I mentioned a while ago that some depression came part and parcel with unemployment. I'm pretty sure I weathered the storm okay. Christmas came and went and it was fantastic. I didn't get everyone gifts that I wanted to, but I was still getting back on my feet. January came around and JR's birthday came up. I managed to afford a decent gift for him, but it was a couple weeks later when I was in Legends (the greatest comic store in the world, Eisner's be damned), and I bought him a pretty nice book as a small thanks for helping support me last year, that I realized that I finally have gotten my life together, and it feels pretty damn good. I have a fantastic and beautiful girlfriend that I'm crazy about; who brought me to Christmas dinner with her family, is there for me when I need her most, and who made my birthday a fantastic day (it usually goes mostly uncelebrated [though JN did make a pretty awesome cake for me this year]). I have a job that pays a decent and liveable wage. Thanks to Weight Watchers (yeah, I'm on it), I've lost just over 30 lbs. I've registered and will be doing a 10K this year. I think some of this good fortune has rubbed off on others too. RR got a big promotion at his work, and I like to think I helped that a little bit. All things considered, things are okay...but there have been a few down points. My ex is still...let's just say that it's the opposite of angelic. Just after my birthday, my dad has an eye removed because it was still cancerous and the pressure on the eye was twice what it should be...so my dad is now a cyclops (not a pirate...no patch *sadface*). He's in a lot less pain now, which is good. The only other sour point is that my friend JH is moving back to New Brunswick; he will be missed.
So I've been working as tech support for a company that (without giving any specific names) provides cable TV, internet, and telephone service. For the most part, I've been enjoying my job quite a bit, and I'm pretty good at it too. I do, however, notice trends and common mistakes made by people when they phone in and I wanted to share with you some tips if you feel you need to call into tech support.
Reboot your computer. It's 2012...if you don't know to start troubleshooting by rebooting your computer, just take your life.
For the love of God, please just learn a little about the things you're using. Know what your operating system is on your PC. Know what version of Outlook you're using. If you don't know...DON'T GUESS! Just be honest and say you don't know. I can show you how to figure it out.
Listen closely to the instructions we give you and don't do ANYTHING that we don't tell you to do. You're calling support because you're not smart enough to solve the problem yourself. Don't try to act smart and do things on your own because you think it's right. Most of the time it will result in starting over again, wasting both your time and mine.
Make sure that the person you're calling is responsible for helping with your problem. If you managed to change your computers language to Mandarin, your ISP cannot help you. If your cell phone dies, call your cell phone company, not your cable company.
Your tech support guy does not care about your life story. We're more than happy to help, but I could care less about your stance on emoticons and how "life isn't life without emoticons" (yes, this actually happened). Just tell us what's wrong in the simplest form (like "My internet is down") and let us ask the questions.
I don't care what you've done before calling...if you've called me to help you and I tell you to do something, just do it. Don't argue.
If you need to phone tech support to have your e-mail password reset because you were too stupid to remember it, it's not allowed to be "livesmart".
When talking on the phone to someone you don't know, don't be racist. This happens more than you think it should and it can sometimes be disturbing.
No electronics work from magic. They all need electricity. If your device stops working, look to see if it's plugged in before calling.
If something goes wrong, don't wait a week to phone. Call right away. 90% of the time it can be fixed over the phone. 9% of the time it can be fixed inside a week. 1% of the time it can be fixed in over a week.
I know you're frustrated, I know you're angry, but whatever the problem is, I didn't do it to you...don't be rude and don't take it out on me. I'm the guy you called for help.
Don't call up drunk or stoned...it's not funny, and I can't understand half of the crazy shit you're saying.
If we need to send a technician out to your house to fix whatever is wrong with you and you live in a large city, don't expect to get an appointment in a day or two. There are only so many technicians and someone with no dial tone takes a higher priority than someone who is going to miss their favorite repeat of Sailor Moon.
If you have a router and you can't connect to the internet, bypass the router. Over 95% of my calls where people "have no internet" are solved by bypassing their broke ass routers.
Being old is no excuse for not knowing how to operate technology you own. Neither is being a girl. I get that excuse waaaay more than I should.
Telling the tech support guy "well it was just working earlier" is easily in the top 10 of dumb things we hear. We know it was working earlier. The fact that it stopped working is why you called in. Things work until they stop working; that's how we know they're broken.
If I tell you to remove a cable, please don't ask me if it's "the white one" or "the blue one". I'm not there; I can't see it.
This kinds goes with the last point, but please know how you have your equipment hooked up, or if you don't know how it's hooked up, at least be familiar with the different kinds of connections. I understand some of you may be unfamiliar with the different types of connections so I'm going to provide a handy guide.
This is COAXIAL cable. This is how call cable based services enter your house. It's a simple and reliable cable, but capable of transmitting and receiving data as well as audio and video. This cable is most likely hooked up from the outlet in the wall to your cablebox. If you're using this to connect to your TV...well you're a little old fashioned.
Both of these are COMPONENT cables. While a true component cable has only 3 connectors (as in the lower picture) that transmit only video (including HD video up to 720p), You may see a variation where they stick a white and red stereo audio conector onto it as welll (as depicted in the upper picture). Whatever you do, make sure you hook these up correcly, otherwise things get messy.
That's all I got for tonight.
[for JN: So today I got up, threw on my robe and was kinda flip flopping between playing games and watching shows. Then just after lunch, I finally had a shower, got dressed, made supper for later, and went off to work. I stopped by to see CvO at work first, and to ask her a favour. I spent the rest of my day at work. When I got home, I took off my pants, watched a show, made this blog, and now I'm about to crash into bed.]
