Tech Support on the Frontierville.

I would like to take a bit of time to answer a question Tech Support agents get asked a lot, the question comes up often for I.T. staff working in a PC world with customers who may have a Linksys router, an HP printer, a Dell notebook with Microsoft Windows 7 on it..  The question is "Why can't you help me with X issue if fixing X issue will get my product working?"

The short answer is liability.  If you can't get your HP printer working wirelessly because you don't know the encryption type and password, you've probably heard HP tech support tell you to call Linksys.  This response may piss you off and make you feel like HP tech support sucks.  And HP tech support DOES suck, believe me. But the fact of that matter is that even if you got lucky enough to get an agent like myself, with years of experience in the Information Technology field, you're still going to be out of luck because we aren't allowed to help even if we can in these instances.  The company just won't let us for liability reasons.

I actually had a co-worker, who was very knowledgeable, break this rule from time to time, and would go in and change router settings to get the product working, but it eventually came back to bite him on the ass when an astonishingly stupid customer called back because he had changed settings my co-worker had NOT told him to change and his router ceased functioning all together.  It is people like this that have caused the whole liability issue to come up and it is why these companies don't allow their Tech Support agents to go outside of their boundaries to fix these issues.

A select few of my co-workers have years of experience in the field and can fix just about any hardware, networking, or software issue, the problem is we're just not allowed to do it.  If the heart of the issue lies with Microsoft's O.S., then you have to call Microsoft.  If it lies with your Linksys router, then you have to call Linksys.  That's just the way the world works if you are part of that segment of the population that relies on Tech Support to solve all your problems.

What we will and won't do for you, depends on you!

We as Tech Support agents, no matter the tier, do have some leeway to help.  I can guarantee that if you call in pissed off, cursing, and generally being an ass, you will get the minimum amount of help we are required to give you.  After all, why should we run up our call times to deal with a customer who is an ass?  Most companies require Tech Support agents to do very little, it is then up to that agent to decide how much more help can be given within their boundaries.  Think about that the next time you are looking to take out your general hatred of life on someone who is just trying to make a living.

I don't know what Best Buy policy is, but regardless, any experienced tech would have released the call when the customer chose to continue using expletives and personally attacking the agent. By the way, the Agent gave the customer the correct answer for this issue. He, however, spent way too long giving the customer way too much time to continue being abusive.

Frontierville

Tip of the day

I have been playing Frontierville off and on now for a little while, and the weeds issue is really starting to bug me.  Apparently the only way to get rid of them and keep them from coming back is to basically fill up every empty square on the map with something.  Some use crops, some use decorations.  It's really annoying.  What's even worse is that the tips and tricks I have seen for the game are all pretty much common sense, and don't need to be posted about.  If you've got a site that has some REAL tips and tricks for Frontierville, let's hear about them as I'm sure we would all be interested to check them out.