by zutgorak | May 10, 2010 |
The gentleman Dr. Frankenstein and I seem to have a few similarities, although he seems
to accomplish feats that are beyond my reach. Why? Well, lets say it this way. Sitting next
to me is a relic from a lost era of pentium 3 machines. This one ticking in at 730 mhz, and when
it came to me, it had a staggering 384 Mb RAM. If that is not a corpse, someone tell me what is.
Anyhow, now it has a newer PSU and it also has 512 Mb RAM, wich was the amount of SDRAM that
I currently had within a convenient reach, but a dragon reared its ugly head. The dragon being
the one with “too old to use certain things”
Ive scrapped or given away all my old PS2 keyboards, I use a nice, low profile Logitech keyboard
that is based of a nice little USB end, and it hasnt failed me yet. It will be found within XP, no problemo there
but when I want to do a complete, fresh install? Noooooo .. while in bootup, the USB isnt started on
this board, and there is no way to enable it in BIOS. Whoop-de-frigging-doo! So, here’s the plan.
This system is gonna be picked up tomorrow during the day by Lindas mother, she will then drive
the system to Lindas grandmother, who will plug it in, hopefully note a slight performance change
and, with the nice little addition to call me so I can help her with the reinstallation of the computer
over the phone. Luckily, I have also supplied an unattend file to make the installation unattended
wich means that the nice old lady wont have to do much except boot the system up, make some initial
pressings on the keyboard and then go have a few cups of coffee or go to the store or whatever.
Oh well .. all in a days work. I am a tech-support, on 24 hour call it seems, but hey, at least I am good
at what I do and take pride in it. Viva la Techs!
by zutgorak | Jan 21, 2010 |
Well, work went … so and so I guess you would call it, but all in all, a positive day.
The random customers having problems to solve and I actually enjoyed myself in knowing that this
is what I do best. Solve technical problems for people so that they wont have to worry about
it all to much. I guess what my former boss said was true. He said “You where born to do tech support”
and really, I am older then most people working with tech support but I still have not aqcuired that
distilled bitterness that seems to go into support workers after about 2 years. I can still smile
and see the funny side of things, and appreciate the fact that when you have solved a clients
problem, you will get a lot of good reputation for the company, and the better the company
does, the more secure I am in my job.
What is it that makes certain people so bitter with tech support you ask? Well, I have been
bitter at it, and bored to hell at it, but after some careful consideration I have figured out that
it was not the job in itself that drove me up the walls. It was the tools and rules I had to abide with.
Look at it this way.
I have a problem with standing up for something that I know is not working as good as promised.
I have an even bigger problem with being FORCED to sell the product as a common peddler when I know
that the product will be needing to be replaced, mended, patched and whatnot in a very short time because
I, as a representative for the company, will be blamed for the customers displeasure beacuse I was the
one that convinced the customer that he needed just that piece of equipment. Sheesh.
Second, I am not a salesman. I never will be. I can tell you my personal experience about certain
things, and in many cases recommend different things, but what if those things happens to be a competitors
things? Then I am forced to shut up big time.
Now, I really want to ramble on at my former work place, but personal ethics really stop me from
mentioning it all. But I know for a fact, that I could have made a vast amount of customers happier by
A: telling the truth
B: being allowed to make my own decisions regarding certain things
C: not being forced to sell products to people calling me for tech support.
Three simple things, that apparently, for some companies are too hard to understand.
by zutgorak | Sep 6, 2009 |
Well, tech support is fun at times, and at other times it really is a major pain
in the rear end. However, at the end of the day you have a certain feeling of
satisfaction. You know that you have perfomed a job that is needed by the
majority of the population. You may not know everything about cooking, fixing
cars or even taking care of the elderly, but by god you know how to deal with
peoples tech related issues.
What most people fail to understand that helping them is a strain on you, and that
thin thread that keeps you sane keeps getting thinner and thinner, and sooner or later
you either resign to the idea that you will be doing this forever and start to enjoy
it, or you turn into a bitter, cynical individiual that has lost his faith in the intelligence
of humankind.
But what happens when all those things collide? That you like your job, you have your
abilities but you still appear to be that cynic that smiles to the caller, but inwardly
you despise every fiber of the person on the other end of the phone.
Hopefully I wont become too bitter and cynic, because frankly, I like helping people
even though there are some people that really doesn’t want the help you can offer,
but instead are calling in to vent their frustration at their own ineptitude on to you.
But, to all you tech support people that are out there, I raise my hat to you, and nod
in recognition of your efforts.
Here is todays laugh:
