Pluggers by Rick McKee for December 30, 2020

no kiddin’

Must be on hold with DAMARK.

I once called 24 hour tech support for my computer at 2am or so. I got a real person right away. The thing never did work right though, because it was a cheap garbage machine.

At the beep leave your phone number and we will call you back . We just don’t know when ;-)

You know they are very busy in Mumbai!!

AAAARGH,, a day ago, was on hold for someone to answer…. awful music and robot kept coming on" “WE appreciate you waiting”…. UGH

If you had to use a phone like that, you wouldn’t get the robot voice, you kept getting the busy signal, doo doo doo doo doo……. after going through the trouble of dialing the number with the rotary phone and getting that signal for hours and hours,,,perhaps even days.

Tech support has been replaced by waiting for Social Security rep, Medical insurance rep, waiting for ….and on and on

you’ve reached 911, your call is very important to us, the current wait time is 23 hours seven minutes, please stay on the line and the next available agent will assist you in the order of your call [welcome to a defunded police department].

3 hrs with comcast yesterday…..and the phone still doesn’t work

You really believe that a phone that doesn’t work will get itself to work?

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

CAT Bus is notorious for looooooooooong waits even when you are first in queue. Pathetic. And they wonder why their ridership is down, and this is only one example of poor service.

I received an email invoice for my newspaper renewal. I replied and told them to cancel. I kept getting the paper for 2 months. Then another email saying I was past due for $16. I emailed again, and got a reply that said I had to call, and that they had several “special offers” I might like. I replied again and said I don’t want a hard sell, just cancel my paper. Again with the call.. So I called. "Press 5 to cancel your subscription… " Then they put you on hold forever. I took a screen shot of my phone after 35 minutes and emailed it to the Board of Directors for the paper. Then I called the main number, and got a human who finally helped me. I told her the date of my original email, and she canceled the past due amount.

Called my ISP once about my internet not working. Got a message saying that I should log in and try the trouble shooting suggestions there before calling.???

Well, who DOES?

The very last resort for me.

Yeah, ever since the automated answering system was invented, customer service has been totally flushed down the toilet.

I had to call recently about a change in my retirement plan. I got a similar message, but they also gave me the option to have them call me back once a representative was available. I see that as progress.

I suspect (no data at all) that tech support is organizations are staffed so that, at the lowest call volume they would ever expect, their support team is continually engaged. (Think cheap) Then, if two people have a problem at the same time, one has to wait. It’s not about helping the customer. It’s about giving that impression while keeping costs at a minimum.

Every plugger knows to call his grandson/daughter first. If they can’t fix it, probably a lost cause to try tech support.

Called a government check issuing office yesterday 12/29. Recording advised wait time 15 minutes. Since using VOIP telephone, placed on hold. 2 hours 50 minutes later VOIP alarm alerts me. Actual government employee (I refuse to use the term government worker) on line and said long wait caused because 24 hours/7 day office closed for five days. I heard kitchen noises in background. Suggested I call back after 15th of month as computer was down.

What is worse than waiting for tech support is having no tech support—when you are supposed to check online for ‘similar problems’. It’s depressing to realize that thousands of people have ‘similar problems’, have had them for several years, and still no one with actual technical knowledge of the computer is able to provide a solution (I’m thinking specifically of Microsoft, but I’m sure it applies to others as well). Another grip is the ‘shrug’ that you can hear in the voice when they explain that that is just the way the computer works now and the utter lack of concern when they explain that the update overwrote that section and all your data is irretrievable (and your backup files can’t be read, either). No matter that you’ve lost records, contact lists, pictures — the new update will let you play games faster.

That pretty much sums up my morning.

Non-pluggers don’t want to either.

Used to be (during the Renaissance?) you could actually speak with someone knowledgeable on the phone. I have thirty years experience with computers, software, and … tech support. I am so sick of talking to someone who is looking at the same database I just searched with no luck. Knowledgeable people are apparently too valuable to talk on the phone. It wouldn’t be so bad, except these frontline support people are reluctant to escalate your question, because they are often penalized for doing so. If you just hang up, they win “success” points.

Were satisfied with our hold music?Did you find the support specialist’s exotic accent entertaining?Did switching you to four different people make you feel like your problem was getting solved?Did reinstalling your operating system seem like an obvious first step?Did the random disconnections increase your resolve to get an answer?On a scale from “Not at all” to “Never again”, how do you rate our response.