Bad Technical Support

[lokheed]

Around 12:30 this afternoon my internet connection stopped working.  After checking my cables to be sure nothing had come loose, I took the next basic step - I shut down all of my computers, shut down both Netgear routers, and then power cycled my DSL router.  Once it was back up and showing happy lights I brought my Netgear routers back up, followed my my primary computer.  I still had no internet connection.

Fine.

So I went into the web configuration utility for the DSL router and quickly discovered that it was not getting an IP address assigned on the WAN side.  Cool, not my problem.  So I called Sprint to find out if it was a known outage (or perhaps some other issue).  After waiting on hold for over ten minutes, I reached a human being and explained to him the situation.  His first question was how many computers I had set up.  I patiently explained to him that although yes, I was running a router and had multiple computers hanging off of that, the problem was not on the LAN side.  He completely ignored me, and instructed me to power down everything and then bring back up just the DSL router.  I explained that I had already done that.  Then he instructed me to disconnect the Netgear router from the DSL router and connect my computer directly to the DSL router.  When I flatly told him no, he launched into a whole spiel about how he can't support my home network, to which I promptly replied that I didn't *need* him to support my home network, and that if he would stop talking for a moment and listen to what I was saying then he would understand that the DSL router is not acquiring an IP address on theWAN side, so the problem has nothing to do with my network.

He hung up on me.  Dickmop.

So I called back, and once again waited on hold for ten minutes.  I was finally connected to a very nice, competent woman.  I explained the situation, explained what had happened on my previous call, explained my background and that I knew what I was talking about, and then explained very clearly that the DSL router was not acquiring an IP address on the WAN side.  She tapped a few keys, and quickly confirmed that yes, an outage had been reported in my area and that the network engineers were working on it and expected to have it back up by 3:30.  That wasn't so hard, was it?

Ye gods I hate bad technical support.

Comments

[damashita.livejournal.com]

i sure hope you filed a complaint against the other tech. If not, call back (when you have 10 minutes) and ask to speak to a supervisor, and report his poor customer service and ask what they are going to do for you. i would expect a credit to your account for your time... as well as credit for 1 day's service as you were unable to use the internet you paid for.

Yup, i am the customer service bitch from hell. i give good CS, i expect good CS. :)