I absolutely love cable technical support. My mother had a problem with her cable and had to call the ever-entertaining support hotline. While going through the troubleshooting steps, she was instructed to insert a phone cable into the Ethernet port in her cable modem.
Yes, really. I'm not making this up. My mother is not an IT person, but she possesses a brain and intuitively understands that that's not where you put a phone cable!
Afterwards, this same Filipina technical support person insisted that my mother needed to connect her cell phone (because the cable company broke the landline phone and the cell phone was therefore the only way to communicate) to the cable modem using an unspecified cable. Kind of defeats the purpose of "wireless" telecommunications if you ask me.
So if you'd been wondering, there are technical support technicians who believe that phone cables go in Ethernet ports and that you can connect your cell phone to your cable modem. This is a new milestone in ineptitude even by the standards of overseas tech support.
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Mar 11th, 2015 @ 9:06 pm Perma-link
Course clear! You got a card.
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Mar 11th, 2015 @ 9:13 pm Perma-link
That's a new one to me. Can't say I've ever heard of someone being asked to connect their cell phone to a modem.
Funniest I've heard of was a bit less "what is wrong with you people"-y. This deep-voiced feller said to a newly connected tech support representative something along the lines of, "Press 1 to speak to a customer", and you could hear the person on the other end actually press it. |
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Mar 11th, 2015 @ 10:38 pm Perma-link
Wow, sounds like that tech support technician was complete moron.
Not the first time I've seen this though, and outsourcing to foreign countries has not helped the situation one bit. I receive some stories from people who have brought me things that need fixing. I remember hearing about one where the technician tried to the person to dismantle the battery pack in laptop computer to change the batteries. Another who up and told them "Throw it away and buy another computer" Then you have this kicker here: One tech suggested that the person strike their comp. Yes, HIT IT, as hard as they could. Not only was it beyond repair afterward, the customer Dislocated, and lacerated their hand in the process. |
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Mar 12th, 2015 @ 12:30 am Perma-link
Oh my gosh!!
These stories! I've never heard such! That call, Vinny, my word. That's inexcusable. How do they keep their job? Who trained them? |
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Mar 12th, 2015 @ 12:47 pm Perma-link
i understand cost cutting (and dollar imperialism) leads to stuff like outsourcing tech support, but is it too much to ask for these people to get even a modicum of training from their evil corporate overlords? i don't care if i can't understand people that well, but if customer service has no idea what the f*** they're talking about, then they might as well not even bother with cost-cutting measures
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Friendly Dictator So what can be superior when compared with paying out half the price for brand name children? wow, if brand name children are on sale, maybe i can stop buying all these cheap knockoff children Bibby OK... even I'll admit that the Oakland Raiders' performance might be a valid reason to use the interesting words. |
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Mar 12th, 2015 @ 1:06 pm Perma-link
When I signed up for my internet service I had this EXTREMELY condescending guy from Texas who wouldn't shut up about how I should also purchase some kind of anti malware and warranty for my computer. I mean, I said "no thanks" and that's when he started talking down to me and telling me I was going to regret it. He said something along the lines of "you think you're some kind of techie? wait until your computer fries and you'll be wishing you didn't decline my offer..." He had to have been off protocol or something... he was way out of line.
I think I had told him I could barely even afford to eat ramen and I didn't want to add extra expenses to my bill and he was like "then why are you even getting internet?" I was like "Um... for college?" Which was partially true. funposting on Mario forums and making fangames and sprite comics is just an added bonus. Don't get me wrong... telemarketers (and Texans) are unappreciated too often. But this guy was just a jerk. |
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Mar 12th, 2015 @ 11:15 pm Perma-link
Puddin, wow. That would have p***ed me off so bad. My word. I'm p***ed just because I read it.
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Mar 18th, 2015 @ 8:33 am Perma-link
Nite: The suggestion to hit the computer is hilarious.
FB3k: Yeah, it's not asking too much to train your support people to know what a phone cable is used for! And when you outsource your support to the Philippines, you don't even have the excuse of them not being native English speakers, since English is the primary language in that country. We've all had bad experiences with outsourcing, but this is just a case of lousy hiring and lousy training. Puddin: Yikes, that's seriously not good! These anti-malware subscriptions and extended warranties are rip-offs, in my opinion, and that guy sounds downright nasty. (And yes, slow responses do happen sometimes.)
Course clear! You got a card.
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Mar 18th, 2015 @ 11:45 am Perma-link
Here is one that I actually witnessed:
We were in a computer store, and someone was asking the store owner about a tablet computer. "Are there any viruses that I should be worried about?" "Tablets can't get viruses, because they don't have a hard drive" ^I snap here Me: Oh you are full of crap! Him: Hey! I went to college for this! What does an idiot like you know!? Me: Enough to know that anything that can process data can get a virus. Him: Get out of my store! |