Yeah I know turn it off and on again. I know to check and reseat connections. I know other hardware checks and eliminating variables like unnecessary hardware or software incompatibilities. I know how to Google. If I’m calling IT support it’s not something I can fix without their admin permissions. It might be simple for them or it could be hell on earth but at least I probably didn’t cause the problem.
Comcast in my local area in the early 00’s had a secret. If you called on third shift, you automatically got level 2 techs. There were so few calls at 3am so they just had one or two people on that had enough access/knowledge to fix things or write up a reasonable service ticket.
Hey, I went into my modem and pulled up the diagnostic, and my signal is really poor. I know you have some flowchart, and I’m ready to run that if you need it, but that signal reading is certainly my root cause. I’ve already unplugged all the TVs’ coax from the wall. I replaced the line of the model too. No splitters, but I am in an apartment building.
tech: huh, let me look at that… tappity tap tap, yeah, we need to dispatch someone out there, tomorrow between 12pm and 9pm ok?
But 95% of people that call support don’t know that stuff. And those things solve 95% of the problems that users have. And support staff have been told to go through the script or get fired. So just be nice to them, get to the end of Level1’s script AQAP then you’ll get someone that’s allowed to use their noggin, considerably more quickly than if you piss around.
last time I started listing what I had already tried, the support agent cut me off to reiterate that I needed to restart the device
yeah, I know. you told me to, I clearly responded “okay, I’ll do that now”, and then I started giving you the relevant information of what I’ve already tried. no need to be rude, just giving you info while we wait for the thing we both know will fail
Yeah, it depends on the agent. Sometimes I get stuck too, but if I ramble off enough relevant info, they usually put me through.
For example, I had an internet issue, and it was obviously on their end because pings to my router and their gateway were both solid, while pings to a reliable server kept dropping packets. Rebooting my router obviously wouldn’t help because everything up to their gateway was fine.
In most companies L1 Support are severely underpaid offshore, total muppets, or both. Their most frequent triage or escalation path is gonna be “I routed it to the wrong application team because the caller said some words that sounded vaguely relevant to something that team works on”.
Yeah I know turn it off and on again. I know to check and reseat connections. I know other hardware checks and eliminating variables like unnecessary hardware or software incompatibilities. I know how to Google. If I’m calling IT support it’s not something I can fix without their admin permissions. It might be simple for them or it could be hell on earth but at least I probably didn’t cause the problem.
Relevant XKCD.
Damn this must be one of the funniest XKCDs ever. “Shibboleet” [sic], Haiku and “some bearded dude with swords”. 🤣
Comcast in my local area in the early 00’s had a secret. If you called on third shift, you automatically got level 2 techs. There were so few calls at 3am so they just had one or two people on that had enough access/knowledge to fix things or write up a reasonable service ticket.
Hey, I went into my modem and pulled up the diagnostic, and my signal is really poor. I know you have some flowchart, and I’m ready to run that if you need it, but that signal reading is certainly my root cause. I’ve already unplugged all the TVs’ coax from the wall. I replaced the line of the model too. No splitters, but I am in an apartment building.
tech: huh, let me look at that… tappity tap tap, yeah, we need to dispatch someone out there, tomorrow between 12pm and 9pm ok?
Different era. Seriously, in terms of ISP’s and customer support that’s like a century ago.
Good that you know the basic checks.
Doesn’t change the fact that you might have missed one, so lets still go over them all. Otherwise the ticket might go on much longer than it should.
But 95% of people that call support don’t know that stuff. And those things solve 95% of the problems that users have. And support staff have been told to go through the script or get fired. So just be nice to them, get to the end of Level1’s script AQAP then you’ll get someone that’s allowed to use their noggin, considerably more quickly than if you piss around.
Yup, when I call tech support, I’ll list all the stuff I did to cut through the base levels of support to get to someone who can actually help.
Relevant XKCD.
last time I started listing what I had already tried, the support agent cut me off to reiterate that I needed to restart the device
yeah, I know. you told me to, I clearly responded “okay, I’ll do that now”, and then I started giving you the relevant information of what I’ve already tried. no need to be rude, just giving you info while we wait for the thing we both know will fail
Yeah, it depends on the agent. Sometimes I get stuck too, but if I ramble off enough relevant info, they usually put me through.
For example, I had an internet issue, and it was obviously on their end because pings to my router and their gateway were both solid, while pings to a reliable server kept dropping packets. Rebooting my router obviously wouldn’t help because everything up to their gateway was fine.
In most companies L1 Support are severely underpaid offshore, total muppets, or both. Their most frequent triage or escalation path is gonna be “I routed it to the wrong application team because the caller said some words that sounded vaguely relevant to something that team works on”.
But, did you try restarting?