Customers Say The Cutest Things...

[badstar]

"Who cares if I have the right serial number?"

"If I'm moving to Japan this week and I'm switching from a wireless airport network to a DSL router, do I need to change my settings?"

"My ESP told me that I needed to upgrade my operating system.

"Why can't you help me make a Microsoft Word document in Windows?" (Keep in mind, I do tech support for Macintosh)

"I plugged in my powerbook and it sparked. I plugged it in in the office across the hall and it sparked. I plugged it in in the office down the hall and it sparked again. It's unplugged now. Should I try plugging it in again?"

"I don't have a password for my internet account. I've never had one, my isp would never make me use a password to get online. It must be your computer."

Customer: "What are my proxy server settings?"
Me: "I don't have that information. All I can do is show you where they go, and you have that in front of you now."
Customer: "Where do i get my proxy server settings?"
Me: "Your network administrator should have that information and be able to help you with it."
Customer: "I am the network administrator."
(Side note: uh......ok then.)

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/ding_0_/]

It hasn't perfected my compassion, but it as honned it to a fine point. I'll still have the call where I get exasperated but it's usualy from a hard aditude to work with and not from a lack of technical knowledge. Except for the 45 minute calls with old people trying to get them to look at the printer or naviage to a drop down menu.

Though I did have one guy I lost it with because after a long phone call of helping him reset up his system after a format and install because it seemed that his mail client wouldn't launch. It turned out that when I asked him what happened when he clicked on the mail icon and he said "NOTHING, JUST LIKE BEFORE WHEN I CALLED THE LAST GUY" that "Nothing" ment "Mail opened up and prompted him for a password". I was frusterated with him for being so stupid and inarticulate that I started to talk over him when he wouldn't listen to me. Then I started talking over him louder because he wasn't listening. He had been trying to fix it with all day and was really upset about having gone in a long loop to get back to the same spot that he was. I was not thinking clearly and started to argue with him about what nothing ment. He hung up on me and I was about to call back and argue with him some more into doing what needed to be done to fix it. A team lead who was doing QC wisely told me to let it go, he would call back when he was ready. I still feel very stupid about it.

My last two aces were callers that most people would have lost it on. One of them interupted me 13 times in 10 minutes and has several calls where the notes point out how hard to keep on task they were. The other the QC agent was pointing out how bitchy the caller was and all I could think was why she was so frusterated.

Mapgirl and I have had some nice talks on how rangering and phone tech support go together.

[ranger-hotsauce.livejournal.com]

Wait, YOU feel stupid about it? Because the Luser didn't know the difference between "nothing" and "something"? But hey, I'm the guy who got all pissy and hung up on the customer rep at Grayhound because I couldn't get her to realize that "Chicago" is not a state.

[http://users.livejournal.com/ding_0_/]

I try to be as humble as possable when it comes to support. They called because they need help. I should not lord over them because I know the sublte difference between nothing and somthing. If I fail so miserably on a call then surly there is somthing I could have done differently. I felt stupid that I thought I could yell and argue with him into fixing his computer. Dosn't work that way very often. I also learned that when I start intrupting loudly that I am frusterated and to take a step back. 1 really bad call out of hundreds isn't too bad.

hehe, the state of Chicago. I think that the only thing to do in that case is to hang up and cry from laughing.