From: Cotty
Bob, I feel your pain.
About 12 years ago I went through a similar scenario re trying to get
phone support to make something work (I do believe it was a modem).
After excruciating hours that achieved little, I vowed it would not
happen again.
I then spent time and energy on learning what I was dealing with, and
how to install and troubleshoot not only a local network, but also the
computers that go with it. I reasoned that the future would be more and
more based around this kind of technology, so it would be a good
investment in my time.
I have never made that second call. We have 4 Macs running on a secure
system and of the few occasions when something went wrong, I've managed
to fix it all. Even the time with dropped connections - sourced the
fault to the outside telephone wire into the house being pulled about by
a bush - phone company called out and they fixed FOC as it was their
responsibility.
You have much more patience than I have mate - once was enough with a
call centre for me. It shouldn't have to be that way!
Works great ... unless the problem is on the telephone company's end.
Then who you gonna' call?
I don't know what your FOC is, but in the US, we have what's called the
DEMARK - there's a connection box on the outside of the building where
responsibility for maintenance is handed off.
Everything on the network side of the demark is the telephone service
provider's responsibility. Everything on the household side of the
demark is the home-owners' responsibility.
Unless you pay the service provider an extra monthly fee to maintain
your internal equipment as well. They'll still screw you when they bill
for the service call.
Commercial service to businesses is the same except the demark is
usually located inside in a telephone equipment room, and the inside
equipment service is contracted out.
It's possible you might be able to troubleshoot to the modem and
determine for yourself whether the modem is working or not. I could.
I was a field service tech in the days when they still sent somebody out
to fix stuff instead of sending you off to the local store to buy a new
one and install it yourself. And sometimes, even I had to call tech support.
Once you determine the problem is with the service, and not the modem,
you're stuck with dealing with the service provider's "tech support".
And the level of service provided by that "tech support" is abysmal.
I'll say this about Indian/Chinese/Pakistani call centers ...
I CAN'T HEAR YOU! CAN YOU TURN UP THE G*(%&$N VOLUME ON YOUR MICROPHONE?
They might as well be speaking gaelic, and I think some of them are just
for a lark.
And we haven't even gotten to the problem of what to do when you get to
the end of their script and the problem isn't solved, so they put you on
hold while they drop the call to make you start all over again.
It seems the idea is that if you have to call back enough times, the
problem will miraculously become something that's on their script. The
whole purpose of "modern" automated tech support is to brush the
customer off so the service provider won't have to provide service.
--
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