We do not offer that support

[Fraggle]

A bit of background, i work as after sales support for a large corporation. Im sure many of you even own some of the company's products. Anyway, as with most corporations, we have many different departments dealing with different things.

So today, i got a call from this particular SC who wanted support on a certain item. Not the department that should be dealing with this don't havea direct phone line and only offer support through email forms that can be filled out on the website. And so our tale begins:

ME - me
SC - Idiot of the day

me: Hello, what can i help you with today
sc: i need help with this product
me: I apologise but all support for that product is done through the support section of the website as that dept. do not have a direct phone number.
sc: can i have their number?
me: *que rolling of eyes* That dept. do not have a direct phone no, all support is done through email. There are forms on the support website i can give you the direct link to.
sc: Can you transfer me to them?
me: *sigh* They have no direct phone no, all support is done though email.
sc: they have no phone number??
me: no, i can give you the link to the website
sc: ok

So i provided the exact link and advised him exactly where to find the email forms on the page.
Five mins later, my new favourite idiot still has not managed the simple task of scrolling to the end of the page and he keeps insisting there is no email forms to fill out.

Me: can you call out the exact link you are on
sc : ok *calls out link*

Of course the link he is calling out is nothing similar to the one i gave him.

I do depair, some days i really do

[Apallo]

When i was working in my old job (tech support for a MAJOR film industry company -- think mice) we'd get calls about stuff we have never, and will never support, mainly proprietary software...I remember actually getting in trouble because s SC called and said i refused to fix their computer...What actually happened was that i told them that i couldn't install a specifics suite of applications because i didn't have access to the install packages. This happened a lot, because as a non-employee of said company (we were considered contractors) we didn't have access to certain parts of the server, where this kind of software was kept. My boss, being completely non-technical, didn't understand the problem and took the CS's side. I had to get an analyst (whose job it actually was to install this kind of software) to explain to both the CS and my boss that, no, i wasn't refusing to install the software, i COULDN'T install the software, due to lack of access. Someone needs to teach these people the difference between Can't and Won't.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Problem is, the SCs WON'T understand that there are some things the service peons CAN'T do!

[myswtghst]

I still can't fathom why people assume that a company that sells a range of products, from cell phones to radios, from mobile data units to infrastructure equipment, would only have one call center. We have lots and lots of different groups that support different things, please do not yell at me because I have to transfer you. Would you prefer that I just pretend I know what you're talking about while I make $hit up? That I can do.

[TNT]

In the cable business, we have call centers and walk-in service centers, also called stores, where the customers can... walk in and deal with a person face to face. A gloriously simple concept... customers coming into the store never have to stand around while the counter person talks on the phone, and I never have customers coming into the call center to chat with me.


Caller: I need the phone number for the store.
Me: The store doesn't have a number. It's a walk in center for people who... walk in. They don't do any business by phone because... that's the what the phone center does. But I can help you with anything you need.
Caller: You're telling me they don't have a phone.
Me: Yes.
Caller: What if you had to call them?
Me: Let's not play games here.
Caller: They obviously have a phone. I want their number.
Me: As my mother used to say, "And people in hell want ice water." (okay, I don't really say that.)

[BravoOrig]

Not to mention the fact that often I don't even have the local office #. To add to that, people tell me their last tech was Dan, and they'd like Dan out again. Sorry, I have no idea who that is, I can see their tech #, but I can't control who comes out. Or a field tech who called into my Tier1 line and said they s/w a Mary in some dept. I barely know the people in my own dept. Being for the phone service I could atleast pass hiim around to the right department.