And the guy who called in when I was writing this listed off a problem, I suggested a solution, and he said “No. That’s not it.” and he’ll have his personal technician call us back later to tell us what’s wrong. He doesn’t seem to understand the purpose of calling tech support.

Here’s basically how the conversation went (Except the CUSTOMER used obscenities):

TEEL: “Here is what you need to do fit it: xxxx.”

CUSTOMER: “xxxx was wrong last time, and even though I admit that I remember xxxx fixing it before, xxxx cannot be correct.”

TEEL: “Please, just xxxx.”

CUSTOMER: “You’re not listening to me. I’m sure you told me to do yyyy last time…”

TEEL: “Just xxxx, and you’ll see that it works.”

CUSTOMER: “That’s not right. Last time you told me xxxx was the problem and I needed to yyyy.”

TEEL: “Maybe someone else, not me. Just xxxx, and you’ll see that it…”

CUSTOMER: “That’s it. Who is your manager?”

TEEL: “What? If you just xxxx, you’ll see that it works.”

CUSTOMER: “I need to speak to your manager right now.”

TEEL: “I’m the only one here right now. Now, if you’ll…”

CUSTOMER: “What’s his name and extension?”

TEEL: “My direct supervisor is (name). His extension is (ext). Please, would you please just try xxxx.”

CUSTOMER: “Yes, I’ve done xxxx and I see that it works. That’s no excuse for your attitude. You should have let me explain.”

TEEL: “But, I remember discussing it with you just a few days ago, and I remember what we needed to do to fix it, and what the problem was before.”

CUSTOMER: “But you wouldn’t let me explain. I know xxxx used to work, but I was just trying to tell you that I believed that yyyy would work, and you should have let me finish explaining why yyyy is better than xxxx. I’m certain yyyy is better than xxxx. You should have let me explain that last time we talked, you told me to yyyy.”

(Note: The last time we talked, he told me the same thing, and the only thing I told him was that xxxx was the correct solution, and apologized for the misunderstanding.)

CUSTUMER: “Look, I pay for support, and when I call, I expect you to listen to what I have to say.”

TEEL: “When you call for support, the best thing you can do is listen to the technician and do what they say. That’s what you pay for; to be supported. Did what I said to do work?”

CUSTOMER: “Yes, but that’s not the point….”

****************************

This is an abbreviated version of the conversation, but you get the idea. Maybe I shouldn’t have cut him off that first time he told me I was wrong, but I just can’t comprehend why someone would call up tech support, ask how to fix their problem and when told how to fix it, tell tech support they are wrong. What the heck is that? Worse, to continue to tell tech support they are wrong after what they told you to do worked. Gha.

So, he hasn’t called back yet, but if he does, I may get my first complaint. I don’t know. My direct supervisor (whose name I gave) also takes tech support calls, so maybe he’ll be more sympathetic, but if the CUSTOMER decides to make a formal complaint, it all goes in writing. Oh well. Considering I talked to 400 poeple in the last two weeks without a problem, and in the months since they first made a formal process for complaint without complaint, I’m probably doing something right. Plus, typing this all out has helped calm me down, making it possible for me to calmly assist the other calls I have had since then.

Maybe I should sleep more on Sunday nights, so I don’t get so frustrated Monday mornings.

I just can’t resist watching Insomniac with Dave Attell Sunday night/Monday morning at 12:30AM. I an entertained not just by the show, but by the idea that I’m staying up so late to watch it.

The reason I end up with such a bad attitude is because it reflects how I feel about the problem they are experiencing, and I seem to associate callers with their problems. These problems, you see, are inherent problems in our software and cannot be solved or even addressed by myself or anyone else on this technical support desk. These are inherent flaws in the programming, sometimes in Windows, but usually I don’t get as upset over those. These are problems for which no matter what actions I take and no matter how much I want to assist the customer, at the end of the call they will have just as much of a problem as they had before the call. Except that now they’re upset and I’m upset and we both know that nothing can be done.

I guess these are the sort of situations I should be the most supportive and calm in, but these customers are already pretty upset, since they’ve got such work-stopping issues, and I’m already upset, since I haven’t been provided with any way to assist them, and it just gets out of hand very quickly. Because they’re certain there’s something else I could do, because it isn’t working yet, and I’m technical support so when they call me I’m supposed to be able to make it work, right? Damnit. I hate it. I tried bringing it up with the lead programmer the last time I was allowed to talk to him directly (a meeting about customers complaining about me not providing them with technical support), and he didn’t have any answer at all. No response.

I just don’t seem to know how to end a conversation so that the customer is happy and is satisfied with the outcome, even though they are at least as bad off as when they started. It seems to much like a lie to be something I really want to figure out, though. I just don’t know what to do.

Argh!

And this wasn’t even what she called about! This was something she wanted to complete just before we got to what she called about! After thirty-five minutes, we are just now getting to the actual reason she called. What the heck! Does this ever end?

I tried to get her to tell me what the problem was by dexcribing what she was seeing on the screen, but the more she described what she was seeing, the more it became clear that she was not looking at the same peice of software I was. After a while, it seemed like she had never even used out software. Then I worked out that she was just doing a very bad job of describing an old version of our software. In v18, that part of the software was radically different. The third time I asked her, she admitted that she was in front of a computer using v18, and then promptly went to the computer running v20, where she saw that there was not actually a problem.

What the heck?

iain@darwinscomplex.com says:
oh? how sew?

teel@modernevil.com says:
something to do with his attitude and positions on his relationship to how work should be done around here and mine

Like, in the past, I rarely answered VM because Chris made it a point to always check and follow up on VM himself. Then at some point a few weeks ago without saying anything, he just stopped checking VM entirely. Then last week, I heard him delete over 100 VM without listening to even one of them; he was proud of himself. I was disappointed; that is no way to operate a business. I thought he did it so that he could start keeping up with VM again, but we’re at 87 VM right now. On one hand I want to do something about it to try to satisfy the customers, but on the other hand, Chris is my direct supervisor and he is intentionally NOT addressing the VM.

Or with certain complex technical issues that Chris has taken ownership of; he works, sometimes for days at a time with individual customers and Kevin to figure out what the proper solution is, but I never hear about it, so when I get a caller with the same issue and try to get the information from Chris about what to do, or to have him handle it, he takes an attitude like I should already know the answer, and even if I don’t, I shouldn’t be asking him to take calls.

Also, I have had trouble with a few irate customers in the past, and in more than one meeting with Chris and a supervisor in the room, we have determined that the best course of action if I am unable to effectively communicate with a customer is to hand the call off to someone else to try to handle it; they often just want to hear a different voice telling them the same thing. Just this morning, Chris went off on me about this sudden rise in people that I have to transfer to other agents for this reason, and how it is my job to talk to idiots and keep the customers happy, and why aren’t I doing my job? I’m just trying to do my job, and if in 3 months I have to hand over 10 calls (his number, not mine) then I think I’m doing just fine, considering the 2200 calls I took that I didn’t have to hand off to someone else.

Or sometimes a situation will arise where I don’t know the answer to a problem, but I know I have heard chris talk to someone about the same thing, so I ask him what I should do before I begin troubleshooting it on my own – trying to save time – and he gives me an answer, so I give it to the customer. Then when that doesn’t work, and I’ve done all the steps I know to do, I figure it is reasonable to ask Chris to handle it, since it seems to be a 2nd lvl issue. But Chris seems to take the attitude that if I haven’t come up with the solution, I’m not doing my job. If I haven’t come up with a solution using standard troubleshooting techniques and normal knowledge of the software, then THAT’S WHAT 2ND LEVEL IS FOR! That’s why I don’t have a position as a 2nd level technician! I’m not one. I don’t do advanced troubleshooting. I’m not sure I know how to do advanced troubleshooting over the phone. I don’t really want to. I just want to answer the questions I know how to answer, walk people through regular use of the software, and maybe do some basic troubleshooting to determine what sort of known issue they’re having. If it isn’t a known issue, and it isn’t a bug I can report to bugtrack, I don’t feel that a lvl 1 tech should have to deal with it. When a solution is found, it should be disseminated to the lvl 1 techs, and from then on they should handle it, but the actual advancedd troubleshooting should be left to the advanced technicians.

I realize there are only four of us here, and the level of experience between us is relatively equal compared to the average appraiser, but I certainly don’t know what Chris has learned in the last 6 months of meetings with programming, or what the inside of any of HPF’s files even looks like. It’s not in my job description to do so. And when I am expected to do things I was not trained to do, that aren’t in my job description, that sortof pisses me off.

So, that’s a little of what’s been getting to me from Chris lately.

Ooh, one more thing.

I know that the calls that take an hour are going to take an hour no matter which tech they talk to, but the calls that aren’t an hour, I can finish almost 50% faster than anyone else here, and in almost 50% of the time Chris does. So, it seems reasonable to me that when we have a queue and I get a call that I know will last at least an hour and chris or brian is available, I should xfer the call to one of them and handle the queue on my own.

Chris does not agree.

Is that like taking your station wagon to the shop, asking them to change the alternator, and when they’re done changing the alternator in your station wagon, while you watch them do it, mentioning that the alternator they needed to change is in your minivan? That’s what it seems like to me.

(Also, I am right now speaking to a person who spelled out “dot” when saving a file with an extension. So instead of .pdf, he was putting .dotpdf. How clever!)

Of course, worse are the customers who aren’t interested in anything i have to say because they have their own explanation for what is going wrong. Why did they call me in the first place? What do they expect me to do? Tell them that their incorrect assumptions are true? Leave them with non-functioning software? Somehow magically make it possible for them to use the software incorrectly and it to work at the same time? Aargh!