Gotta Love Calling Tech-Support

[Greenday]

When I went to college, my mom decided to switch from a cable connection with Comcast to a DSL connection with Verizon since it was cheaper and DSL is still plenty fast for just sending emails and such. Well, at first, I had to call tech support because it just refused to give us internet. They had to call in the problem to the local place who fixed it overnight. Yay. But little did I know, when I left, the internet would REPEATEDLY disconnect and reconnect. Very annoying. If you've been in chat lately, you've seen me in and out, in and out. Doesn't help with video games either. Now that I'm finally home, I called Verizon to see what's up.

First call. I called, followed directions, got to tech support, only to be told it wasn't a tech support issue and before I could tell him, yes, it IS a tech support issue, he tried transferring me to customer care. Great start.

Second call. Took me through standard stuff, resetting computer, resetting modem, etc. Call gets disconnect while I'm put on hold. I wait 10 minutes, don't get a call back.

Third Call: This guy was pretty helpful. He figured out that we needed to reset my modem settings. But I need the user ID and password. My mom has it. And since I'm not the account holder, he can't just give it to me. He left a note on the account so when I called back with the ID and password, the next tech could help me finish the problem right away. Called mom, got info.

Fourth Call: I explain what was happening and he started to do the same as the second call. I told him what the third guy said and he looked at the notes. He took me through resetting modem settings. We got through it. He said resetting the modem setting got rid of a ton of junk that made the connection really slow. Being so slow, this is why it would disconnect. He thanked me for being so patient and told me to have a nice day.

Net result: Four calls to tech support, One call to mom at work, and nearly an hour and a half. But at least I have my internet. Why does it always seem though that it takes multiple calls to tech support to get something fixed?

[Banrion]

Because only about 25% of the call center employees bother to do their job right, and have the motivation to take pride in what they do. I just had a similar thing with Comcast, but not nearly as bad.

Call 1: I get ahold of someon who doesn't speak enough english to understand what I am trying to tell him. Our internet had been fine for a year, no changes made, but not it is intermittently freezing up (the modem is going solid lights, instead of the nice blinky blinky it should be). Resetting the modem is not helping. He tells me to reboot all 4 machines hooked up to the router. Nothing. He schedules a tech to come out but doesn't tell us when, says he'll call 30-45 mins prior to arrival. Guy doesn't call until he is at the front door, and b/f is at work 10 mins away. Tech won't wait.

Call 2: Explain situation again. Tech support guy pulls history of our connecton. States that he sees it is going in and out a couple times a day. Schedules tech to come out between 11-1 the next day. Tech calls at 11 to say he's on his way. Shows up at 11:25, checks outside wires, they are fine, comes in house and checks the TV/Internet splitter. Voila! problem located, gives us new splitter everything is happy happy. Tech goes on his way at 11:40.

The difference was like night and day. I have learned with Comcast that if you don't like the first answer call again until you get someone who at least knows how to pull a connection history and verify the problem.