The other shoe?

[Xairbusdriver]

How would you handle a frustrated customer? <Call center quiz>

I got one out of the four correct, without guessing! Took me a while to understand the "company  line". The other one I got 'correct' was after I figured out what they wanted me to say.

OTOH, I'm just glad I don't have to work as a phone support employee!

[kimmer]

I got 3 out of 4 correct, but honestly while I'm "empathetic enough to work in a call center", I couldn't do it. Working as a church secretary is very similar and requires some of the same skills -- and those years took their toll on me emotionally. So while I can find the empathy, I don't want to dig deep enough inside to find the emotional strength for myself.

Not that y'all wanted to know this.

[dolphin]

I got 2 out of 4 correct.  I don't want to work there.

[chriskleeman]

I got 4 out of 4 correct. I don't want to work there either, however!

Chris  

[Highmac]

Three out of four. And it's too far to commute anyway......

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

3 out of 4
3 out of 4
4 out of 4

And now you know why you are Admins and I'm not! My 1 out of 4 just don't hack it! No matter how hard I complain, gripe, explain, cajole, yack!

[gunug]

Three answers:

1) The customer is always right?

2) You betcha?

3) Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

If you don't think of all of these as questions then try them out as answers.  This is probably even more amusing  if you aren't trying  to go to sleep!

4) Are  you sleeping is the fourth question! Isn't it?

[Xairbusdriver]

Speaking of "tech support." This afternoon, my old Motorola SurfBoard cable modem seemed to have lost its mind. Lights flashing in basically a random order, etc. Called Support and got answered almost immediately!

I described the actions of the modem and the model and he only asked me one question. "Is there a splitter?" Well, yes, there is. When we built the house we had two separate Cat5 cables run to every room (except the bathrooms, recognized as a horrible oversight, now! ). One was to be for cable the other was a spare and maybe for music. That spare quickly became used for the interwebs, which required a splitter up in the attic.

"Well, it's either the splitter or the modem. But since that is a rather old modem, why not exchange it for a newer one?" OK, easy drive to the nearby Comcast outlet. Swapped modems.

The new one is tiny compared to the SurfBoard, but it has an external brick power supply (guess they haven't heard of the new mini being much smaller but dumping the external brick!

Returned home, connected things up, observed nice green LEDs flashing...but no interwebs connection! Checked the 'pipes,' re-booted both the iMac and the modem. All I had been using was Fetch and it simply could not get past the "connecting..." step. Opened a browser and confirmed that my one external link on my home page could not see the interwebs. Tried to access TS, I think and...what's this?! "Welcome to Comcast" "Are you a customer or a 'technician?" Assuming they meant a tech who was contracted by them and knowing I was a custom (they didn't ask if I was satisfied, anyway...), I clicked "Customer." Now I get a screen that says I need to quit all apps, disable any firewall(!) and download a "Wizard."

Now, I assumed the "Wizard" would be the usual Windows thing, but it came down as a ".dmg" so I went ahead and looked at the virtual disk. There actually was an ".app" on in, cleverly named "Installer Wizard." Wel, things are already broken, what else can happen!

Amazingly, the app opened and reminded me, again, to quit all other apps and disable any firewall. I had already quit everything and I forgot the firewall was up! But it really didn't matter, anyway. During the on-screen animations and reporting, up popped a request for my user password. In spite of my misgivings, I entered it and then watched as Crash Reporter let me know that "Install Wizard" had crashed. But it really hadn't, completely. When I clicked "Never mind, let's get on with things." There was the Comcast app waiting to tell me that my password was incorrect. I don't think so! And how would you know, since you crashed as soon as I gave it to you?

I went ahead and found that I did have the firewall up, so that must have been the problem. Disabled the firewall, re-booted, re-started the 'Wizard' and got the same crash at the same place...

This time, I got a nice chap who had a name I could not pronounce nor spell, but he said, "No problem, we'll have you connected in no time!" Well, he pressed a magic button, sent a powerful command or waved a wand, or something completely different, but, whatever it was, it worked!

I am happy, however, to report that the Wizard uninstaller worked as promised...I guess...I'll probably go look for any telltale files that may not have been removed...

[krissel]

Did you unplug the original modem and wait at least 20 minutes, then reboot?   I have that modem and it has occasionally gone funny but a disconnect and reboot always brings it back.  Hope it keeps working cause I like the switch that takes it offline from the computer but keeps it connected to the net.

[Xairbusdriver]

What "switch?" Wouldn't want to use it around here, anyway, might hit the cat with it, ya know!

QUOTE

unplug the original modem and wait at least 20 minutes

It doesn't take that long to get another one from the store! Have to admit, driving to the store and back does use more gasoline...

Other things happened, also. I suspect that some of it was caused by my turning off at least half the circuit breakers in an attempt to install some lights in the attic that morning...never did figure out exactly which one controlled the light switch I wanted to tie them in to...

Anyway, after getting the modem working and surfing the interwebs, I decided to re-create my Comcast email account in Mail. Then I couldn't send with that account! As you may recall, at least a month ago, I was told that I could not send emails with Comcasts smtp server because I'd sent too many in 24 hours (even though I never used it for dozens of weeks/months!). That was when deleted the account, just to get rid of the "not connected" warning in Mail. OK, since I was told I'd have to speak with "security" because of my 'infected' computer or my non-compliant behavior, I decided to start the 'tech support' call well in advance of the securities 5-day-a-week and only 9-to-5 work week/day (must be nice)!

I told the tech that the problem might be that I no longer knew for sure what password I had been using in Mail. My records indicated I'd changed it back in April, but being it had been near April Fool's day, I wasn't sure if it was still valid.

To make a long story short (unlike most of my posts!), after ~30 minutes on the phone, things were no better and I decided to simply delete the Comcast account, later! Ran some errands. Returned to find that now the Comcast account could send, but not the dot Mac!! Magical! Re-entered the dot Mac password and things are now back to 'normal?'

[Highmac]

Jim - I'd be grateful if you would define "normal" in your world  

[Xairbusdriver]

"Normal" has two states in my 'world.'

1. Complete and utter lack of events, dull, sleep-inducing boredom...
2. Total and complete chaos, very similar to the universe (as we know it) in the split nano-second after the "big boom."

Although it's a 50-50 choice, 90% of the time it is one or the other!

[Highmac]

[Xairbusdriver]

Speaking of "Big Booms!" Just sat down for a delicious breakfast and was nearly knocked out of my chair! Lightening must have hit no more than a few houses from ours! Had already unpowered things much earlier in the day (thunder 'performances began around 4:30 am) but thought the worst had past.

The lights didn't even flicker, much less go out as they had well before daylight. Ever notice how dark things are without even moon light?! Thanks to my trusty Flash light app, however, I was able to answer the phone call from the fire alarm monitoring service telling me the power was out.

When I returned to the computer, I saw that the cable modem's lights were not indicating all was well. Then I noticed that the Airport (yurt) hanging on the wall had no lights what-so-ever! Within 30 minutes, I figured that there was a problem! Nothing gets by me, even at 8 am!

De-powered the Airport and could see its three mini-LEDs all blinking slowly and together...according to the voluminous manual that always accompanies Apple products, I determined that it had a problem! Just as I suspected! My intuition had worked well, again! Actually, the 'code' was reporting a power-up failure. But, other than that, it's fine...as a wall decoration.

Had to leave to pick up my wife at the airport (the other kind) and was nearly washed off the roads by the continuing deluge. Apparently, the pilots had similar flight training to mine and chose to delay an approach until there was more air than water in the atmosphere, so my late arrival for the pickup was not a problem...for me, anyway! Judy was none too happy about the extra time aloft, even at no additional charge!

After having a relaxing, post-trip meal at our favorite local Mexican restaurant, we arrived home, unpacked her rain-soaked bags and she 'crashed' for a short beauty rest. When I got back to the cable router, its lights indicated that it might work. De-powered it, counted to 23.98 and, sure enough, things are great on the interwebs! OTOH, I now have a fairly large and not too heavy boat anchor...

[gunug]

I'm wishing that I could find someone at Comfort Suites who is more empathetic!  Having a run around about a reservation that I cancelled but don't have a "cancellation" number for!