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...and saved us both 15 minutes of uselessness.
So I work in technical support for a prepaid cellular phone company. Basically I troubleshoot issues when phones are not working among a myriad of other responsibilities the company decides to heap on me. Its a PITA but it pays well so hey...
Anyway I just had this little gem recently.
SD: Sucky or Stupid Dealer... Take your pick
Me: The guy sitting to my left... oh wait that desk is empty... it must be me then
Me: Thank you for calling <company> how may I help you today.
SD: Yeah I need help programming this phone its on roaming.
(proceeds to get necessary information, IE phone number, model of phone)
Me: And that is a <company phone>?
The company I work for is an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) for one of the big 3 providers in the USA (IE Sprint, Verizon, AT&T). This essentially means that we lease bandwidth from their network and then sell our product and provide numbers that we order from the company we leech off of. Essentially for the parent company they make money while we do all the legwork of maintaining customer service etc and we cut the cost of having to maintain a cellular network so its a win win situation. This is important to the story since the phones we use have to be compatible with the provider we leech from.
SD: Yes it is.
To make a long story short we proceed to do several troubleshooting steps with me covering just about every base I can checking settings, PRL versions, network IDs etc. Finally i check the very last thing that should be causing problems and is the least likely cause of the problem... the software version of the phone. And the software version of the phone was for another provider.......
so essentially we just wasted all this time.
Me: So its a <other company> phone.
SD: Yeah I said that at the start of the call.
Me: I specifically asked you if it was a <parent company> phone and you told me yes.
SD: Well what difference does it make?
Me: Bottom line in order to remove roaming you have two options. A: Change the number to a phone that is compatible with <parent company> B: If you know someone who can do this download <parent comapny's> firmware and have it flashed to that phone.
SD: You mean you cant help me?
Me: Yes.
SD: Well why did we waste all that time going through those steps for nothing then?
Me: We did not waste time, under normal circumstances all of the settings we checked could have contributed to the phone picking up a roaming signal in error. Had you told me that it was a <other company> phone to begin with then you could have saved us both time.
SD: Well...uh... *click*
I mean at least he could have apologized or something.
Note to self, just start checking software versions from the start. Like Dr House says, everybody lies....
So I work in technical support for a prepaid cellular phone company. Basically I troubleshoot issues when phones are not working among a myriad of other responsibilities the company decides to heap on me. Its a PITA but it pays well so hey...
Anyway I just had this little gem recently.
SD: Sucky or Stupid Dealer... Take your pick
Me: The guy sitting to my left... oh wait that desk is empty... it must be me then
Me: Thank you for calling <company> how may I help you today.
SD: Yeah I need help programming this phone its on roaming.
(proceeds to get necessary information, IE phone number, model of phone)
Me: And that is a <company phone>?
The company I work for is an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) for one of the big 3 providers in the USA (IE Sprint, Verizon, AT&T). This essentially means that we lease bandwidth from their network and then sell our product and provide numbers that we order from the company we leech off of. Essentially for the parent company they make money while we do all the legwork of maintaining customer service etc and we cut the cost of having to maintain a cellular network so its a win win situation. This is important to the story since the phones we use have to be compatible with the provider we leech from.
SD: Yes it is.
To make a long story short we proceed to do several troubleshooting steps with me covering just about every base I can checking settings, PRL versions, network IDs etc. Finally i check the very last thing that should be causing problems and is the least likely cause of the problem... the software version of the phone. And the software version of the phone was for another provider.......
so essentially we just wasted all this time.Me: So its a <other company> phone.
SD: Yeah I said that at the start of the call.
Me: I specifically asked you if it was a <parent company> phone and you told me yes.
SD: Well what difference does it make?
Me: Bottom line in order to remove roaming you have two options. A: Change the number to a phone that is compatible with <parent company> B: If you know someone who can do this download <parent comapny's> firmware and have it flashed to that phone.
SD: You mean you cant help me?
Me: Yes.
SD: Well why did we waste all that time going through those steps for nothing then?
Me: We did not waste time, under normal circumstances all of the settings we checked could have contributed to the phone picking up a roaming signal in error. Had you told me that it was a <other company> phone to begin with then you could have saved us both time.
SD: Well...uh... *click*
I mean at least he could have apologized or something.
Note to self, just start checking software versions from the start. Like Dr House says, everybody lies....
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