"Technical Support" - A Small Rant (Local Services)

[khat17]

U know. At times I wonder. Locally and overseas - but more so locally. I wonder if the people that are in the "technical" department actually have any sense whatsoever.

U know - it's like a man that gets a work doing one particular thing. He knows that. He does that. He can probably never tell you the intricacies of the job because he's a simpleton.

Technicians now can explain to you everything they're doing. You may not understand them, but as long as the garbage being said is consistent each time you ask then you know they're not feeding you crap. Most of the time.

Enter Digicel.

So I'm trying to setup the "My Digicel" app on my phone with my mothers number. Need it done to be able to easily add a data plan for her when she wants. Having some issues with it. Called. They can't fix it. My take on it is this: the database has an error and her number can't be registered - it registers and works fine on the web-text side but for the management side (using the PC/browser) it won't go through. If it was only not going through on the phone app side I could understand, but not working from the PC as well highly suggests a problem they need to fix. After two supervisors I finally get somewhere - they'll look into it. Problem still not resolved. I got more for them but LIME is much more interesting.

Enter LIME.

My bro has had net at his home for years - only had 1Mb from times before but at least it was working. Then suddenly it stopped. He gets up to 256K when doing tests at like 1AM and occasionally he will get closer to 1Mb but never during the day. Call them at least once each month. Talk to supervisors and all that. Nothing. 4 years roll by and I can't take it anymore. Drive into Kingston to the head office and demand to talk to a supervisor. Sit down and do something I hate doing - show off - display my working technical knowledge of their own systems and IT in general - then made a statement that I could have fixed the problem if I had the equipment and was walking backwards from the customer premises to the exchange. A week after the problem is fixed and he's getting 4Mb now. All the time before he was told that he was lucky he could get 1Mb because nothing faster was available in his area.

Enter FLOW.

My in-laws have had issues with LIME for years where net is concerned. Once it smells like rain the phone lines die or have excessive static and net is non-existent. Told them to switch to FLOW because personally I've had no problems. They switch. At least they have net most times but it's under 1Mb with ping to Google exceeding 400ms. This is going on for.........3 years at least. Each time the problem is supposedly fixed and explanations are given then the problem comes right back.

Now seriously. Do the people working within these companies really have any idea what they're doing? Do they understand anything when you talk to them? And even worse - they're now outsourcing to other countries. At least with Digicel I haven't spoken to anyone Spanish - with FLOW I've gotten some people from Trinidad so that's not so bad - but my own issue with LIME recently and my Z10 was hilarious. Data worked before. Suddenly doesn't work. Call and speak to so many different Spanish people it's not funny. Finally get someone who seems like a Jamaican - based on her attitude - but I really didn't care. Turns out something got reset in the system and they had to re-provision my SIM. I asked those Spanish people to check that on each call I made. The result is that it's working now. Wonder what'll happen in another few months?

The long and short is this - customer service is a dead thing and technical support isn't that technical. Matter of fact, with Digicel (haven't tried LIME) you cannot - CAN'T - speak to their tech personnel. The information is relayed to their CSR's and then to you. You'll never speak to their "tech" directly.

Competition? Well - we have two companies and it's a matter of choosing the better of two evils. Digicel has better coverage but their personnel are............incompetent. LIME now has the majority of market share due to their acquisition of FLOW and their customer service reps don't know English. That's only the half of the issue. Anyways. We're doomed. To say the least. Doomed. It's at times like these I wish I was like a billionaire - I'd buy and do whatever I can to keep our customer support local, train our people and get our stuff together. We're not doing anything to help the people or the clients. I don't mean us as the techs here - I mean us as a country. We shaft the population just like the politicians. We have no regard for the people that are paying us - the people that put us where we are. Really. I'd like to ship out all of them - both the politicians and the service providers - and institute new people that actually have some interest in the COUNTRY. Bad as it may sound, if we had some persons with the mentality of Castro then maybe the different sectors would do better.

Sorry about that TJ fam. I'm just frustrated. I deal with customers daily - I'd never do things the way these large companies do. If I ever get to become the owner of an organization that large then things would have to be different. I've been through too much crap with them to want others facing the same thing.

Funny story that. Friends and family usually ask me to deal with these companies because I'm more knowledgeable and usually I get better results once I'm on it. Problem is - I'm frustrated. Can you really run a tech company and not have your stuff streamlined enough to fix things within a week? A week is even being generous - but some of these companies that have things going on for weeks - months - years - COME the f..................ON!!!!!

*sigh*

We're doomed. Seriously doomed. Someone give me the winning Lotto numbers so I can get some cash and do something about it.........And no - I won't even begin to touch JPS or NWC.

[GPRS Internet]

Which Flow package that giving you less then 1mb ??

Of all services I have least issue with Flow.. it's pretty much problem free at my house..
At my office now it's the worst... damn thing breaks down every 10 mins..

[pezz]

Right now tech support is filled with impostors and people who know nothing. When I hear them at bestbuy I cant help but shake my head.

[gW33Zy]

Reminds me of how when you call Digicel about issues with their 4G modem. You tell the phone rep you are logged into the modems admin page, you also tell the rep the RSSI and CINR values you are getting. She pauses... then proceeds to ask you how many signal bars are on the device or if you see the "little world icon" on your toolbar. You tell her you are using Windows 8, the icons are different, besides you can access the modems admin page. She places you on hold... then comes back and tells you to unplug the modem for 5 minutes and call back if the problem is the same

[matronyx]

Each of the mentioned groups do have very skilled/technical people.

The problem is that you will not get them if you do not have a direct number to their NOC, or "know someone".
If everyone, in this case home users, had access to these resources at the touch of a button can you imagine the nightmare that would be on their end?
THEY would be the ones creating rant posts EVERY DAY on techj

Hence the hoops of support levels to jump through to reach anywhere with a technical issue.
1st Level: What proof you have that you have an account with us, don't waste our time. Did you make sure the device is turned on, plugged in?
2nd Level: Are you using a custom router, switch, only device connected? If yes, Let us now check the settings of your devices, validate the DNS etc.
3rd Level: All your devices have the same issue, laptop, pc i.e rule out virus/adware/spyware. Okay so seems to be a problem on our end, send technician.

Technicians can be different levels of expertise themselves. Some may know about routers and premises wiring, others can do proper testing from the lightpost to your home.
Just make sure before you sign off on the problem being fixed they do all the proper testing when the problem is actually rearing its ugly head.

4th Level: Okay there is a problem with our configs, let me double check and give you a call later, capturing some packets right now.
NOW IS THE TIME TO GET THAT DIRECT LINK, take their phone number, or the direct line to that person.

5th Level: Actual NOC, these guys should be able to tell you if you are on the right throttling plan and not mistakenly added to 20MB users if you have a 100MB connection.
6th Level: "THE MAN" (ahem or "THE WOMAN"). Now this badman is the person to have on speed dial. You call them, and they say "Ok will have someone fix it for you". You go home and voila!!! Everything is 5x better than expected.

I feel your pain though. I have had to do practice sessions of me being calm BEFORE I make a call to one of these establishments. If you do not have a STRONG sense of humor prepare for a few years off your lifespan being sucked away through dealing with the stress of talking to someone at tech support.

[GPRS Internet]

When I call customer care I always insist that I talk to a Supervisor or Technician.. when that is done you get far better service.

[khat17]

Which Flow package that giving you less then 1mb ??

They're on the 20Mb package.

Reminds me of how when you call Digicel about issues with their 4G modem. You tell the phone rep you are logged into the modems admin page, you also tell the rep the RSSI and CINR values you are getting. She pauses... then proceeds to ask you how many signal bars are on the device or if you see the "little world icon" on your toolbar. You tell her you are using Windows 8, the icons are different, besides you can access the modems admin page. She places you on hold... then comes back and tells you to unplug the modem for 5 minutes and call back if the problem is the same

No matter what you say the questions will all be the same - how many lights are on your modem/device - even when you say you have no line sync, or you tell what the signal levels are.

Each of the mentioned groups do have very skilled/technical people.

The problem is that you will not get them if you do not have a direct number to their NOC, or "know someone".
If everyone, in this case home users, had access to these resources at the touch of a button can you imagine the nightmare that would be on their end?
THEY would be the ones creating rant posts EVERY DAY on techj

Hence the hoops of support levels to jump through to reach anywhere with a technical issue.

I feel your pain though. I have had to do practice sessions of me being calm BEFORE I make a call to one of these establishments. If you do not have a STRONG sense of humor prepare for a few years off your lifespan being sucked away through dealing with the stress of talking to someone at tech support.

Sometimes it don't make much sense. Some of the issues are outside of their control and I know this - however I don't like being given a runaround. If you can't fix it or don't have the resources just say so. I make light of it most times, but I don't like to talk down to people. Just that at times if you don't do that or behave "like a Jamaican" you don't get anywhere.

I agree with the point of the different support levels to keep the techs from ranting about issues daily, but when someone displays a certain level of knowledge - actual knowledge or assumed - let them talk to the technical people. Either they'll get overwhelmed by the technical jargon and knowledge or they'll actually have someone to talk to on their own level.

When I call customer care I always insist that I talk to a Supervisor or Technician.. when that is done you get far better service.

Again - that don't always work. See even the last time I spoke with one supervisor and had to ask to be transferred to another one because the first one had no sense.

[GPRS Internet]

20MB.. and you getting less than 1mb.. WOW

[khat17]

They ended up downgrading to 12Mb because they were paying for the 20Mb and the problems kept persisting with no resolution - rebates were done after 2 years of the issue but it's still not resolved - problems have been reported since 2011 but were being experienced from before. Anyways. Service.

[DarkAngel]

I feel your pain lol, I'm surprise more people are not complaining about LIME's customer service agents with their heavy spanish accent, its makes communicating with them even more difficult on top of the usual frustration faced with them, I dread having to call those people.
Trust mi I not waiting 2 years for a rebate... when I have issues requiring a rebate after two or so months of waiting I contact the Consumer Affairs Commission, those ladies typically get my rebate issue dealt with fast.