ISP questions

[Bill Moran]

In response to Steve Bertrand <steve at ibctech.ca>:

[snip]

> Disclaimer: I work as a network engineer at a small ISP. From time to
> time, I still have to answer the phone every once in a while
> (unfortunately).
> 
> I do not like dealing directly with users. Most of them complain, bitch
> and snivel and have no respect. It's not my fault you can't connect if
> your dog ate your keyboard, why are you bothering me?
> 
> I thoroughly enjoy a good conversation with a user if they can ask a
> decent and sincere question, and I can tell they are willing to learn.

I think there's a serious lesson to be learned here ... many years ago
I realized just the kind of crap these people have to deal with on a
daily basis, and I make it a point to be polite and friendly _any_ time
I call tech support.  The upshot of this is that I've noticed that I'll
get answers and help where other people won't ... the tech support folks
_want_ to stay on the phone with me.

The downside to this is when I make a call and either I or the the tech
support person knows that they can't fix my problem -- being polite doesn't
help much.  When the both of us know that management or the higher level
tech screwed something up and the tech support folks are supposed to be
covering it up, there's not much you can really say or do, and that's
_really_ frustrating.

-- 
Bill Moran
http://www.potentialtech.com
http://people.collaborativefusion.com/~wmoran/