Tech Support Story #2

[Blade_Raver]

In this call, I'm answering as a tech support agent for a hotel, supporting their internet connectivity for their guests.

ME: Blade_Raver
SC: Stupid Customer

Me: Thank you for calling tech support, this is Matt, how can I help you?
SC: I'm in the banquet room here at the hotel and I've got 11 computers that I'm trying to set up in this room for a presentation and it requires internet access. You need to get them up and running.

(Okay, so I get her name, the hotel that she's calling in from... and then shortly before we go into tech troubleshooting she spouts off with some false sense of authority about how she's the IT manager of some such and such company and she can't afford to have me "screw up her presentation" because her clients are more important and blah blah blah. I tell her that I'm here to troubleshoot and away we went.)

So, we have her connect one computer to the jack, and she gets an IP address, but no internet connectivity.. no problem. I go into the hotel's router and set up a MAC filter. I ask her for her the MAC address of her Computer's network card.. she gets it and tells it to me. Set up the info on the router with proper expiration date, then BAM! She's up and running on that one computer.

Just to make things easier, I ask her for the MAC addresses on her other 10 computers. She gives off an inconvenienced sigh of frustration at me, puts me on hold, and gets information. After about 10 mins she rattles them off without me even being ready and too quick to even type them in. I asked her to say them slowly. She does and I input each one into the router.. So they're all set.. No big deal right? Wrong! She decides that she's going to hook up a switch to one of the jacks in the room and connect all 11 machines to this switch. This is where trouble ensues.

SC: Well, last time I did this you guys did something and they all worked.
Me: Let me check notes from previous call.
(I check the notes, her name's not even in the system.)
Me: I do not see any notes from last time. Do you know exactly what we did?
SC: No. You should have that information.
Me: The system doesn't show any calls under your name. You plugged a computer into it and it was able to browse just fine. The problem is the switch, and it can be fixed by MAC filtering it like we did the other 11 computers.
SC: It's a switch. It has no MAC address.

Okay, stopping here for a moment, for you techie-geeks out there, you know that there is an OSI layer model. The bottom layer is Physical, top is Application. What's the next layer above physical? Data-Link, that's right. What does Data-Link handle? Media Access Control (MAC) data. Exactly. She's got a switch, which is a network device that has RJ45 plugs on it (about 24 of them) and she says that it doesn't have a MAC address... do we smell BS? Oh yes we do... this coming from a self-proclaimed IT manager of a big company of all people. Okay, let's continue with call.

Me: All network devices that communicate have MAC addresses.
SC: You're useless and know nothing. I'm going to call my IT department. Bye. (click)

Good luck getting your IT department to hack the hotel's router to put that last MAC filter on.

More to come!

[BravoOrig]

Any time I get a customer calling in, who claims to be a network administrator or of similar stature, I know the call is going to the pot. It never amazes me how many stupid little questions I have to answer that being a network administrator of so many years, they should know. No sir, I can't send a signal or hit to your modem when it can't communicate with us! Or the person I spoke to last week who wanted me to reset his modem, which carries his phone service, I tried to find out the real problem while he reset it himself. Its not like he gave up with me and wanted to end the call, he asked me to wait a minute while he tried it. Call dropped, no longer my problem.

[JustADude]

*twitch*twitch*twitch* Must not... end... the... nice lady... must not... kill... the stupid... will infect me....

[MadRocketScientist]

Any time I get a customer calling in, who claims to be a network administrator or of similar stature, I know the call is going to the pot.

Usually I just tell the support person on the phone that I am very comfortable using my computer and they don't need to baby step me, just ask me for the info they want and if I don't know how to get it, I'll say so. I just hate having the support person baby step me through getting my IP address.

[Qaeria]

Working tech support for an ISP, it's amazing at how many self proclaimed IT experts call in. The moment they tell us this we immediately deal with them as if they were needing Tier 3 support, and usually within the first thirty second of techno-babble, they usually show humility and admit that maybe they don't know as much as they profess.

[Der Cute]

Well...

She could have been an IT manager created out of a person who can handle inventory.

I've seen places where the IT crew is literally built out of office admins and NON geeks who don't really care about computers. (and by the way, when a basketweaver is working on a network....it ain't pretty)

Or she could be some programming human who doesn't understand routers or networks.

Cutenoob

[BravoOrig]

The last one I had couldn't really describe how his cable was running in his house, he had two modems, one for phone, the other for internet, and would refer to everything as a box, and at one point saying hard drive for something that doesn't have one. Turns out he was younger than I am (late 20s), claims 14 years of experience, but he just liked to throw out big words hes learned in the wrong fashion. Probably started as a script kiddie. His fate was sealed once he asked if I could turn his modem on and off even though his modem could not get a connection with the headend, as in getting weak signals.

[Stockholm Syndrome]

Any time I get a customer calling in, who claims to be a network administrator or of similar stature, I know the call is going to the pot. ]

Yep. Back when I did tech support, I just rolled my eyes and braced myself for a long sucky call when it started off with someone huffing and puffing about being a "network administrator" (usually said as if they are declaring themselves to be some sort of deity and expected people to show up and shower them with gifts). Soooo many times I just wanted to reply "look, setting up the linksys router you got from Best Buy so that both you and your wife could get on the internet at home does NOT make you a "network administrator". Now shut up and listen".

An example of a common "I am a NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR" call....
"Okay, great, can you tell me your MAC address?"
"Uhhh. How do I find that. LOOK I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS JUST FIX IT.".
*sigh*

[Mango]

Yep. Back when I did tech support, I just rolled my eyes and braced myself for a long sucky call when it started off with someone huffing and puffing about being a "network administrator"

I am an IT manager, but I've never felt the need to voice that fact. Most of the time when I call technical support, it's because I need warranty repair, and to get the repair done, I know I'll have to go through their troubleshooting steps. Interestingly enough, the quickest way to make this happen is do whatever the tech asks.

[Stockholm Syndrome]

I am an IT manager, but I've never felt the need to voice that fact.

*nods* Yeah in my experience the people that actually ARE sysadmins/IT managers/etc don't feel like the need to open their calls by saying so, at least not in the manner or tone I'm talking about. They know how to just get the call as quickly as possible, like you said. (And a good support tech will be able to pick up in the caller's tech expertise and pace the call accordingly.)

[gunsage]

I am an IT manager, but I've never felt the need to voice that fact.

True dat. No, I'm no IT manager and I certainly won't claim to be! However, anytime I call up asking someone for help, I follow directions to the best of my ability. If there's something questionable they want me to do, I might write it down, just in case. Honestly, I've yet to have a bad experience calling up tech support because overall I'm pretty cooperative and friendly.

HOWEVER...my father being a retired cop, me working security as long as I did, and working both tier 2 and 3 positions, I have a built-in BS detector. Typically, if I'm on the customer side, I will cooperate...but if I feel I'm getting the runaround, I'll say so...but deliberately with the best possible timing. I'll admit it...I like to argue.

I'm normally a pretty passive person overall. However, when I sense something isn't going right, you're going to have a bad call.

[borise]

Gettting back to the original issue...I was pretty convinced that a basic unmanaged switch didn't have a MAC. Tell me if I'm wrong though.

I'm the IT manager, but that just means the router's on the bookshelf in my office.