Tech Support is so irritating to call

[Deleted]

So I've had to call Amazon tech support for a relative who's new Kindle Fire's wifi is playing up.


I've looked the problem up online, it is quite common by the looks of it.


I have tried everything I can to fix it, I told them at the start of the call everything I've tried, yet they still insist on telling me in easy to follow terms to do something I know how to do and have already done, when that doesn't work they put me on hold for ages and repeat the process.

These call centre scripts aren't designed for people who know a bit about what they're doing are they?

[jagilki]

Did you try turning it off and on again?

[Malcolm]

It's no picnic on the other side, either.

Those call center scripts are a load of bullshit, and they're really generally unhelpful to both parties.

[Amazing Kitsune]

Dec 19, 2013 19:24:39 GMT -5 Malcolm said:

It's no picnic on the other side, either.

Those call center scripts are a load of bullshit, and they're really generally unhelpful to both parties.

This is accurate.

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2013 19:24:39 GMT -5 Malcolm said:

It's no picnic on the other side, either.

Those call center scripts are a load of bullshit, and they're really generally unhelpful to both parties.

I've worked in a call centre in sales and I know that which is why I was friendly to the women and told her she'd been very helpful at the end of the call, because as irritating as it all was she was polite and was helpful when she was off script.

Dec 19, 2013 18:46:25 GMT -5 jagilki said:

Did you try turning it off and on again?

I binged all the series of the IT crowd the other week, and it's made me terribly self aware of how often I end up saying a variation of that when someone comes to me when something isn't working.

[ThereIsNoAbsurdistOnlyZuul]

So... as someone who works in tech support...

Yeah, we are. Because the person you are talking to on the phone is Tier 1 support. Or more accurately, they are there to filter the actually problems out from the crap. The real issues go to Tier 2. And possibly Tier 3.

There are variations, but effectively we are going to discuss Tier 1 here, because this is what directly being referenced.
The thing to note is the following:
1. We are being Q/Aed on the calls, part of the reason you get the 'calls are being recording,' so that protocol and scripting must be adhered to, or the person you are speaking to can be fired. Depending on the employer. And realistically we have to fulfill our metrics (measurable statistics) and meet protocol expectations first. Resolving your concerns is second. Especially if the call center is outsourced.
2. Customers are going to omit details, and customers are going to lie. Maybe they don't want to look bad to the anonymous person on the phone, or they may not be that knowledgeable on the product, so they may skip over or dismiss details that are important, in any case oftentimes the information they are giving us is false.
3. Tier 1 has limited scope. So unless it is fixable over the phone, there is precious little they can actually do.
4. Proper troubleshooting technique involves us going through all the steps, and verifying them. Tying into 2, it is bad troubleshooting to draw an assumption of what you did, or that you did it correctly. Tying back to 1, we HAVE to go step by step.


So for your problem:

*What do you mean 'playing up?' Is it dropping Wifi or Internet connection?
(I am assuming this has to do with connectivity)

*What is the user doing when this issue happens?

*Does this issue happen across multiple networks?


Corollary:

For most Wifi issues it is a couple things:
-Internet connection dropped at some point. But everything downstream of the modem did not immediately reconnect. This necessitates a step by step restart of the devices, from modem all the way to device. Full network reboots must be done everytime where possible. AND THOU SHALT NOT TURN OFF THE POWER STRIP THAT THE DEVICES ARE PLUGGED INTO IN LIEU OF POWERING DOWN EACH DEVICE INDIVIDUALLY!

-How many devices does the wireless source have connected? Also how many IP addresses does the DHCP reserve? Most commercially available residential devices float around the 6 device range.

[Sponsored by Groose Wipes]

I saw "Tech Support" and thought this was going to be a thread about the movie Vanilla Sky.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Dec 19, 2013 18:45:04 GMT -5 @graant said:

These call centre scripts aren't designed for people who know a bit about what they're doing are they?

No, they aren't, and if you try to get around the script you get fired, no matter how smart you are. So just let the guy do his job and once you've tried the idiot proof stuff you'll get to the actually useful advice.

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Dec 19, 2013 18:46:25 GMT -5 jagilki said:

Did you try turning it off and on again?

Very bad memories of our server going down at work (I work the overnight shift at a hotel), and that being all that tech support had me do or was willing to do. 90 f***ing minutes of them having me turn it off and turn it back on, you'd figure after the 4th time it didn't work, they'd just say "We're going to send someone out there to fix it." It got to the point where they said they'd call back, they didn't and we had to call them, they finally sent someone out to fix it.

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2013 22:36:19 GMT -5 ThereIsNoAbsurdistOnlyZuul said:

So... as someone who works in tech support...

Yeah, we are. Because the person you are talking to on the phone is Tier 1 support. Or more accurately, they are there to filter the actually problems out from the crap. The real issues go to Tier 2. And possibly Tier 3.

There are variations, but effectively we are going to discuss Tier 1 here, because this is what directly being referenced.
The thing to note is the following:
1. We are being Q/Aed on the calls, part of the reason you get the 'calls are being recording,' so that protocol and scripting must be adhered to, or the person you are speaking to can be fired. Depending on the employer. And realistically we have to fulfill our metrics (measurable statistics) and meet protocol expectations first. Resolving your concerns is second. Especially if the call center is outsourced.
2. Customers are going to omit details, and customers are going to lie. Maybe they don't want to look bad to the anonymous person on the phone, or they may not be that knowledgeable on the product, so they may skip over or dismiss details that are important, in any case oftentimes the information they are giving us is false.
3. Tier 1 has limited scope. So unless it is fixable over the phone, there is precious little they can actually do.
4. Proper troubleshooting technique involves us going through all the steps, and verifying them. Tying into 2, it is bad troubleshooting to draw an assumption of what you did, or that you did it correctly. Tying back to 1, we HAVE to go step by step.


So for your problem:

*What do you mean 'playing up?' Is it dropping Wifi or Internet connection?
(I am assuming this has to do with connectivity)

*What is the user doing when this issue happens?

*Does this issue happen across multiple networks?


Corollary:

For most Wifi issues it is a couple things:
-Internet connection dropped at some point. But everything downstream of the modem did not immediately reconnect. This necessitates a step by step restart of the devices, from modem all the way to device. Full network reboots must be done everytime where possible. AND THOU SHALT NOT TURN OFF THE POWER STRIP THAT THE DEVICES ARE PLUGGED INTO IN LIEU OF POWERING DOWN EACH DEVICE INDIVIDUALLY!

-How many devices does the wireless source have connected? Also how many IP addresses does the DHCP reserve? Most commercially available residential devices float around the 6 device range.

Basically it was already a replacement (the first device had some dead pixels) and the first one worked fine with the wifi, this one was connecting to the wifi then immediately disconnecting (sometimes it would be able to load a website before disconnecting but not very often) before calling I had restarted the kindle, restarted the router, then I tried changing the wifi channel, then I tried changing the router between WPA&WPA2 to just WPA2 then back again, then I tried changing it from Wireless B/G/N to just wireless B/G. I tried setting the IP address on the Kindle itself instead of letting the router assign it. Also when watching on the "wireless" screen when my router disconnected the list of all the other routers nearby it was picking up disappeared for a second or two at the same time.


They were meant to put me through to tier 2, but I got placed on hold for a while as she filled in the form for the tier 2 people to read, in the end she came off hold and told me that as she hasn't heard of these problems before and as it was a replacement that didn't work she'd send out a replacement.


To be fair she was very helpful apart from when she went through getting me to do what II'd already done but I understand that wasn't her fault and she had to do that and I understand after reading your post now the reasoning for that , and to be fair they phoned me so it wasn't costing me anything so I didn't really mind the long call.

[h]

I used "live chat help" to contact technical support yesterday because my wireless printer won't connect to the internet.

At three times during the conversation, he said, "Print a page." Unfortunately, this didn't work, because my printer wasn't connected to the internet.

Type your IP address into the address bar on Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, all this did was run a Google search for my IP address. He insisted that I needed to then type my wireless password, but there is obviously nowhere in Google search results to enter a password.

Uninstall your printer. *Fifteen minutes later* Print a page. Unfortunately, I have no printer installed.

Install your printer. Unfortunately, as mentioned several times already, it isn't connected to the internet, so my computer can't detect it.

Turn off your router for five minutes. This was the beginning of the end for the conversation, as the three times he had already made me turn off the router taught me that, after four minutes, the connection to the support technician is lost (the other times had just been for 30 seconds at a time, so it wasn't lost then). I pointed this out to him when he told me to wait for five minutes, and he told me to call phone support because he had run out of ideas.

So now, the printer isn't even installed, let alone functional. Not the most productive 90 minutes I've ever spent.

[Deleted]

I've worked tech support for several companies and people lie all of the time. Maybe not all of the time, but it happens. I've gone off script before only to get burned when it was something simple.