Tech Support is Stupid
Or at least they need a broader knowledge base...

When we first got our DSL, Windows XP had just been released, and we had several computers in our home we planned on networking behind a router.

My husband did all the work on the network, and he is competent, he works IT for a local school board... anyway, at the time we hadn't actually bought the router, so we had a proxy running linux. After several failed attempts to get connected to the internet, we had determined that the modem itself was faulty, and called to have it replaced.

The tech support guy I ended up talking to first wanted me to verify that it wasn't working, and asked me what OS I was running. I told him he could have his pick of 95, 98SE, XP, or Mandrake, and I would hook the damn thing to whichever machine he wanted. So, we started with the 95 machine.... then 98, before we end up on the XP machine.

Now, I know XP is great in that it doesn't need the idiotic software that the DSL provider sends you, but the guy on the phone can't seem to grasp this concept, and we're no closer to getting a new modem, so I go ahead and try to install the software anyway, which promptly informs me that it requires 95 or 98 to run, and won't install. This seriously seemed to irk the tech guy who keeps telling me that we should have the XP disc, that it says so in our account information.

So 3 days pass and we've gotten a new disc in the mail, this time for XP, and I've called them back daily which only results in repeating this entire ordeal over and over again. (I even tried asking for a supervisor) So, I call them back and ask for the original tech I'd talked to and we install the software and the modem still won't connect.

Meanwhile this guy keeps asking me if I've recieved the help emails he's been sending me...

Anyway, by this time we're right pissed, as we don't want to switch to cable (we live in an apartment building and it's pure shit), and this guy is of no help at all.

So he wants to start the entire process over again, except this time, he's telling me to hook the modem to this or that machine and adjust settings and whatnot, and I'm sitting on the couch making grunting noises into the phone and watching TV, after giving up all hope... finally this tech guy gets pissed and tells me he can't figure it out, that the modem must be broken, then slams down the phone and hangs up on me.

So now I'm fuming, I call back and ask to talk to the supervisor of the first person I get on the phone and explain what's just happened. He refers me to his supervisor, who refers me to HIS supervisor, who ends up referring me to a guy who works in billing to have them send me a new modem. A few minutes of casual conversation and explaining the situation and the billing guy says "You hooked it to the linux machine and it didn't work? Obviously the modem's broken..."

So now I call the billing department for tech support....


Holy... I ramble too much, sorry :)
(Ecclesia, Mon 29 Dec 2003, 23:08, Reply)