Logic. Quite the elusive beast.

[gunsage]

I don't even know how to preface this, so let's hop into it.

Me - Me. Yes, much like New York, New York.
T2 - Another brainless tier 2 agent.

Me: "X Company level 3, this is Sage speaking."
T2: "Yes sir, I've got a modem here that won't get an Internet connection. I believe they made need a truck roll." (1)
Me: "Okay, and why's that?"
T2: "Well, if you look on your diagnostics, you'll see that there's no connection to the computer."

In a one in a million shot, they're ACTUALLY right. I can't see the customer's PC on my diagnostics. However...

T2: "Basically they changed services and now they can't get online. They were able to get online before they changed service."

...Wait, what?

Me: "Hold on...so...they were able to get on before?"
T2: "Mm-hmm."
Me: "With the same modem?"
T2: "Mm-hmm."
Me: "...So how is this a modem issue?"
T2: "Well, it appears the modem is not recognizing the computer."
Me: "Under normal circumstances, that would certainly seem to be the case, but-"
T2: "Can I transfer this call?" (2)
Me: "SIR. What I'm trying to tell you is there's nothing wrong with the modem."
T2: "Well, BUT...this didn't happen until-"
Me: "I heard what you said. What I'm telling you is if it was working previously, then there's nothing wrong with the modem. What troubleshooting have you done?"
T2: "Can I tra-"
Me: "What troubleshooting have you done?"
T2: "I mean, there's no link light-"
Me: "Sir, are you trying to tell me all you've done is confirm there's no link light?"
T2: "..."
Me: "Sir, you really need to continue your troubleshooting. This is not going to be a computer issue and it's not going to be a modem issue."
T2: "...Okay, I'll call back." (3)
Me: "No sir, you need to finish your troubleshooting. Have a good day."

Sadly, this isn't the first or last time this has happened. I'm losing my damn mind.

1. This has been happening a lot lately. Mostly we operate only within the tier 3 department, but we've been helping customer service every so often. Upon doing so, we've discovered a lot of tier 2s try to TELL US to set up trouble calls for issues that otherwise would not need them. This has led to overbooking techs and thus, delayed schedules for actual legitimate calls.

2. Two pet peeves broken right here. Don't interrupt me. No, really. I hate it when people talk over me, interrupt me, or just in general don't seem to be paying attention. I've learned to cope with this for the most part, but yeah. And secondly, did I SAY you could transfer? Absolutely not. We were discussing your notes and out of nowhere you spring that on me? **** you!

3. You'll WHAT? No, you'll do what I say! You'd be surprised how often I hear "in one ear out the other" statements like that.

[Samaliel]

I'm a bit confused about what could be the customer's problem here, and it seems you have a fairly good idea just from looking at the notes. Would you care to explain? My take is: they changed services, but didn't change their connection settings, and therefore can't get a connection?

[Hanzoku]

I believe most modems supplied by a service are set up to only work with that service. Because the customer has changed to a different service, they need a modem from their new ISP. The old one simply won't connect to the new ISP.

This is just a guess of course.

[lordlundar]

I believe most modems supplied by a service are set up to only work with that service. Because the customer has changed to a different service, they need a modem from their new ISP. The old one simply won't connect to the new ISP.

This is just a guess of course.

Spot on as well. In the case of old dial up modems, because they had to make a call, they were universal. ISDN, DSL, Cable, etc., are what's called "always on" modems, and are usually preconfigured for that particular provider. When you change provider, the modem and ISP are going "What the **** is THIS!" and don't reply. As such, no connection.

[gunsage]

Well, the modems we supply are fairly versatile. Most models are able to support various speeds of our service. What bothered me was I doublechecked all that, just in case, while talking to this guy. The bin file had changed, everything was set up correctly, so there was absolutely no way it should not have been working. From what I remember, all they did was upgrade their service, probably from the 2 mb down service to the 7 mb down, all of which is supported by said modem type.

[Crawley]

Ok, I think that is part of the confusion here. From the OP it looks as though they changed service providers, not internet packages.

[gunsage]

No, no! Sorry, perhaps I wasn't so clear after all. :P

[Captain Trips]

Sounds like tier 2 wasn't trying to be sucky to you -- sounds to me like they are under the gun for reducing call times, and transferring to you gets the user off their line. That's probably the reason they cut short on troubleshooting, too. They care more about how they look to their supervisor than how they come across to you, or how they correct the customer's problem.

I am so glad we aren't required to meet a maximum call time. Our director tried to impose that on us, but our manager interceded for us -- we are not a "pay per call" call center, we are an in-house help desk dealing with over 600 semi-retail locations, and our "customers" are fellow company employees who need things fixed asap, not escalated repeatedly to keep call times low!

[lordlundar]

No, no! Sorry, perhaps I wasn't so clear after all. :P

Ah yes, I was thinking that he changed providers as well.

Quick question, do you know if the new configuration setting were sent to the modem? The cable provider where I live has to send the new settings to the modem for them to work. If that fails for any reasons, then the settings don't match and it shuts down until the new settings can be uploaded. And if it fails remotely, then the only way is to either get a tech out to upload it on site or to replace the modem.

[gunsage]

See, the main problem I have with tier 2 is back in 2003, I was a tier 2. Not for the same company, but yeah. And I get it...the place I worked in was a dungeon and I was only there for 6 months. It was horrible. At the same time, I was a top performer. I was one of the fastest people on the floor and my QA was consistently above 98%.

And I'm not bragging. It wasn't easy to get to that level. I came in early everyday, asked questions constantly, tried to familiarize myself with the system, came up with better ways to access tools and multitask quicker...the works. In my third month, I became a team lead for my team and tried to help my team the best I could with troubleshooting tips, multitasking tips, updating them regularly, and so on.

I mean, I don't know. I don't HATE these people, but jeez...most of the time they just don't give a damn. Also, the bin file was fully updated and the modem looked fine. So the configuration file had been properly updated. Actually, if that hadn't looked right, I would've sent hits while talking to the agent, had him transfer the customer over, then set up a trouble call.

Just in case, I had sent hits and reset the modem, but yeah, I see what you're saying.