On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:36:15 -0800, DungBeatle wrote:

> He hasn't spoken to me in over a year now.

That must make the job - and performance reviews - interesting (to say 
the least).

Jim

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On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:10:41 +0000, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> My favourit is when you email (say) the technical support for your ISP,
> saying "I know you offer features X, but I'm looking for something
> similar but slightly different" and they reply with "hey, have you heard
> about feature X?" And you're like "um, did you even ****ing READ what I
> wrote?"

A coworker shared an IM exchange with me that was along these lines:

CW:  Customers are having problems reaching <site>
CW:  When they go to <url> they get the following error: <error message>
HD:  Thanks for this information.
HD:  What site are they trying to access
HD:  And what is the problem they're having?

He had a similar issue that he reported where the site was down, and he 
gave the URL to the help desk person, and the help desk person responded 
"I can't get to that site now, it seems to be down - which means I can't 
reproduce the problem right now."

I'm sure there's a hole in his wall where he has been hitting his head 
repeatedly the past couple of months.

You can't make stuff like this up.

Jim

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"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message
news:4b68b0dd$1@news.povray.org...
> On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:36:15 -0800, DungBeatle wrote:
>
> > He hasn't spoken to me in over a year now.
>
> That must make the job - and performance reviews -
interesting (to say
> the least).--Jim

Very, no reviews for two years now and I don't expect one
this year. It doesn't really matter, I don't respect his
opinion anyway... :)

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On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:27:23 -0800, DungBeatle wrote:

> Now THAT is a new one... I can see it though, just surprised me.

I actually had a discussion with a support guy for my ISP (based in India 
I believe).  I use Linux pretty much exclusively; if I use Windows, it's 
in a virtual machine.

I called my ISP's support line and specifically selected the option for 
"not Windows or Mac support".  I ended up with someone who supports 
Windows.

I mentioned that I had selected the option that should have gotten me to 
someone who knows Linux, and he confessed that he actually had a lot of 
experience with RedHat, but that the support organization management 
policies prohibited him from using that knowledge because he hadn't 
"certified" on providing Linux support.  So he knew what my problem was 
and how to fix it, but he was bound by policy not to tell me.

I convinced him to tell me anyways, and promised not to tell anyone from 
the organization who asked how I got help.  But it was one of the 
stranger support conversations I've ever had.

Jim

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"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message
news:4b68b240$1@news.povray.org...
> I convinced him to tell me anyways, and promised not to
tell anyone from
> the organization who asked how I got help.  But it was one
of the
> stranger support conversations I've ever had.--Jim

That was pretty cool of him. The last time I called my ISP
for support I finally said that the fix for my problem will
take the right person less than one minute to correct it,
find that person. Until then, I would not shotgun any
changes... The right guy called me back the next day, 30
seconds... Bingo!

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On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:08:38 +0000, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> Actually, wait - any half-decent manager should still be able to spot
> this one. OK, you win the point.

Well, not really; the boss I had who got sacked (who I mentioned earlier 
today) was hired by the guy who hired me.  Randall (not his real name - 
but I need to call the boss who was fired something) was quite the 
salesman; he could've sold snowballs to eskimos.

Jim

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Warp wrote:
> 
>   Why would they do that? Who does it benefit? Why would a company
> actively *forbid* a tech support person from giving an answer he
> knows fits the question best and instead *force* him to give an
> irrelevant answer? What for?
> 

I suppose that it helps ensure a uniform quality of service, although 
more to the point I think it means that they don't believe that their 
support people are good enough to answer questions on their own.  For 
instance, let's say you'd outsourced your support to a third party which 
was very cheap, but you have doubts as to their ability.  In such a case 
it might make sense to force the use of templated answers so as to 
replace an embarrassing shoddy chaos of customer support with a mere 
soul-crushing bureaucracy.

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"Kevin Wampler" <wam### [at] uwashingtonedu> wrote in message
news:4b68b653$1@news.povray.org...
> Warp wrote:
> >   Why would they do that? Who does it benefit? Why would
a company
>
> In such a case
> it might make sense to force the use of templated answers
so as to
> replace an embarrassing shoddy chaos of customer support
with a mere
> soul-crushing bureaucracy.

It sounds like maybe a customer brought legal action on them
because help desker offered incorrect advice outside of
their area of expertise and/or outside the company's
responsibility. Bad joo-joo...

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DungBeatle wrote:
> 
> It sounds like maybe a customer brought legal action on them
> because help desker offered incorrect advice outside of
> their area of expertise and/or outside the company's
> responsibility. Bad joo-joo...
> 

Yeah, I guess that also fits with the general theme: If you worry enough 
much about mistakes you'll have to inhibit your ability to do anything 
useful in order to avoid them.  I'm sure this same theme plays out in 
many varied ways in most large companies.

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DungBeatle <dun### [at] moscowcom> wrote:
> "Kevin Wampler" <wam### [at] uwashingtonedu> wrote in message
> news:4b68b653$1@news.povray.org...
> > Warp wrote:
> > >   Why would they do that? Who does it benefit? Why would
> a company
> >
> > In such a case
> > it might make sense to force the use of templated answers
> so as to
> > replace an embarrassing shoddy chaos of customer support
> with a mere
> > soul-crushing bureaucracy.

> It sounds like maybe a customer brought legal action on them
> because help desker offered incorrect advice outside of
> their area of expertise and/or outside the company's
> responsibility. Bad joo-joo...

  How can you sue a company on the grounds that the tech support didn't
give a template answer and instead the guy gave an answer based on his
own expertise? If the template answer would have been unhelpful, then
there's no grounds for a lawsuit, but if the answer was not a ready-made
one, then there is?

  Which law codifies this?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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