I Can't Help You If You Lie To Me!

[crashhelmet]

Hola Peoples!!!

It's been a long time since I've been here. I got promoted a while back and things have gotten crazy. I work for a nationwide ISP and we recently started selling our service to other companies to brand as their own ISP. Basically, they handle everything and we maintain the network. Our agreement gives us no direct contact with their subscribers. Kind of a sweet deal when you think about it. Sadly, sweet deals come at a price.

We have a particular customer that doesn't seem to know what the words "troubleshoot" or "accurate" are. They're constantly creating tickets claiming our network is down with blatantly obvious bull$h!t information in their tickets.

In the beginning, we tried to be civil about it. We tried to be helpful and educational. As our patience wore thin, we started rejecting tickets and calling them out on their BS. We complained to our management and we traveled out to their call centers and trained them again. Yet, we still get these BS tickets.

And then we get the issues where we try to help them and we ask for more (or the correct) information and they don't respond or follow up. We end up closing the ticket out for a lack of response and then they create another one, with the same BS information, without providing any of the requested information we asked for before. That repeats ad nauseum.

The worst part is that it's not just one rep over there. It's all of them. Every last fracking one of them.

People wonder why I drink more often now

CH


***EDIT***
Went into ranty mode and didn't give examples of BS info. They'll provide info like saying the network in a certain part of a city is down, and the information they provided is for another part or a completely different city. They've also been known to create tickets for "outages" and then after a few cycles of closures for no response, they'll say it's a speed issue, but won't provide any information to show what speeds the subscriber is reportedly getting or what troubleshooting they did.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

Welcome back...sorry about the suck, but at least you knew where to vent about it

[emax4]

I think it's time to step up and remind them of the charges that occur with further troubleshooting, whether or not that incurs charges for flight, taxi, hotel, and other necessities. This story reminds me of one from Computer Stupidities (rinkworks.com/stupid) where the guy had to travel by air to go to the site, simply to plug in the power cord. And yes, he did bill his client quite well.

[Kristev]

Did you say travel, by air, merely to plug in the electric cord?

And welcome back to the forums, crashhelmet, though I do apologize on behalf of the world for the idiocy you must endure.

[Geek King]

Did you say travel, by air, merely to plug in the electric cord?

This is 100% believable. The only reason I have not had to do this myself, is my furthest site is a little more than an hour drive. I have spent an entire afternoon driving out there, plugging in a loose phone cord, then driving back. I got paid my normal wage, plus milage for an enjoyable cruise down backwoods roads and listening to my Zune for two and a half hours.

[emax4]

Here it is, http://rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_power.shtml, almost to the end of the page

[telecom_goddess]

I work with trouble tickets sometimes...and it drives me crazy when they put NO information in it.

One for regular pots line dt will say "line not working". Not working how? No dt? no inbound calls? no long distance? what?

or for dsl "dsl not working" UGH does that mean no connection? or a connection is there but can't get out? or email doesn't work? Have they checked the modem? the router if they have one? INFORMATION PEOPLE!!!!

[drunkenwildmage]

This is 100% believable. The only reason I have not had to do this myself, is my furthest site is a little more than an hour drive. I have spent an entire afternoon driving out there, plugging in a loose phone cord, then driving back. I got paid my normal wage, plus milage for an enjoyable cruise down backwoods roads and listening to my Zune for two and a half hours.

I'm with you.. We have a site that is about an hour from my office.. We have a server that sites low in the rack, and kinda hangs out a little bit. About once every 2 or 3 months I have to drive out, and flip the switch on it, because someone else kicked the power switch with their foot, working on something else.

Can't mount the thing any higher, because we just don't have the room.

[earl colby pottinger]

Worse

This is 100% believable. The only reason I have not had to do this myself, is my furthest site is a little more than an hour drive. I have spent an entire afternoon driving out there, plugging in a loose phone cord, then driving back. I got paid my normal wage, plus milage for an enjoyable cruise down backwoods roads and listening to my Zune for two and a half hours.

Worse, One and half hours driving in city traffic (Toronto) and another Two hours getting back for a single power cord which the person when asked to check before-hand sweared that it was plugged in.

Better was charging $120 plus tax for five minutes travel/work when the president's secretary claimed to be too important to change a toner unit. Out with the old, in with the new, present bill with work-time clearly shown. The look on her face was priceless as she realized she would have to explain why to her boss. Petty cash was only up to $100.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I'm with you.. We have a site that is about an hour from my office.. We have a server that sites low in the rack, and kinda hangs out a little bit. About once every 2 or 3 months I have to drive out, and flip the switch on it, because someone else kicked the power switch with their foot, working on something else.

Can't mount the thing any higher, because we just don't have the room.

Is there any way to mount a guard around that switch?

[Ghel]

Hubby has more than once had to drive over an hour to a hotel to plug back in a wireless access point that a guest has unplugged. Every time, he has asked the front desk to check to make sure it's plugged in. And every time, they promise that it is.

Two-hour bill for under 5 minutes work. Awesome.

[EricKei]

Did you say travel, by air, merely to plug in the electric cord?

This is 100% believable.

Seconded. Even tho my experience in tech support has been half software and half windows/boxes, I can verify that -- by FAR -- the fastest way to end at least half of all hardware/"something doesn't turn on" calls is to ask the question "Is it plugged in?" >_<

[Ironclad Alibi]

Seconded. Even tho my experience in tech support has been half software and half windows/boxes, I can verify that -- by FAR -- the fastest way to end at least half of all hardware/"something doesn't turn on" calls is to ask the question "Is it plugged in?" >_<

Don't forget to verify what it is plugged in to. I believe there was a story about a power strip being plugged into itself.

[crashhelmet]

That reminds me of one of my first posts here about a dip sh*t accountant that accused me of screwing up his fax machine, that I never touched. I asked him if the phone line was plugged in, he insisted it was, I drove out there and found that it was not. And then he tried to involve me in an embezzlement scam.

[dragon_wings]

That reminds me of one of my first posts here about a dip sh*t accountant that accused me of screwing up his fax machine, that I never touched. I asked him if the phone line was plugged in, he insisted it was, I drove out there and found that it was not. And then he tried to involve me in an embezzlement scam.

What the f*ck. Does not compute.