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Please don't call for tech support if your not in front of a computer!

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  • Please don't call for tech support if your not in front of a computer!

    GAH, I swear its reaching epidemic proportions. Customers who call b/c they can't log in and then proceed to waste my time by having me walk them through all the troubleshooting steps for our product before telling me (usually 20 min later)...Oh I'm not in front of my computer right now. Um........ So how effective can tech support be to someone who needed me to explain the difference between Outlook and Internet Explorer to someone not in front of a computer? ::banging head on keyboard::
    "If all else fails...blame the dog"

  • #2
    That often happens to me too.
    Someone will leave a message on voice mail and I'll call them back less than 5 minutes after they left the message. Guess what? They're gone.

    I'm the only person answering the computer help line for a department of 1500 employees and I hate it when people ask for help with their own personal computers.

    An employee called regarding the computer she just bought from Best Buy. She wanted to know where she could buy Windows for her computer because she only had a 3-month trial version. Huh? It took a ridiculous amount of time for me to get across to her that she wanted MS Office not Windows.

    Another employee couldn't get her personal web site to work and wanted me to get one of the analyst's to help her out.

    We have a backlog of work orders for company equipment and what are the techs doing? Replacing the hard drive of an employee's personal computer.

    Sheesh!!

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    • #3
      I get more than one call a day just like that. Usually they tell me they're not in front of the computer before we start any troubleshooting. Not sure why they bothered to call in, but I guess they always assume its a problem on our end, the same when they call from in front of their computer. All I can tell them is the modem is connected, and if all my tools are working, can tell them to unplug their router or take the modem out of standby. Guess what, I'm not sending a tech out to your house, because the modem is connected, and thats all the tech is responsible for. Mentioning the $29 per hour fee if a tech does come out, usually shuts them up.

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      • #4
        Do you get the folks who don't want to give you any details, they just want you to "fix it". I'm apparently in possession of the magic "easy" button they have on all the Staples commercials. I also get the older folks that once I walk them through getting our product up and running (via phone support, that is all we have), want me to fix their fax machine or phone too...Trust me, that is no where near what I support...and no I will not fix your toaster.
        "If all else fails...blame the dog"

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        • #5
          I get these all the time. Had one yesterday, as a matter of fact. Lady called in to find out why her son's phone was suspended, because she paid her bill (why people think they would only have 1 of 5 lines suspended if they didn't pay is beyond me). She said he wasn't able to make any calls. I check the line, it's active, no outages, so I ask if he's getting signal. She says she doesn't know. I ask if she has his handset with her, she says no. I ask if she could kindly go get it so we can see why it's not working, she says he lives in another state.

          "Well, can't you tell from there what's wrong?"

          And I should be able to do this......how?

          "How's he supposed to call you if his phone doesn't work?"

          Gee, I dunno. How did he call you to tell you he couldn't make calls?
          "You are loved" - Plaidman.

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          • #6
            I had one just yesterday!!

            It was pretty obvious from when I picked up the phone, because she was driving. Of course, I didn't get to ask her until 15 minutes (LITERALLY!!!) into the conversation since she was a life storyteller. Don't you just love those?

            It took me 15 minutes to tell her to log in, click the mysterious HELP tab at the top of the page, and she'd find step by step directions to enter her grades.

            SC: “Yeah, Bob’s Company. I'm Bob. It's my company.” - GK
            SuperHotelWorker made my Avi!!

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            • #7
              The Life story ones are the best. I don't understand the need to tell perfect strangers ones medical history, plans for the weekend, or names of pets and grandchildren. I've been on calls that lasted nearly an hour b/c of those. LOL
              "If all else fails...blame the dog"

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              • #8
                The worst excuse anyone ever gave me for not being in front of the computer was a consultant calling from a car on his way to his client, a school who owned the software. He didn't want the client to see him on the phone with us.

                I guess he didn't want the client finding out that they are paying good money for a consultant who is basically doing what they can do for themselves.
                The best karma is letting a jerk bash himself senseless on the wall of your polite indifference.

                The stupid is strong with this one.

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                • #9
                  Quoth IlovemyGeek View Post
                  The Life story ones are the best. I don't understand the need to tell perfect strangers ones medical history, plans for the weekend, or names of pets and grandchildren. I've been on calls that lasted nearly an hour b/c of those. LOL
                  OMG! I can't stand those people. The worst one I ever had was literally 2 hours long. This woman went on and on about her entire life story. Every time I tried to steer her back to the issue she was calling about, her talking would plow me right over and keep on going. At one point, somewhere in between my lapses of brain activity as I struggled to keep it from going into total system failure, she was talking about how 10 years ago her doctor called her husband and told him that she had virtually no sex drive due to her psychological problems from being abused as a child and that they would never have a "sexual" relationship and... I don't remember, but the doctor somehow convinced him to leave her. And she tells me that the doctor was lying and said "I could have torn his clothes of and had sex with him right then and there, but he wouldn't listen." Whoa, easy there, turbo! That's more info than I ever wanted to know. I'm still a young 'un and I really don't care to hear about the sex lives of the elderly.

                  I don't remember how I finally got rid of her, but the funny thing was that she originally called in to find out why her phone dropped when she was talking to her friend. I (eventually) explained to her that the system cuts off calls after 4 hours have passed and a way of flushing out excessively long calls in the network. And she had no idea how she could spend 4 hours on a single call. Gee, I wonder
                  "You are loved" - Plaidman.

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                  • #10
                    The other morning, I overheard another rep talking to a customer about some issue, and instantly I knew who he was talking to. This customer is notorius for going off topic, but our rep kept it on track. The best pertaining to off topic stuff or life stories, is an older lady whom I was fixing a problem for and didn't need her on the phone immediately, so she starts talking to a friend about all this mediacl history of hers.

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