difficult this is. There is NO time for updating call notes and restroom breaks. You drink a lot of water to keep your voice in shape and water = restroom breaks.

The customer reluctantly let me in on the problem. He couldn't get his modem working. These modems were nightmares to work with, and in order to test the modem, the customer had to hand up and use the modem. This is pre-DSL and pre-cable modem, and most people didn't have two phone lines. Customers did NOT want to wait 45 minutes and call back if your fix didn't work.

I often said Fuck You to the rule about returning calls. I called this guy back several times until the modem worked. So my incoming call time sucked. I really didn't give a shit. So it didn't show up on the call report. Big flippin' deal. Manager complained, I shot back that I was redeeming Minnesota's reputation in the eyes of this customer who had been told by someone in Idaho that we were all idiots.

This guy did get his modem working, and I had to break rules to do it. The rules were:

1: Solve all problems with one call. Broken, I was several techs after Tech Number One.

2: No returning phone calls. Time on incoming calls must equal 7 hours (or 8 if you work mandatory OT). I always break this rule. I seemed to get a lot of modem calls, many of which were inheritied from other techs who followed rule number 2. Lots of irate customers who didn't want to waste 45 more minutes waiting in the queue. How many customers would NOT be waiting in the queue if people would stay with them until the problem was fixed?

3: All calls had to be resolved in 10 minutes or less. Say WHAT? When you tell someone to type del star dot star, they type del star dot star instead of del *.* and you can't always hear them typing the extra characters. Ten minutes? Riiiiiiight. I broke this one all the time.

I truly hated that job. Even now, I hate talking on the phone.