Thank You for calling, How May I ANNOY the crap out of you today?
@cynicalandoutspoken (4725)
United States
February 16, 2008 10:46am CST
Have any of you ever had to call tech support for anything recently?
I refuse to ever call tech support again for anything!
I was having a problem with my computer and I had to call Dell's tech support. The only thing I wanted to know was what was the built in reset key combination. It was like alt+control+F11 or something. I knew it. I just couldn't remember it exactly.
It didn't help that I had to ask the woman 4 times to repeat her name because her foreign accent was so thick I could not understand her.
I finally got her name, it was Mariskata. (I'm sure I am spelling that wrong) and I told her what my problem was. When I would turn my computer on it would load my desk top but nothing else. Not my mouse, not my CD-Rom, not my keyboard, NOTHING else. So I needed the built in reset key combination to reinstall my software from the partition Dell puts on their hard drives. Since the computer wasn't recognizing my CD-Rom I could NOT install from the disks I got with the system.
Yet she felt the need to have me shut down and try restarting it again. (Like I hadn't already done this 4 times before calling her)
Big surprise! Just a desk top, nothing else.
Then she wanted me to shut down and at the DELL screen she wanted me to hit F2 to take me into my BIOS. I tried explaining to her that if my computer wasn't loading the driver for my keyboard I could tap tap tap away at the F2 all the live long F'in day and it wasn't going to get me anywhere. But she insisted I do this.
She made me go through shutting down and restarting my machine 12 times and then transferred me to 3 other reps before someone finally gave in and told me the combination. But not before they had to explain to me that I was going to LOSE EVERYTHING I had on the computer. Pictures, songs, documents, files, folders, EVERYTHING.
Gee, where would I be without their knowledge? (pardon me while I try to swallow that bit of sarcasm)
I am not computer illiterate. If I am calling asking for something specific give me what I am asking for. Don't keep me on the phone for 45 minutes trouble shooting something that IS NOT the problem.
I was so mad when I got off the phone I just walked away from the computer and sat down and had a cigarette and tried to calm down. In my meditation I realized that even if she had given me the key combination right away like I asked that it would still do me little good because MY KEYBOARD wasn't loading.
Why didn't one of the 4 people I talked to think of THAT one? So I unplugged my usb keyboard and switched it with an analog keyboard and was finally able to use the key combination I was given to reinstall my software.
I am certain tech support centers really are their own little versions of he!! and the people who work there are satans minions.
4 people like this
12 responses
@novataylor (6570)
• United States
16 Feb 08
I don't ever call Dell, ever, ever, ever! Or Charter communications, our cable/internet/phone company. I have such a mental block about that stuff that I literally shut down and can't even think! Hubby makes those calls. Period. He doesn't like doing it, but if anything is gonna get done, in that regard, he's the ONLY one to do it. So, whew, I don't have to deal with that. You know, there are so many things that I deal with around here, and I'm the only one who does. But I can put up with that just fine, 'cause he does the stuff that I just cannot or will not do. So, I'd rather clean the litter box five hundred thousand times than make one lousy call to Dell, let me tell you. I'm the one who has to call for the pizza, but he calls Dell. I have to make most of the phone calls we end up having to make, but he calls Dell. Fair tradeoff!
1 person likes this
@cynicalandoutspoken (4725)
• United States
17 Feb 08
I have no choice but to make them for myself. Everything is in my name so they only want to talk to the account or product owner. I'm sure my honey WOULD do it for me but he gets frustrated with people easier than I do. lol
@novataylor (6570)
• United States
17 Feb 08
Get out!!! Well, that's a pretty short line of patience, my dear!
@Angela717 (74)
• United States
17 Feb 08
I've had the same problem with Dell and AT&T. They can't understand me because of my thick southern US accent, or if they do understand me, they assume I'm an idiot because I sound southern - I haven't determined which it is. Then I can't understand them because of their thick accent. It is so frustrating by the time the call is done I need medication to lower my blood pressure.
1 person likes this
@cynicalandoutspoken (4725)
• United States
17 Feb 08
When the trainers had to come out here to the east coast to start up the company I work for I noticed they all spoke a little bit slower and overly enunciated their words. I went up to one of them (who I hoped had a good sense of humor) and told him, we all didn't just fall off a turnip truck you can speak english to us and I promise we will all understand.
He laughed. He said that driving in from the airport they passed an adult night club that had a plywood sign out front with red paint on it that read "Live Newd Girls" on it. He had been worried ever since. LOL
I told him he would probably have been scarred for life had they stopped and gone inside.
@Araiya (61)
• United States
17 Feb 08
Hmm... smells like you've got an Inspiron or a Dimension there...:)
As for your agent, I do apologize, even though I was not there for this. I know that I, personally, do think of doing things the other way around, and asking those "Bloody A, that's stupid to ask!" questions, which often leads into getting things done.
(Favorite Three Words when troubleshooting: SWAP KNOWN GOOD. I am not above asking, "And just to make sure, have you plugged a good %item% in, and had the same symptom?" -- Give it a try before calling support if you ever have a spare part laying around. If the spare works, call and say you've swapped for a known good, the known good works, and you have a defective part, while I'm on the subject.)
On the warning of all data being lost, agents generally are required to tell you this, even though you may already know it. Yes, irritating, but, it's necessary so that you cannot say your decision was uninformed.
I try to keep it simple and make it work, because like you, I've had to call support on different things, and I _loathe_ it more and more and more when I speak to some guy who has no idea what is going on. I understand just wanting a bloody answer, so I try to do that.
But to touch the end of this, I regret being referred to as one of Satan's minions. Satan fired us all nearly six months ago.:)
1 person likes this
@cynicalandoutspoken (4725)
• United States
17 Feb 08
Very good former minion, it is an inspiron. LOL
I know that tech support has a script they have to follow and that certain things need to addressed before you end up spending 3 hours on the phone with a user who is screaming that the computer won't recognize their printer and that is because the printer isn't turned on! So I do get that part. I work in customer service myself. But when a user is calling you who clearly knows that there is an internal ALT key combination that will reinstall her OS as well as all factory settings wouldn't you think even for one second that she knows what she is doing and you can skip the "please reboot your system" phase of the script?
As for switching out the keyboard. My keyboard wasn't broken. I am using it right now. It just wasn't loading the driver until the desk top came up instead of at the DELL logo screen because it was an USB device.
Luckily I figured that one out on my own because if I had to call back someone was going to end up crying. (Probably me)
My favorite 3 words I utter when having to call tech support now are, "Please understand english" :)
and sweetie I work in a call center myself so I KNOW they are their own private pieces of he!!, sorry to hear that the big guy cut you loose. lol
@vehaileairu (2286)
• Philippines
16 Feb 08
thats a very ugly customer service!
i feel like bursting too..
i wish i was there to kick her out.
theres one thing i am sure about this..
she made you do the reboot several times, because she never knew what to do anyway.. thats the truth, just making the insisting style.. to get you the blame, so she can be useful in reverse.. but she is totally useless, she did nothing but head ache.
transferring you to other reps is lame and stupid.
that means she's searching for the answer herself.
making customers in stress hell is darn crazy.. she should not work in there..
i bet she makes good if she works as maid..
if that was me, i could have insulted her big time.
i salute you for meditating and making considerations to those people.. thats one thing so hard to do..
i hope i can make you feel better^_^
just let it go, they are just bunch of incompetent hard headed junkies..
pls drink cold water to cool you down..
take care^_^
1 person likes this
@cynicalandoutspoken (4725)
• United States
17 Feb 08
LOL. Even cold water wouldn't have brought down my blood pressure after getting off of this phone call. But I think you are absolutely right. She didn't have a clue and instead of just transferring me right away to someone who did she wasted 30 minutes of my time trying to find an answer.
@adinkle (45)
• La Verne, California
17 Feb 08
I certainly do understand your frustrations with the tech support supplied . Been there --done that-- and I have asked for someone who speaks ENGLISH with no response there either. I know outsourcing is cheaper, but we should be able to get help in our own language.
((((((Press one for English)))) .
I think we should start a group that sends this message to all
companies that we want people who actually are Certified Techs or we No BUY their product!
Stand behind me ( & stomp your foot. ) ~:))
adinkle
1 person likes this
@cynicalandoutspoken (4725)
• United States
17 Feb 08
I'm stomping both of my feet and screaming in agreement with you. Too bad I don't think anyone is listening.
Companies are outsourcing because it is cheaper if we stop buying their products they will be making less money and have to cut the support they do have so that when the next time I have to call I will sit on hold for 3 hours before I even get to speak to someone who doesn't speak english because there will only be 5 people working at the call center. lol
@Irex73 (1)
• Canada
16 Feb 08
I don't know what it is about me but I go through the same thing just about every time I call for Help. Was assured by Costco where I bought a Lexmark wireless printer that it was about a 15 minuite setup, max a half hour if you have trouble following instruction manuals. To make a long long story , short I spoke with my privider for 40 minuutes who finally gave up and put me onto Lexmark's southeast Asia dept., 2 hrs plus, we got one of my computers to print wirelessly, after Malumba took over my laptop for about 30 minutes.
I think all those guys over there should call themselves something like "Bob" or "jim" and the fem's something like Sally. It would make conversations a lot easier. It's real hard to do but you gotta just "chill" during these calls.
@cynicalandoutspoken (4725)
• United States
17 Feb 08
You would be surprised to learn that at AOL all of their reps are foreign yet they are made to choose an "American" name like Bob or John or Mary. It always makes me laugh. I get a clearly foreign person taking my call introducing themselves as Bob Smith and I just shake my head and think to myself, yeah you're Bob Smith and I am Tia Carerra.
@vivasuzi (4127)
• United States
16 Feb 08
I feel for you. As a computer person, a lot of times I know what the problem is but I just need one piece of info. I call the help desk at work and sometimes tell them exactly what's going on and exactly what I need them to tell me, but they still want me to answer a ton of questions and to test stuff. I want to say to them "come test it yourself, I've already done all of that".
One day our printer was giving us trouble when we put paper in, the computer said it was "A5" instead of "letter" size. We have 2 letter trays, one with white paper and one with blue, so if the white paper tray is messed up, everything you print comes out on blue. I called the help desk once and she told me to shake around the guides a bit as maybe they were jostled. This worked, but every time we loaded paper we had to shake the guides around until it registered as letter correctly.
Anyway, after weeks of this I called our help desk again and got the same person. She remembered the problem and wrote up a whole log stating that it sounded like a sensor was bad and she'd send a guy up.
The guy who came up obviously didn't read any of her notes b/c I had to reexplain the whole thing to him. He basically wanted to just shake the guides around but I said it happens EVERYTIME we put paper in and that is not correct. After I saw him try all the same things I had already tried, I told him that I was told the sensor is probably bad.
Anyway, he claims he fixed it and we don't know for sure until we put paper in again to see what happens. I was just irritated that the girl on the phone totally understood the problem but the person who came up seemed to have no knowledge of the details in the log. I wish I knew how to fix the sensor myself b/c I would have.
Another irritating thing is that we aren't allowed to do certain things on our work laptops so we have to call help desk. So one time I installed a test software from a supplier we were checking out. Once the trial date expired, every single day it would pop up telling me it was expired and I had to have in uninstalled. You would think I could just call the help desk and tell them "uninstall this program" but instead I had to explain the whole drawn out story of my life with this software.
@cynicalandoutspoken (4725)
• United States
17 Feb 08
I was actually on a panel at my employer to report company wide system issues back to our help desk in California because the end users at our location were calling them for the stupidest reasons.
So I became one of the 5 people everyone here in our office had to come to BEFORE calling help desk. If I could fix it then it got fixed. If I couldn't then I had to call in the service ticket.
What is funny is that since our tech support is the whole way across the continent they have to send someone from Washington DC to fix whatever issue it is we are having. So by the time someone shows up to fix the problem we have all gotten used to working without that by the time it gets fixed we hardly ever use the application or program that was giving us grief in the first place.
There has got to be an easier way!
@keithcortes05 (161)
• Philippines
17 Feb 08
Dell]s tech support is just a piece of CRAP. They dont have better customer service. If u do have palm device, try to call Palm Technical Support, Its the BEST customer service,. It could solve your problems in just 5 minutes or less. Palm's Technical support have trained intelligent agents. Try calling Palm technical Support NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 813-313-4913 for north america customers!!!
@bellaofchaos (11538)
• United States
18 Feb 08
Hey now be nice to the little minions they are only doing their jobs in futility for us poor non in your face customers while they giggle silently at our pain. Wait no next time you call make sure you do it from you cell after I have driven you to their office while you standing right in the center of their room and then look for which one is laughing and beat the ever living snot out of him while I tell the cop he started it. LOL!!!
@skinnychick (6905)
• United States
17 Feb 08
Nice rant! Your hilarious..I can really picture how red your face probably gets when you explode and open that can of whip a*s on someone. I would pay big money to see it. :)
But computer tech support is the worst of the entire world- I don't know where they find these people to hire...most of them can barely read...Ughhhh.
