Technical support

[agentkuo]

Here's a topic we should discuss. Because I know I'm not the only one who's gone through the hell of technical support before.

I'm baffled by this. That people don't understand how to do their own job. And this is true for every company who offers technical support.

I have literally had a total of over 15 different AT&T technicians come to my house (througout the time my family has had AT&T U-Verse) and out of those 15, 1 of them knew what they were doing and how to fix the problems we had. 10 of these technicians came within the same month. They also left a mess in my room and my sisters room.

I have also spoken with, for the second time, Sony's technical support, and they are just as bad.

Why doesn't technical support understand how to do their job?
Why aren't they trained?

Does anyone here work for technical support for a company? Can you explain this?

Why does tech support even exist? Why do they have people working who don't know how to solve problems related to their products? Why would they do that?

God, it's just so damn frustrating!

[Beware of Cuccos]

I worked for technical support over the phone for Cingular, right before they merged with AT&T. I can't defend everyone, but here's how it went where I worked all those years ago-

-Training was two weeks. Two weeks to learn everything about the company.
-We HAD to ask certain questions before giving the call to a supervisor, even if the first words out of your mouth were "I WANT TO TALK TO YOUR SUPERVISOR"
-We had to do that because our calls were monitored and we could lose our jobs.
-We had to be friendly at all times, even if you made us cry (it happened quite often)
-We had to give you our full name and city/state if you asked, which scared me to death.
-We had to try and fix what we could before giving your call to a supervisor, in a friendly tone, even if you threatened to "cut off your head, fuck it, and throw it in a ditch" (that man called no less than 16 times a day, every.single.day.)
-It was a really easy job to get, so most people who work for those places need money quickly. I was really hungry.


I could say more, but my mind is getting filled with depressing images of my past.

[agentkuo]

I'm really sorry to hear that. That sounds awful. And it really gives me perspective on these people I'm talking to regularly. I'll make a conscious effort to try not to hurt them emotionally or mentally.

That being said, it sounds like a company issue in regards to not knowing what they're doing. I don't know if it's just the call-center people, but also the technicians who go out to help the customers, but it just sounds like they're not making an effort to train them properly. And that's really frustrating when you have a person come out to do a job that they don't know how to do. But what's even worse is when you have a technician come out and tell you that they've done their job when they clearly haven't. I literally argued with the last AT&T guy who came here because he clearly didn't resolve the issue and he had the nerve to argue with me that he did. Like do your goddamn job or direct me to someone who knows what they're doing.

I could go on and on, but it just frustrates me thinking about it.

[Beware of Cuccos]

I can't speak for technicians that go out to people's homes, but I know what you're saying. Things are different now-a-days. Everything is made to break, and companies make it nearly impossible to get it fixed. They will charge you money to come out and just look at the problem. Then they charge you more to fix it, which never worksthe first time. Then they charge even more because guy #1 made it worse.

[SERIOUSLY THOUGH]

I've had quite a few dealings with customer service. Never had a problem worse than 10 mins waiting time.
Dell are always very helpful and their next-day service to replace things has worked everytime (though I'd'rather my laptop not frazzle )
Orange (european telecoms) has also always been useful.


I say just be cheerful and polite to the customer service person. If they see you're a cool person, they'll be much more likely to want to help you out.
Also, if they've done a good job, ask to speak to a supervisor to leave some positive feedback about them, it'll make their day that much better

[Beware of Cuccos]

(08-27-2012 10:54 PM)SERIOUSLY THOUGH Wrote:  I say just be cheerful and polite to the customer service person. If they see you're a cool person, they'll be much more likely to want to help you out.
Also, if they've done a good job, ask to speak to a supervisor to leave some positive feedback about them, it'll make their day that much better

Yes.

[BumblebeeCody]

(08-27-2012 10:54 PM)SERIOUSLY THOUGH Wrote:  I've had quite a few dealings with customer service. Never had a problem worse than 10 mins waiting time.
Dell are always very helpful and their next-day service to replace things has worked everytime (though I'd'rather my laptop not frazzle )
Orange (european telecoms) has also always been useful.


I say just be cheerful and polite to the customer service person. If they see you're a cool person, they'll be much more likely to want to help you out.
Also, if they've done a good job, ask to speak to a supervisor to leave some positive feedback about them, it'll make their day that much better

@ Bold.
I don't see the point in being a dick, it's not the person on the ends fault. I understand getting pissed that something related to company happened to you but acting like a super important person on this planet makes you look(sound) like a douche.

I think I'm one of the few people who haven't had any issues with technical support. I've rang Microsoft twice about my Gamertag being suspended (Once earlier this year because I cancelled my card from auto-renewel (Sleezy Micro$oft)) and the dude on the other end was pretty helpful. The day my Gamertag was suspended I rang Microsoft support and hand it activated again. Not only that but the guy on the other end was also willing to help with any of problems or questions I had. Not only that but it was free.

I really don't like outsourcing however.

I usually make technical support a second last resort after Googling what the problem is.
(The last resort being to smash whatever is having problems...even my cat(joke)).

[agentkuo]

(08-28-2012 05:36 AM)BumblebeeCody Wrote:  

(08-27-2012 10:54 PM)SERIOUSLY THOUGH Wrote:  I've had quite a few dealings with customer service. Never had a problem worse than 10 mins waiting time.
Dell are always very helpful and their next-day service to replace things has worked everytime (though I'd'rather my laptop not frazzle )
Orange (european telecoms) has also always been useful.


I say just be cheerful and polite to the customer service person. If they see you're a cool person, they'll be much more likely to want to help you out.
Also, if they've done a good job, ask to speak to a supervisor to leave some positive feedback about them, it'll make their day that much better

@ Bold.
I don't see the point in being a dick, it's not the person on the ends fault. I understand getting pissed that something related to company happened to you but acting like a super important person on this planet makes you look(sound) like a douche.

It's more about people not knowing how to or not doing the job they came to do. It's a waste of my time if someone comes out, shuts down my internet for a good hour, messes with some cables, runs some tests, and tells me they fixed the problem, and they didn't. (As I said in my original post, we had 10 AT&T technicians out within a single month because we had to keep calling them after the last person didn't know what the fuck they were doing and didn't fix the problem.)

Quote:I think I'm one of the few people who haven't had any issues with technical support. I've rang Microsoft twice about my Gamertag being suspended (Once earlier this year because I cancelled my card from auto-renewel (Sleezy Micro$oft)) and the dude on the other end was pretty helpful. The day my Gamertag was suspended I rang Microsoft support and hand it activated again. Not only that but the guy on the other end was also willing to help with any of problems or questions I had. Not only that but it was free.

I'm glad to hear that some people have had good experiences and that some companies do their job. But why don't they all? Why even have a company if you're not gonna do your job? That's my main problem. Is people not doing what they're supposed to be trained to do. Or not knowing how to fix a problem that they should be trained to fix (half of the AT&T technicians either had to call their boss or had to "try something" to "see if it works". Like I get it, there's a lot of info they have to know, and it's not always the easiest fix, but they should understand the system well enough to know how to pinpoint the problem, and solve it. Maybe I'm being too hard on them. But am I wrong to expect these people to be able to fix the problem they came out to fix?

Another thing I've noticed is that, the people who schedule the appointment don't speak with the technician who is sent out, so when the technician gets here, they don't even know what the problem is. It's a simple matter of communication (or lack of).

Quote:I usually make technical support a second last resort after Googling what the problem is.
(The last resort being to smash whatever is having problems...even my cat(joke)).

Yeah, if I can't figure out the problem myself, that's when I break down and call a technician.

[BumblebeeCody]

(08-28-2012 05:47 AM)agentkuo Wrote:  1) It's more about people not knowing how to or not doing the job they came to do. It's a waste of my time if someone comes out, shuts down my internet for a good hour, messes with some cables, runs some tests, and tells me they fixed the problem, and they didn't. (As I said in my original post, we had 10 AT&T technicians out within a single month because we had to keep calling them after the last person didn't know what the fuck they were doing and didn't fix the problem.)

2) I'm glad to hear that some people have had good experiences and that some companies do their job. But why don't they all? Why even have a company if you're not gonna do your job? That's my main problem. Is people not doing what they're supposed to be trained to do. Or not knowing how to fix a problem that they should be trained to fix (half of the AT&T technicians either had to call their boss or had to "try something" to "see if it works". Like I get it, there's a lot of info they have to know, and it's not always the easiest fix, but they should understand the system well enough to know how to pinpoint the problem, and solve it. Maybe I'm being too hard on them. But am I wrong to expect these people to be able to fix the problem they came out to fix?

3) Another thing I've noticed is that, the people who schedule the appointment don't speak with the technician who is sent out, so when the technician gets here, they don't even know what the problem is. It's a simple matter of communication (or lack of).

Yeah, if I can't figure out the problem myself, that's when I break down and call a technician.

@1 See we don't have AT&T here in the U.K but after hearing the stories about them (as well as the reaction at Sonys E3 Vita announcement last year) then I guess the rage is understandable. But like I said, it's not the technical support person fault.

@2 Like before, I've heard AT&T suck so I see why they would also have a crap technical support. But for such a large and well known supply service they really SHOULD have good technical support. I wouldn't resort to what Beware of Cuccos said though, about getting their house address and and threats.

3) Yeah THAT does really piss me off to be honest. There's no communication between the person on call and what the technical support has been told.

[retrolinkx]

Only time I ever phoned for support was when I wanted to use my warranty to get more stuff, it'd usually take 20 minutes depending on how stupid they were, still I can usually fix problems myself or search online so I never need it.

[Symphony]

Quote:It's more about people not knowing how to or not doing the job they came to do. It's a waste of my time if someone comes out, shuts down my internet for a good hour, messes with some cables, runs some tests, and tells me they fixed the problem, and they didn't. (As I said in my original post, we had 10 AT&T technicians out within a single month because we had to keep calling them after the last person didn't know what the fuck they were doing and didn't fix the problem.)

I might add, it's not less bad with e-mail support.
I've been using the support of two companies the last week, both because of the same DNS issue I had last Friday and this is how it went:

* Avira: Part of the components of my Avira stopped working and refused to start again, no matter what I did. As I was busy with the other support, I just went and e-mailed them. The next day I received a reply with an executable that would gather my system data. After sending it back, I got another reply with the instructions on how to fix it. It took them 2 emails to figure out and fix my issue.

* NET (Internet Provider): The DNS issue was pissing me off. It made my connection frustratingly unstable, and even with nothing open but a torrent, it oscillated a heck lot. After the lack of success trying to solve it by myself (including basic technical operations, such as restarting everything; shutting stuff down for minutes or hours; and even manually changing my DNS servers) I e-mailed them (because their phone support is REALLY crappy).
On my first email I stated the problem, the DNS error the connection diagnosis reported (with the error report AND screenshot), the fact that I did EVERY BASIC THING you should do when it happens and their reply:

"1. Please check if the internet cables are connected to your computer.
2. Turn off the modem for 5 mins.
3. Restart the modem.
4. Check the connection."

SERIOUSLY? I freaking stated on my original email that I had done it half a dozen times. But wait.. it gets worse.

I then replied that I had once again made the tests but the DNS error still happened. They then sent me an email full of stuff like "you should know that everything you do that uses the internet might use part of the connection and lower the download speed right?"



I do know they have to assume users don't have too much technical knowledge, but I FREAKING SHOWED THEM THE ERROR and tried a lot of other options someone without knowledge would just never try.

After the fourth email, I simply attached the error image 3 times; gave them 2 tinypic links and another error report. Then they FINALLY realized that my connection problem was REALLY a problem, and I wasn't just a whinny customer getting pissed over the lame download speed they offer.

Now I'm waiting for a technical support team to come to my house sometime tomorrow. Hopefully they'll see that I do have an issue and not blame on me. Because, well, if they say that the customer caused the problem, I'd just have to pay another 40 bucks, IIRC.

[/EndRant]

Too long; didn't read: Some support just need 2 emails to fix your issue. Others need 4 to realize you have one.

[agentkuo]

I'll just add, when you've talked to them 10 times, you start to lose that sense of being nice, and go into more of a sense of just wanting to get it over with already.